Brian Borland: Kansas is 'done being the weak link'

Kansas Jayhawks defensive coordinator Brian Borland is tired of the football team being looked down on. He’s tired of dealing with the perception that Kansas is bad at football.

As Borland explained at the start of camp, he’s sick of being the weak link in the Big 12.

“We are done being the weak link… we are going to be a strong link in the chain this year,” Brian Borland said at the start of Fall camp.

Brian Borland came to Kansas at the same time as head coach Lance Leipold. That was before the 2021 season. Since then, the Jayhawks have become more respected among Power Five schools, garnering an 8-17 record in two seasons but making a bowl in 2022.

That type of leap forward didn’t seem possible under recent Kansas head coaches. Les Miles led the Jayhawks to just a 3-18 record in two seasons, before leaving amid scandal. Before him was David Beatty who never won more than three games in a season.

Despite the long history that Kansas has of being a weak link, as Brian Borland described, it is possible to win and win big with the Jayhawks. In 2007, Kansas went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl. In fact, if it wasn’t for a poorly timed loss to Missouri, Kansas would have played in the BCS National Championship Game.

Brian Borland followed Lance Leipold from Buffalo to Kansas. He previously spent more than two decades coaching at Wisconsin-Whitewater. Again, the reason he left was to follow Leipold to Buffalo.

Lance Leipold on the key to Kansas turning things around

In only two seasons, Lance Leipold turned Kansas into a much more respectable opponent. As he explained, there’s a key reason for this. It started by building up their routines.

“I just think finally we’ve been able to build some routine and trust, first of all, within our program, for us to be — our young men had gone through a lot of transition. I think the daily process of getting better and really holistic development has been a key for us as a program,” Leipold said.

“I think when we went on the road to Morgantown and then went down to Houston and battled back from deficits and found a way to win on the road, the confidence and belief started to really take even a larger step and kind of built on the momentum that we had early.”