Lance Leipold reacts to ‘extremely disappointing’ end to Kansas football’s season
Whenever Kansas football fans, coaches and players look back on the 2024 season, the prevailing notion will be that the Jayhawks squandered an opportunity.
In a college football season — and reshaped Big 12 conference — without a clear-cut favorite, KU had an opportunity to make its mark and do something it had never done.
Instead, the Jayhawks’ season ended in disappointment in Waco, Texas.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Kansas coach Lance Leipold said in his postgame news conference in Waco.
Kansas entered the season with Big 12 title and College Football Playoff aspirations. Instead, the Jayhawks began the year 1-5 and then 2-6. Saturday’s 45-17 loss to Baylor ended their season at 5-7 (4-5 Big 12).
“This group has overcome so much,” Leipold continued in his news conference. “It’s kind of been a roller coaster year in so many ways. We didn’t fulfill expectations and it’s disappointing. We battled back. As we said, the locker room stayed together.”
The Jayhawks’ 1-5 start included multiple heartbreaking and last-second losses. KU didn’t turn its season around until it was fully on the brink — needing four straight wins to salvage a bowl berth.
The reality was that Kansas should never have been in that situation. The season’s first six games were mired by struggles on offense: turnovers by Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels and play-calling from first-year offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes that routinely came under fire.
There was a clear adjustment period for Kansas’ offense in Year 1 under Grimes. The defense, at times, kept Kansas competitive, but it lagged on other occasions.
That defense did produce a high mark against Colorado, limiting the Buffaloes to a season-low 21 points in a KU upset win. But it regressed one week later, allowing 45 points and 603 yards to the Bears.
“I think we looked like a tired football team,” Leipold said. “Four straight games against ranked teams finally took its toll a little bit, and that’s on me to make sure we’re trying to get ready.”
Safety OJ Burroughs offered another explanation.
“We got used to the success the past few weeks, started slow and we got hit in the mouth early,” Burroughs told reporters in Waco. “So I feel like that’s where we went wrong at today.”
No matter the reason, one thing is clear — changes are coming for the Jayhawks.
With the departure of 15 starters and about 30 seniors, Kansas will have a busy offseason. Leipold also will likely evaluate his coaching staff — namely both coordinators after inconsistent seasons by both Grimes’ offense and Brian Borland’s defense.
That said, the Jayhawks in finishing 5-7 were not all that far from accomplishing several of their goals. But mistakes at the worst time cost them in several close defeats.
The Jayhawks went 1-5 in one-score games.
“We needed to play our best when our best was needed, and we didn’t do that in those games,” Leipold said. “We could see in some of the games that we won, some things went our way.
“You could pick three plays of about four different games: If something’s a little bit different, someone executes differently, we’d be talking about a lot different December.”
