Less than four weeks into this college football season, two coaches from Power 5 conferences have already been fired. Scott Frost is out at Nebraska and Herm Edwards was recently dismissed from Arizona State.
As college football moves into the coaching carousel season, people around the sport talk and make lists of which coaches would be good fits for open jobs.
Lance Leipold’s name has come up quite a bit, and for good reason. The 58-year-old has Kansas (3-0) off to its best start since 2009 and the Jayhawks have the third-best scoring offense in FBS, averaging 51.5 points per game.
Ahead of the Jayhawks’ home clash with Duke this Saturday, Leipold addressed those coaching rumors on Tuesday.
“I think you have to stay in the moment, be where your feet are at,” Leipold said. “My wife Kelly and I, we came to Lawrence, Kansas, not to move. At this stage of our career, it’s flattering… It’s early in the season, but our focus is trying to build the Kansas Jayhawks into a winner — and a consistent winner — for the long haul.”
Before coming to Kansas, Leipold was a head coach at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater and then Buffalo. He amassed a 109-6 record at Wisconsin-Whitewater and won six national championships. As the head coach of the Bulls, he went to three bowl games in six seasons and led Buffalo to its first-ever AP Top 25 ranking, reaching No. 23 in 2020.
As an assistant coach, Leipold had stops at Wisconsin (1991-93) and Nebraska (2001-03), among other jobs in the Division II and III ranks.
The Jayhawks went 2-10 last season in Leipold’s first campaign at the helm, but had something of a signature 57-56 win over Texas in Austin.
Should Kansas reach six wins this year, the Jayhawks will go to a bowl game for the first time since 2008.
–Field Level Media
