Lance Leipold calls improvement in Kansas’ offense from last year ‘night and day’

Nearly a year to the day, a No. 19-ranked Kansas hosted ESPN’s College GameDay in Lawrence for a battle of unbeatens against No. 17 TCU. The Jayhawks lost to the eventual national runner-ups 38-31 and the two went on to have completely different seasons from that point on.

It’s hard to imagine it getting much better than that Week 6 matchup from last year. Kansas was firing on all cylinders offensively, but if you ask head coach Lance Leipold — this year’s Jayhawk offense is that much better.

“From where we were a year ago, it’s night and day to an extent,” he told On3’s Andy Staples on Thursday. “You know the benefits of those bowl practices. And for this program to be in the [postseason] drought that it was, to get those practices before the bowl game was so valuable.

“The value is the retention that you get when you go back onto the field the next spring. We went back on the field on late February and we kept the retention. … Most of our receivers, the running backs — most of those guys are all back and we keep building, as you say, eye candy.”

This benefits Kansas’ playbook in the sense that Leipold’s playmakers are already knowledgeable of the Jayhawks’ scheme, and adding wrinkles to it as they go becomes seamless. Whether that’s a pre-snap motion, mixing up his personnel or implementing new plays — his guys are on top of it and it shows as Kansas is ranked No. 24 in the latest AP poll and 4-0 on the young season.

With such a fast start, Kansas has found itself right back in the national spotlight with another ranked matchup — this time against No. 3 Texas in Austin. Similar to their situation last year, the Jayhawks can change the trajectory of their season with a victory. A loss would be a slight setback, but this is the toughest matchup left on Kansas’ regular season schedule.

Aside from the Oklahoma game on Oct. 28, there’s a good chance the Jayhawks are favored in the majority of their games for the rest of the season. At the time of this report, OU is the only ranked opponent left on the Jayhawks’ schedule and with no conference divisions — could sneak its way into the conference title game if they play their cards right.

Kickoff between the Jayhawks and Longhorns its set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET live on ABC.