How Kansas football coach Lance Leipold navigates world of NIL & transfer portal
In the ever-changing world of college athletics, KU Jayhawks football coach Lance Leipold is still adapting. For better or worse, the shuffling of rosters due to the transfer portal is here to stay.
The Jayhawks even picked up 22 players from the portal to reload a roster that lost over three dozen seniors.
Leipold, in a news conference on Friday, had some words that helped explain his overall recruiting philosophy.
“We create a lot of our own problems in this sport,” he said. “Sometimes when something gets implemented, there are pockets that are always figuring out how they’re going to get around it, beat it and decide what we are going to do.
“The best things I hear (about our) recruiting is the consistency, transparency and the integrity with which we go about things. We want to continue to do that. … I think that helps when you explain to a young man you’re going to be dealt with in such a way that you’re not always going to hear everything that you want to hear, but you’re going to hear things that you need to hear.”
Leipold emphasized that even with the addition of NIL, there’s still plenty of emphasis — including when talking to families of recruits — on making the player a better football player and person.
Still, Leipold has had to get used to the new age of college athletics. He hopes the house settlement regarding revenue sharing and NIL happens soon.
“It’s unsettling in this new way of doing things,” he said. “The portal opens back up (April 16) and you have a group of guys you think are trending in the right direction. You’ve kind of got an idea of where your team is headed and then all of a sudden, you get that text or phone call that really changes it.
“We’re just looking for more regulation. … We need to get some more consistency. … I just don’t think … it’s healthy for a young man to go to eight different schools in eight years. I’m trying to figure that out — where we think that’s healthy for life. The quickest thing that happens is somebody talks about (how) coaches move on and stuff like that, but there are stipulations for all of us.”
Meanwhile, Kansas defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald offers a unique perspective on NIL and the transfer portal. McDonald joined KU before the 2024 season after a stint as defensive backs coach with the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Star asked McDonald how similar NIL and the transfer portal are to the NFL’s way of doing things.
“Some of the things are very similar; guys are making money and things like that,” he said. “The NFL is a little more structured as far as you may have a guy you drafted. He’s probably going to be there for five years and the fourth year you can renegotiate that contract.
“Here in the NIL era, it’s more like, heck, we might be in negotiations in the next coming days with guys. That part is really tough. There’s just a lack of structure that we have now in NCAA that is a lot different than the NFL. … The free agency stuff is the same. Like I said, guys are getting money and I’m happy that the guys get to get paid now.”
A prime example of a player renegotiating his NIL deal was Tennessee Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who reportedly recently skipped practice. According to multiple reports, the quarterback was in talks with the Vols about his deal.
That’s just the latest case of how NIL has changed college athletics.
Overall, McDonald sees the positives and negatives of the transfer portal.
“Right now, we had 39 seniors. Without the transfer portal … I doubt we’d be able to bring in enough guys to fill that up, (and) we’d be a lot younger team if it wasn’t for the transfer portal,” he said. “The transfer portal giveth and taketh away, too. There’s some guys who left and we might have that again — I hope not. But you just worry about that as you go.
“You just try to create a great culture that guys just want to be here and be around. If it’s about money for guys, hopefully you’ve got enough to pay them. If you don’t, and that’s what they want, they’ll go and take other opportunities.”
