Kansas football: Lance Leipold poised to surpass Mark Mangino in year 3 wins

It’s hard not to appreciate the impact Lance Leipold has made on Kansas football in such a short amount of time.

Since being hired in April 2021, he has helped the program reach new heights and end decades-long losing streaks. Last year, Leipold was featured on ESPN’s College GameDay and sports shows around the country after leading KU to a 5-0 start.

His imprint on this program and the team’s recent success has already led to major locker room and weight room renovations and has kickstarted long-needed upgrades to the football stadium.

In a nutshell, Leipold is easily the best head coach KU has had since Mark Mangino, and he’s on pace to have an even more impressive start than his predecessor.

Up until this point, Mangino and Leipold have had nearly identical starts to their KU careers.

In year one, both Mangino and Leipold went 2-10. (Mangino went 0-8 in Big 12 play, Leipold went 1-7). In year two, both Mangino and Leipold went 6-7. Both coaches won three conference games, and both led the Jayhawks to a bowl game in which the team came up short.

In year three, Mangino and the Jayhawks faltered a bit and finished the season 4-7, giving Mangino a record of 12-24 by the end of his third year.

This is where Leipold has a great chance to surpass Mangino by season’s end.

This year’s squad is already off to a 2-0 start with a game this week against a Nevada team in which the Jayhawks are 28-point favorites. A win would put Leipold just one shy of Mangino with another nine games to go this season.

Based on the way this team is trending after handling a good Illinois team last week and where they were picked in the Big 12 preseason standings, it’s a good bet that KU will win at least another two to three games in addition to Nevada and put Leipold over the 12-win mark that Mangino had by the end of year three.

While that is no determination on how their two prospective KU careers will end, it is an encouraging sign that KU is undoubtedly in the right hands with Leipold.

Considering where the KU football program was before Leipold took over, if he can lead KU to back-to-back bowl games at the end of his third year – something Mangino didn’t do until years six and seven – then it might be time to discuss an entirely new ceiling for this head coaching miracle worker.