3 takeaways from Kansas football coach Lance Leipold’s comments during Big 12 media days
Kansas football coach Lance Leipold talked about a wide range of topics during his appearance at the Big 12 Conference’s media days earlier this month in Arlington, Texas.
Leipold faced questions about his team. He faced questions about the Big 12. And he faced questions about the state of collegiate athletics.
Here are a few takeaways from what he had to say:
The importance of continuity on the coaching staff
Leipold and the Jayhawks were able to bring back all 10 on-field assistant coaches from the 2022 season, and highlighted that it had been years since Kansas had last been able to do that. The value in that, he later added, comes in the reality that they don’t have to take time to teach a new assistant how things go. And there also isn’t the need for a new assistant to take the time to develop relationships and trust with everyone.
“You still need to go back to square one sometimes, but anytime, on either side of the ball, it can slow you down,” Leipold said. “If you lose a guy during December, January recruiting, all of a sudden somebody’s got to pick it up. You’ve got a gap. All those things are — there’s so many different ways, let alone that position group getting to know their new coach and other things.”
The heightened discussion around gambling and college sports
At a Kansas Athletics Board of Directors meeting earlier this summer, athletic director Travis Goff and others discussed the topic of gambling — in relation to collegiate athletics. At Big 12 media days, Leipold was asked about it as well. And while Leipold indicated it’s just one of many things he places importance on addressing, he did highlight how gambling among college athletes is something that can affect the integrity of the game.
“That has reared its head a couple different times during my career, that you hear about things, and it’s coming back now and you’ve got to take a look,” Leipold said. “I mean, we talk about it. You go through it. You bring speakers in.”
The effect of conference realignment on college football
The topic of conference realignment has been a significant one in recent years, and at this point Leipold said it’s to be determined on whether or not it’s good for college football.
“We say we want the best things for the student-athletes,” said Leipold, who volunteered that he’d tried to get a waiver for something to do with travel and was denied. “We’ve got to look at some of the other things we’re doing, as far as the amount of travel and time zones and effects on people and looking at it, instead of it’s just a cookie cutter.”
Leipold did, though, praise the Big 12’s commissioner. Leipold said Brett Yormark has been staying ahead of the curve on different ideas, which Leipold likes. And Leipold indicated he also likes how Kansas’ campus is approaching things.
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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: KU football's Lance Leipold on gambling in collegiate athletics, more
