Pro Football Focus ranks KU’s Lance Leipold as one of the best coaches in the country
Kansas football fans don’t know what to expect from the Lance Leipold Era, but there is at least one reason to be hopeful.
Pro Football Focus recently ranked the nation’s top 20 college football coaches, and Leipold was one of three Big 12 coaches to make the list.
Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley is No. 4, while Matt Campbell of Iowa State was slotted at No. 7.
Leipold, the former Buffalo coach, came in at No. 9, ahead of North Carolina’s Mack Brown, Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly and Penn State’s James Franklin.
Here is part of what Seth Galina wrote about the new Kansas coach: “Leipold has shown that he can turn around a downtrodden program. When Buffalo came back to Division I-A football in 1999, they embarked on a journey of countless losses. Between Craig Cirbus, Jim Hofher, Turner Gill and Jeff Quinn, the team won 3.25 games per season on average. After feeling his way around early in his Bulls tenure, Leipold went 24-10 in his last three seasons before landing this Kansas job. Over the last two campaigns, Buffalo ranked fifth in EPA per rush in the FBS.”
Leipold will have his work cut out for him in his first season. The Jayhawks, who open the season Sept. 3 against South Dakota, are coming off a winless 2020 and have the third-most difficult schedule in the country, according to ESPN.
Sportsbettingdime.com said KU’s schedule is the second-hardest in the nation, trailing only the Arkansas Razorbacks.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 8:54 AM.
