Kansas Jayhawks football looks for bounce back season as Lance Leipold enters his second season as head coach

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Lance Leipold first walked into the head coach's office at Kansas, arguably the worst program in Division I football, amid terrible circumstances and during a time of the year that only made everything worse.

The Jayhawks were coming off a winless 2020 season under Les Miles, who had then resigned in ignominy amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations dating to his time at LSU. The scandal also led to the departure of athletic director Jeff Long, leaving the entire program in turmoil during a crucial recruiting period and all the way into spring practices.

Leipold never even conducted a practice with the Jayhawks until the start of fall camp last year.

So even though they proceeded to win just two games in his debut, extending their streak of losing seasons to unlucky No. 13, the point at which Leipold is starting off this fall is a whole lot better than where he stood a year ago.

"There's so many things that are different for the better," Leipold said. "We've said many times, player know the coaches, know what to expect. We still have a fair amount of new guys going through their first practice, and there's uncertainty and wandering around — Where do I go next? — everyone is understanding and we're in a much better spot."

The long-time small-college coach pauses for a moment and thinks back to last season.

"Last year, two or three weeks into training camp we were still evaluating," Leipold recalled. "We have an idea now. We still may be evaluating, but we're developing at the same time. That's a good feeling."

The challenge now is turning development into success.

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