The Kansas Jayhawks are off to a 1-2 start, and all of a sudden, getting to Lance Leipold’s third bowl game in six years is looking like a long shot, as the road to six wins doesn’t get much easier post-Middle Tennessee.
With three games already done (two of which against power-conference schools), it feels like there is enough on tape to give Leipold, Andy Kotelnicki and D.K. McDonald grades over performances thus far.
Continued problems for Leipold
Leipold’s job at Kansas has been a success, there is no doubt about that. He took a doormat of a program and turned it into back-to-back bowl-qualifying seasons. Phenomenal work, but how many times is that statement going to be repeated as a defense?
So far this season, this still feels like the Jayhawks can’t navigate two-minute situations and that more often than not they are beating themselves.
No one is blaming Leipold for a 17-yard punt against Arizona State. But at the same time, why is that even an option? Kansas is in need of one of its marquee winning streaks to keep the fans in positive spirits. The problem is, they’ve been in need of that since the start of the 2025 season.
One thing Leipold has done a good job of his recruiting talent through the NCAA Transfer Portal. These days, the portal is filled with a lot of hits and misses when you are going after the talent KU is. But Leipold has massively succeeded in backfilling depth and adding starting gems like Nik McMillan, Quincy Davis and Nahzae Cox. All have walked into the program and pushed it forward.
Overall grade: C-
Things haven’t clicked for Kotelnicki…yet
It is wrong to expect Kotelnicki to walk in and all of a sudden KU is back to this offensive juggernaut that they were before Kotelnicki waved goodbye for Happy Valley.
That being said, wasn’t that kind of the expectation?
There have been flashes of Kansas’ offensive potential. Kotelnicki has gotten running back Dylan Edwards into some great open-field positions. Starting quarterback Isaiah Marshall has targets that are schemed perfectly, but things just still look out of sync.
It was nigh-on a miracle what Kotelnicki did in three years from 2021 until the conclusion of the 2023 season, so he should be given grace for just three games so far.
But here is a perfect encapsulation of what we mean. In 2022 and 2023, the Jayhawks averaged 49.3% and 47.7% on third downs. This season, its down to 29.03%.
Overall Grade: C
Much-needed improvements so far for McDonald
To be honest this was not really expected at the front of the season. While scorelines of 38 and 24 may scare people away, when given the context of some of the positions the KU defense had to work itself out of, it suddenly looks a lot better.
Here is probably the best stat to prove how well McDonald is doing at holding up his side of the bargain.
KU has given up eight touchdowns this season. Of those eight, one came from a kickoff return. Here are the starting positions of the others
Missouri 35
Missouri 25
Missouri 25
Kansas 34
Kansas 14
Kansas 25
Kansas 2
That doesn’t mean he is completely off the hook. Austin Alexander’s busted coverage against Austin Simmons in the 38-21 Border Showdown loss is an unacceptable mishap, but so far this is night and day compared to last season.
Overall grade: B+
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