Does KU football have a problem with close games? Here’s Lance Leipold’s take
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas fell to 1-6 in one-score games since 2024 after a 37-34 loss to Cincinnati
- Quarterback Jalon Daniels threw for 419 yards and 4 touchdowns in the defeat
- Kansas defense allowed 603 yards and failed key late stops on Cincinnati drives
Kansas coach Lance Leipold was visibly irritated.
His Jayhawks had just lost a heartbreaker to Cincinnati 37-34 inside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. KU (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) fell to 1-6 in one-score games dating back to the start of 2024.
That stat doesn’t reflect kindly on the Jayhawks and their staff, but Leipold was ready for the question in his postgame news conference.
“If I knew what it was, we would be doing it,” said Leipold. “Some of those things, everyone has got a little different twist to it. It’s not surprising that question is asked, and we need to be better.”
Finding the specific issue, however, is a little trickier.
“It’s happened maybe before: This year, on either side, we have different people calling defenses. We have different people calling offensive plays,” Leipold said. The Jayhawks have both a new offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator for this season.
“We have different players out there playing this year,” Leipold continued. “It isn’t like it’s one thing. I can tell you that we have worked two-minute drills (ad) nauseam this year and situational football has been covered more than ever, ever before. But obviously, we’ve got to do more, and I need to do better. We will continue to look for that.”
Perhaps the most frustrating part about the loss Saturday was that Kansas wasted a stellar performance by quarterback Jalon Daniels.
Daniels finished 18-of-27 passing for 419 yards and four touchdowns. He added 55 yards on the ground. Even with a fumble near the goal line, he gave Kansas a chance to win the game.
Daniels’ touchdown pass to receiver Levi Wentz put the Jayhawks up four with 1:45 left. But instead of celebrating Daniels’ career day, the KU fan base was left discussing another tough loss.
Cincinnati converted several key plays late, including a fourth-and-10 that was snagged with one hand. Running back Tawee Walker scored a walk-in touchdown to put the Bearcats up three with 29 seconds left.
In the process, the Jayhawks burned two timeouts and missed a game-clinching interception. Clock and late-situation management has continued to bite the Jayhawks under Leipold.
On one crucial sequence, Cincinnati rushed for 17 yards — down to the 2-yard line — on a second-and-3. The Jayhawks could have let Walker score, but didn’t, and instead burned their second timeout on defense with 32 seconds left. Walker scored a play later, and the Jayhawks trailed by three with less time (and timeouts) to work with.
“They scored right away ...” Leipold said, answering a question about a way to preserve clock late.
In that same answer, Leipold also referenced the Jayhawks’ prior offensive possession, when they scored a go-ahead touchdown but left Cincinnati 1:45 to work with.
“There’s a lot of ‘should have,’ ‘could have,’ ‘would have’ in this game,” Leipold said. “… I can go back to: Why did we score on second down and not third down and wait and kind of do some things. But we felt we had a really good call on second down that would be successful.
“On third down, we haven’t been great on third-down percentages. Then, you’re getting into going to win the game or kick a field goal to tie.”
Still, he wanted to make one thing clear: “This team,” Leipold said, “lost the game.”
“Not one side of the ball lost the game,” Leipold continued. “We turned the ball over inside the 5-yard line. We did other things that can be scrutinized and not just the last minute, whatever.”
As for what he saw from his defense? “When they (Cincinnati) got into rhythm, I think we got on our heels at times,” Leipold said. “I thought up front we got a little more aggressive. I think they probably wore down a little bit up front; we started (to get) a little bit more pressure. But I still don’t know how confidently and aggressively we played in the back part, really all day.”
KU’s defense struggled all game. The Bearcats had 603 yards of offense. Kansas managed only one sack, from defensive tackle Blake Herold. It was the first sack the Bearcats have given up all season.
“I mean, we’ve got to execute better for sure,” Herold said. “We’ve got to play better football in those situations. I mean, we will be at practice repping that stuff all week, so we’ll be good.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2025 at 5:48 PM.
