Earlier this week, Through the Phog published a piece discussing the Les Miles era at KU and the disaster it turned into.
While that piece contained back-and-forth conversations about the state that current head coach Lance Leipold is in with the Jayhawks, things were left on a largely positive note for the former Buffalo coach.
In perfect timing, CBS Sports released their 2026 college football coaches ranking, No. 68-26, and Leipold was slotted all the way down to No. 34
Last season left more questions than answers for the Kansas Jayhawks
“Last year, Lance Leipold was coming off a 5-7 mark but still received plenty of love from our voters for what he'd accomplished in his career, and for turning Kansas around. After a second straight losing record, he did not receive nearly as much love,” writes Tom Fornelli.
Leading up to the 2025 campaign, while unranked, fans and pundits alike were expecting what should have been Leipold’s third bowl season in four years, while Kansas was reliant on a transfer-laden wideout core and a first-year defensive coordinator, being able to bring back star quarterback Jalon Daniels was good enough to keep fans’ expectations reasonably high.
However, following shootout losses to Missouri and Cincinnati that saw lapses on both sides of the ball, those expectations were quickly leveled and a 4-2 start resulted in a 5-7 season.
“He didn't finish higher than 30th on anybody's ballot and fell 19 spots from 15th to 34th. That said, we all know that if he wins nine games or more at Kansas again, he's going to jump right back into the top 25.”
While at various points, we have given lengthy descriptions of why Kansas faltered over the back half of last season, it can best be pinned down to this. Neither side of the ball could step up when they crucially needed to.
Overall, most of last season felt like a constant battle where one side of the ball would be trying to make up for the lack of productivity from the other, resulting in Kansas giving up an astounding 409.5 yards per game (No. 95), along with the offense converting just 71.79% of their red zone chances (No. 124). Two stats that most define Kansas football last season.
When played out, those look like averaging 39.5 points per game against both the Tigers and the Bearcats, which should have been enough to get both those games over the lines. But crucial defensive lapses in the fourth quarter prevented two hallmark wins.
Holding the likes of both Arizona to just 24 points, and No. 13 Utah to 31 are acceptable when you realize that Kansas went 1-2 in redzone chances against the Wildcats and 2-5 from the red zone against the Utes.
Of all the turmoil that Kansas has been through this offseason, which has seen a wholesale of changes, the biggest get for the Jayhawks is bringing back associate head coach Andy Kotelnicki to the same role, letting him take control of an offense in dire need of direction after losing Daniels and being forced to use either Chase Jenkins, Cole Ballard or Isaiah Marshall. None of which seemed to definitively step out of spring as the team’s No. 1 QB.
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