Kansas athletic director praises Lance Leipold for program turnaround and direction

The Kansas football program has made quite the turnaround over the last four seasons. On Thursday, KU athletic director Travis Goff publicly recognized head coach Lance Leipold's leadership and showed appreciation for what Leipold has accomplished.

Goff also noted that the program still isn't where it needs to be. It is a vote of confidence in Leipold heading into a pivotal season for the Jayhawks but also indicates that there is still a lot of work to do.

Goff admits that the past two seasons haven't gone quite as expected and that the goal is sustained success. Winning year in and year out is what makes a program great, and Kansas does indeed have a ways to go before it can be considered a strong, dependable football program.

Reading through Goff's four-post thread shows that he is proud of how far the Jayhawks have come over the past four years and wants to show his appreciation. He also knows there is more to do.

The Kansas football program has come a long way in a very short time

Goff makes note of what Leipold has accomplished at Kansas. The team went just 1-8 in Leipold's first, COVID-depressed season in 2020. He took over a program without many Power Five conference-level players.

Goff notes that KU won just 21 games in the 11 seasons before Leipold's arrival. If you include Leipold's first season, the Jayhawks won 22 games in 12 years with zero bowl games. Not great. In the four subsequent seasons, Kansas has won 25 games and made two bowl game appearances.

Yes, there has been some disappointment that KU fell short of bowl eligibility with five wins in each of the last two seasons. Think about that for a moment. Before the last four seasons, KU hadn't won more than three games in a season for 12 years. Now, expectations are for the Jayhawks to make it to a bowl game.

That turnaround is almost unheard of. The only instance that might surpass it is how quickly Bill Snyder salvaged a horrible K-State program. KSU won just one game in Snyder's first year, but the Wildcats won seven games in year three and, in year five, started a streak of eight straight seasons of at least nine wins and eleven straight bowl appearances.

That is what Goff means by “sustained success.” Get the program over the hump and keep it there. Some might argue about which is the harder task, but to pull a program from obscurity and make it relevant and competitive as quickly as Leipold has (and Snyder did) is truly astonishing.

Now Leipold has to get the program over that hump. After the nine-win season in 2023 and a veteran team returning for the next year, expectations were high for the first time in over a decade. That season just didn't go as hoped. The first half of the season featured several close games in which the Jayhawks made too many errors and ended up on the short end. Though Kansas finished the season strong, they still only won five games.

KU matched that mark in 2025 but was less competitive in several of the losses. Leipold needs to get the team back to being competitive each game. They need to start winning more of the close ones. That is what Goff is hinting at. That is how a program starts to enjoy sustained success.

Kansas needs to find a way to get to at least six wins this season. There are opportunities to do that, but Vegas isn't as sure, setting the Jayhawks' over/under line at 5.5 wins.

There is no doubt that Goff is shining a spotlight on what Leipold has accomplished in a short period of time. A cynic might also see this as a nudge to the fanbase to go out and buy more game tickets and probably wouldn't be wrong. Still, it is always nice to be reminded of how bad things were and that the goal is still to get better and not to just rest on those laurels.

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