Kansas Football: Can Lance Leipold build a winner out of the Jayhawks?

“Many have tried, few have succeeded” would be the perfect motto to put in the Kansas Jayhawks’ locker room. Kansas football has not had a winning season since 2008 and has not won more than three games since 2009.

The coaching turnover has been abhorrent with four different head coaches in 12 seasons.

Suffice it to say that the Jayhawks are a bad football team and will be bad again this season. The possibility of a second consecutive winless season is real. There is hope, however.

It is a fair assertion that Kansas did not bring Les Miles in to win games, necessarily. On the other hand, Miles came in to recruit. Taking away the recruiting rankings, Miles did two important things in recruiting. First, 2019 and 2020 were made completely of high school players, save two transfers in 2020.

Though some of those players have transferred, that infusion of young talent can be developed for the future. Although these classes were not highly-ranked, these were some of the most talented kids Kansas had on campus since the Mark Mangino era.

Kansas football, meet Lance Leipold

Miles’ firing amid sexual misconduct allegations while at LSU paved the way for Lance Leipold to take the helm. Leipold’s profile makes him a good fit at Kansas. The Wisconsin native won at places that are not easy to win.

Leipold took a Wisconsin-Whitewater team and took them from a burgeoning contender to a Division III juggernaut. Leipold took the Buffalo Bulls job, a place where no one thought anyone could win, and made them a MAC contender.

What should have Jayhawk fans excited is why Leipold took the job. He took the Kansas job because everyone told him that there’s no way he can win there. Challenge excepted.