Lance Leipold reflects on Kansas football progress following upset win over Oklahoma

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold knows you have to take a moment to enjoy things. The Jayhawks upset undefeated Oklahoma last weekend and improved to 6-2.

That type of win and progress was a far cry from the Kansas of the past. But since Leipold left Buffalo to coach Kansas, the program became very respectable and made the top 25 of the initial College Football Playoff rankings.

However, Kansas has to keep its foot on the gas moving forward. But it’s nice to reflect if you’re Leipold.

“(You can be on the) bad side of quickly thinking about making sure it doesn’t linger into a poor performance the next week and to really see our guys battle and do it till, I let them enjoy that moment and kind of go forward,” Leipold said on Sirius XM Big 12 Radio. “Now here we are on Tuesday, we better get back to work because we haven’t always responded well after bigger wins yet in this program and now we’ve got to head to Ames and a team that’s in first place. But at the same time, guys, you know, sometimes you gotta stop and pause and see where you know, where we’re at in the fall of ‘21 or in May of ‘21 when we walked in the doors and how far this group has come, how hard they’ve worked.”

“And the confidence that has been developed by these guys not to let a game like Saturday with seven lead changes get to that point of here we go again or something like that,” Leipold said. “And to do it at home and do it against an undefeated team I think is a big win for our program and for our university.”

Lance Leipold confident in Kansas’ continued growth

The win was KU’s first win over the Sooners since 1997, a span of 18 games.

Leipold has now guided the Jayhawks to bowl games in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in program history. Kansas last played in back-to-back bowl games in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, when Mark Mangino was the head coach.

Leipold has already firmly cemented himself in the hearts of Kansas football fans forever for his remarkable turnaround of their program. Before he arrived, KU football went 13 years without a six-win season, and he’s already given them two in back-to-back years.

The Jayhawks went 0-9 in 2020. Just three years later, Kansas is 6-2 and in the CFP rankings. It’s been nothing short of remarkable what he’s already accomplished with the Jayhawks. Saturday’s upset win was just yet another impressive display of the job he’s done in Lawrence.

Wade Peery contributed to this report