Here are 3 specific areas where KU Jayhawks coach Lance Leipold saw progress vs. TCU
Kwamie Lassiter caught the pass near the sideline, then began to head out of bounds before stopping suddenly.
TCU cornerback Kee’yon Stewart wasn’t ready for this. He overran the play, flying by Lassiter before the Kansas receiver picked up an additional 12 yards on a 22-yard gain in the first quarter of KU’s 31-28 road loss to TCU on Saturday.
When gauging his team’s progress over the course of this season, Jayhawks coach Lance Leipold says these are the types of efforts that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
“Think back to the beginning of the year: You catch ball on the sideline, run out of bounds. And we start talking about those things, about going to fight for extra yards and doing things because yards are going to be important for an offense like us that is developing,” Leipold said Monday. “And to see him do those things and get extra yards ... there’s a progression, and that’s coaching, and that’s been emphasized.”
KU no doubt has played its best football in recent weeks, highlighted by its 57-56 road upset over Texas two weeks ago.
But even outside the scoreboard results, Leipold has taken pride in seeing incremental improvement in areas that the staff has preached from the beginning of the season.
Lassiter’s effort from Saturday — he had another similar catch in the fourth quarter where pivoting away from the sideline earned him 26 additional yards after contact — is just one example of what Leipold has witnessed.
Here are two other positives: Penalties and ball security, which are phases Leipold began harping on since he took the job in late April.
KU has eight total fumbles this season while losing three of those, with both of those marks tying as the eighth-best mark nationally.
As far as penalties go, the Jayhawks’ 33.6 yards per game is third-lowest nationally behind only Eastern Michigan and LSU.
KU’s attention to detail in the latter especially showed against TCU; the Jayhawks had one penalty for no yards, as an errant snap on their first possession resulted in an intentional grounding penalty for the team’s only mark-off.
“You want discipline. You want to play the game the right way and not beat yourself and give yourself an opportunity,” Leipold said. “And though we haven’t had a lot of wins this season — and we’re talking about a fine line of winning and losing — we’ve played pretty much penalty-free, and we’ve seen how close the games have been these last two weeks. So we need to continue to do that. And it gives you a chance to be in football games.”
The precision has given KU a chance through some ridiculous roster attrition.
Leipold reported Monday that the team was down to only three healthy running backs total while down seven players from that position because of injury and attrition.
The tight end/fullback spot is just as depleted. KU walk-on Jared Casey has been utilized the last two weeks, and the Jayhawks will have two walk-ons prepared to play behind him Saturday if necessary.
Through it all, KU’s offense the last two weeks has averaged 43 points per game in road contests against Texas and TCU.
Leipold said it wasn’t a complete shock to him that KU had still managed results despite the challenges — he said he’d worked with offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki long enough to not be surprised by what he could accomplish — yet he was pleased with both his players and coaches’ ability to turn drill work into development.
“I guess it goes back to even those practice methods that I think we try to emphasize: just doing things right and not develop the habits that carry over into games,” Leipold said. “We need to continue to do that.”
