KU Jayhawks football coach Leipold sends text of congratulations to K-State’s Klieman
Kansas football coach Lance Leipold spent Saturday of his team’s bye week watching two of the Jayhawks’ final four regular-season opponents — Kansas State and Oklahoma State — play each other in a Big 12 battle on TV.
The Wildcats, KU’s final opponent of the regular season, clobbered OSU, the Jayhawks upcoming foe, 48-0 in Manhattan.
“I sent a text to (K-State coach) Chris Klieman Saturday night on how impressed I was and congratulated him. That’s an impressive performance with a backup quarterback,” Leipold said Monday at Leipold’s weekly news conference.
K-State second-team quarterback, Will Howard, was carried off the field in celebration by his Wildcats teammates after filling in well for injured starter Adrian Martinez.
“It’s kind of like Jason Bean a little bit,” Leipold said of KU’s backup quarterback who has embraced a starting role the past 2 1/2 games in place of Jalon Daniels, who was injured in the second quarter of the TCU game on Oct. 8.
“It’s great to see young men who have started games then didn’t start. Not to make this (news conference) about them (Wildcats) but he (Howard) has stuck with it and stuck with the program. That’s good to see,” Leipold added.
Leipold’s Jayhawks (5-3, 2-3 Big 12) will meet OSU (6-2, 3-2) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Booth Memorial Stadium. K-State is 6-2, 4-1 Big 12.
“If you spend too much time in comparative scoring or things like that, sometimes things just get away from you,” Leipold said. “I think they (Cowboys) are banged up like a lot of people are. I don’t want to take away at all from the performance of Kansas State and the way they are playing right now. It was a pretty convincing win. …
“They (the Cowboys) will get healthy. They’ll get it corrected. They’ll come in here ready to play and we have to make sure we match that intensity.”
OSU starting quarterback Spencer Sanders hurt his shoulder in the fourth quarter vs. K-State. His status is unknown this week.
Meanwhile, KU quarterback Daniels practiced Sunday, Leipold said in commenting briefly on the QB who has an undisclosed injury.
“He is practicing. He is doing some things,” Leipold said. “He was out there yesterday. We’ll see, and that probably goes for (injured cornerback) Cobee (Bryant) and others.”
Leipold is hoping for a fourth-straight home sellout crowd Saturday. If KU wins, the Jayhwaks qualify to play in a bowl game.
“I hope it’s another great crowd. We need a great crowd,” Leipold said. “I hope the future of this program as we continue to work to build winning consistently in this program it’s not undefeated records that get us to fill this place because there’d be a lot of non-filled stadiums.
“I still hope people are excited, though the wins of late haven’t been there (three-game losing streak) But the competitive nature of this football team for four quarters is something I hope our fans are respecting and enjoying and will want to come out and support,” Leipold noted.
He said KU’s opponents have noticed the big crowds in Lawrence
“One of our assistants talked to one of the opposing coaches of one of the three sellout games we had,” Leipold said. “He (the opposing coach) talked about the fact they did not prepare for crowd noise and it was a factor in the game. Our fans make a difference 100% absolutely and we need them there.”
Leipold said KU’s bye week was important for recruiting. Several coaches were on the road late last week through the weekend.
“We were at a lot of places all over the country. It’s been good. It’s been exciting to see high school coaches and people have taken notice that this program has taken big strides,” Leipold said.
KU received a commitment Sunday night from a player in the transfer portal: Logan Brown, a 6-foot-6, 305-pound redshirt junior offensive tackle from the University of Wisconsin. He’s a former five-star high school recruit from Grand Rapids, Michigan with two years of eligibility remaining.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Brown was recently dismissed from the Badgers by interim coach Jim Leonhard because of an “internal incident within the program.”
