Early evaluations of Kansas Athletic Director Travis Goff’s coaching hires

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a little more than two years since Travis Goff was hired to be the director of athletics at the University of Kansas. The KU alum and Dodge City, Kansas, native has accomplished so much in his short time as athletic director (AD).

Some of his achievements include helping initiate long-overdue football facility renovations and upgrades for Allen Fieldhouse, signing multiple head coaches to well-deserved contract extensions, and establishing innovative Name, Image, and Likeness opportunities for KU student-athletes, just to name a few.

On top of all of that and more, Goff has also made three critical head coaching hires since taking over as athletic director – all of whom (like Goff) have shown promise in a short amount of time.

Here’s a look at early evaluations of each of Goff’s three head coaching hires since they began at the University of Kansas.

Dan Fitzgerald (Kansas baseball)

Head coach Dan Fitzgerald was hired nearly one year ago today to rejuvenate a Kansas baseball program that has been essentially dormant the past 30 years.

Since the Big 12 formed in 1997, KU baseball’s highest conference finish has been third (in 2014).

The highlight of the past two decades came when the Jayhawks surprisingly won the Big 12 Conference Tournament in 2006. The team would then go on to play in the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in program history before being eliminated by Hawaii.

The last time the Jayhawks made the NCAA Tournament was in 2014, and their one and only College World Series appearance came in 1993.

Needless to say, it was a tall task that Fitzgerald took on when he agreed to become the next head coach at Kansas. But his first year as skipper showed promise, especially in the areas of recruiting and player development.

A perfect example of that is freshman Kodey Shojinaga, who became the program’s first player to win Big 12 Freshman of the Year – an honor which he shared with Oklahoma State’s Nolan Schubart. Shojinaga was also named to the All-Big 12 Second Team and was a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team.

In total, five Jayhawks received conference honors at season’s end. The team also hit 75 home runs this year, which ties a program record set back in 2006. All of which is a good sign of Fitzgerald’s ability to identify talent and hire the right coaches to help him get the most out of that talent.

During his time at Dallas Baptist (2012-21), Fitzgerald helped recruit and develop 30 Major League Baseball Draft picks (11 of those being top-10 picks), nine All-Americans, eight freshman All-Americans, 69 all-conference selections, and two conference players of the year.

Better recruiting and player development is something KU has desperately needed for years.

The state of Kansas isn’t exactly a hotbed for baseball recruiting and KU will be hard pressed to get some of the best recruits in the country any time soon, if ever. But, if Fitzgerald can recruit and develop the way he’s shown in the past, then KU will be in good hands.

Recruiting and development means very little if it doesn’t translate to more wins though, and the Jayhawks finished with a losing record (25-32) and placed ninth in the Big 12 standings in Fitzgerald’s first season at the helm.

It’s too early to tell whether or not Fitzgerald was the right pick for KU, but all the individual player success from this past season signals hope for the future.

Lindsay Kuhle (Women’s Golf)

Goff’s second hire at KU came in the form of women’s golf head coach Lindsay Kuhle.

Kuhle joined the Jayhawks in July 2021 after a nine-year stint as head coach at the University of Denver.

She and her squads posted winning records each of her nine seasons at the helm, and they won seven conference titles. Her Denver teams also qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of the eight seasons when a postseason tournament was held (one impacted due to COVID).

That success translated almost immediately to Kansas as she made her impact felt early in her first season.

The Jayhawks finished No. 79 in the country (according to Golfstat) that season, up nine spots from the program’s average ranking the past five years. The team also set numerous records in her first season, including the most par or better rounds at five, the best par 5 scoring average (5.05), and the lowest par 3 stroke average (3.20).

KU also posted its second-best season-scoring average in program history at 299.48.

This year, Kuhle took the Jayhawks to new heights as the team reached the NCAA Regionals for just the second time ever in school history. (The last appearance came in 2014.)

The team also broke the 54-hole school record with an 852 (-12) at the UCF Challenge in February and broke the school record for 18 holes with a 279 (-9) in its final round at the Westbrook Invitational on Feb. 27.

KU finished the year ranked No. 51 on Golfstat – an improvement of 28 spots from the previous season.

I don’t think you can ask much more than what Kuhle has given in her first two years.

The team still has room for improvement obviously, especially when it comes to conference play, but things are trending up for this program under Kuhle’s guidance. Thus far, it’s safe to say this was a tremendous hire by Goff.

Lance Leipold (Kansas football)

Goff’s first – and most important – hire thus far as athletic director at the University of Kansas came right out of the gate when he hired Lance Leipold in April 2021.

The hire was heralded by most college football pundits due to Leipold’s track record of well-disciplined players, winning, and his demonstrated ability to turn around the Buffalo football program.

The six-time national champion remains the fastest coach in NCAA history to reach 100 wins, and his steady, winning hand is just what this Kansas football program needed.

Although the record didn’t reflect it (2-10), Leipold’s coaching prowess shined through in his first season as head coach of the Jayhawks. The team made several strides towards the end of the season and even knocked off Texas in Austin for the first time in program history.

At the time, it was also (incredibly) the first Big 12 road win for KU in 13 years – a statistic that Kansas fans were very glad to get off their back.

In Leipold’s second year is when the country really started to take notice of how special KU’s head coach really is.

He led the Jayhawks to their first 5-0 start since 2009 and had the team ranked in the top 25 for the first time in nearly 13 years as well. Then, KU football hosted ESPN’s College GameDay for the first time in program history in October 2022 against TCU.

Despite losing Jalon Daniels for several weeks due to an injury suffered in the game against TCU, Leipold was able to lead the Jayhawks to six wins thanks to a home victory over No. 18-ranked Oklahoma State.

The win was KU’s first over a ranked opponent since 2010 and it was KU’s first home win against a ranked Big 12 opponent since 2005.

The win earned the program its first bowl birth since 2008.

The Jayhawks would end up falling in a thrilling, triple-overtime matchup against Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl, but it was still a season to remember.

Four Jayhawks were named to the All-Big 12 Second Team and Cobee Bryant was an All-Big 12 First Team selection.

Player development and getting better day by day is something Leipold has preached from the beginning, and it showed this past season. That’s why sites like Pro Football Focus and CBS Sports have him ranked as a top 25 coach in college football.

KU’s success in year two under Leipold earned him and his staff well-deserved contract extensions – which included stipulations for getting the stadium and other football facilities some much needed upgrades.

Leipold has been exactly what this Kansas football program needed, and Goff deserves a lot of credit for getting this hire right considering the circumstances he was under at the time.

Typically, college football coaches aren’t hired in late spring. And yet, Goff – who was less than a month in on the job himself – was able to identify the right guy and put this program on the path toward success and respectability.

There’s still a lot of progress to be made – and Leipold would be the first to tell you that – but Kansas football is trending up for the first time in more than a decade, and Goff is the man initially responsible for making that happen.

For better or worse, an athletic director’s tenure and job security is primarily based on the head coaching hires they make, particularly in football and men’s basketball.

If the progress shown by Kansas football is any indication, we should be looking at a nice, long stay for the young AD.