What does Lance Leipold want from next season’s KU quarterback? Start here...
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Leipold must replace Jalon Daniels; quarterback race centers on Ballard vs. Marshall.
- Ballard holds experience and prior starts; Marshall offers mobility, playmaking.
- Leipold seeks a dual-threat leader who can make throws, manage game plans.
For the first time in a long time, it’s unclear who will start at quarterback for the Kansas football team.
Longtime quarterback Jalon Daniels is out of eligibility, so coach Lance Leipold will need to decide on his successor.
What once looked like a three-way battle for the job — between Cole Ballard, Isaiah Marshall and David McComb — is now down to Ballard vs. Marshall. McComb, considered by many to be a possible quarterback of the future, entered the transfer portal in December.
In early December, Leipold said he didn’t plan to add a quarterback from the transfer portal, but that’s likely to change with the departure of McComb.
Notably, Ballard won the backup job over Marshall the last two seasons. He’s also more experienced than Marshall. Ballard started in a few games in the 2023 season when then-backup QB Jason Bean suffered an injury.
The former walk-on finished with 286 passing yards, one touchdown and three interceptions in two games he started. The Jayhawks lost both games, against Iowa State and K-State, but were within striking distance in both.
While Daniels wasn’t perfect in his KU tenure, he brought the program back to relevance by leading KU to a bowl game in 2022. The seasons since have been up and down, with the Jayhawks missing bowl games in two straight years.
Daniels finished the 2025 season with 2,531 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions. As for what Leipold hopes to see from next year’s QB?
“I think Jalon did a lot of great things for this program,” Leipold said. “We’ve got to be great at securing the football. We weren’t, as a coaching staff and as an offense, as productive in the red zone as we need to be.
“So you’ve heard me say this before, we need to be truly at our best when our best is needed, and that’s when it comes down to conversions and scoring touchdowns and executing. For some of the plays that maybe didn’t go Jalon’s way, we can think of some pretty exciting ones that he made along the way as well.”
Daniels had his flaws, but his dual-threat ability is something Leipold wants next season’s quarterback to have. Daniels ran for 404 yards and had four rushing touchdowns in 2025.
“The quarterback that will win this job is going to have great command of the offense and understand what we’re trying to do,” Leipold said. “Make great decisions, be able to make the throws that are needed within this offense, which is really all throws. We’ve got to be able to get the ball down the field. We’ve got to be great in the play-action game. We’ve got to have great decision-making in the RPO game.
“(Ballard and Marshall) have running abilities, and now everybody’s going to think with Isaiah or Cole that we’re just going to run the heck out of the quarterback and let them take 30 shots a game, and that’s really not what we’re made out to be or want to be. But we’ve got to be able to run when we need to, especially against certain looks.”
Ultimately, it looks like Leipold wants a quarterback who can walk the line between taking shots downfield and managing the game.
“ (We want) somebody that can create plays,” Leipold said. “... Sometimes you use the words ‘manage the game’ (and) it’s looked at as negatively. But we have to manage the game in this offense in a way that gives us the best chance to win football games.”
