Inside Kansas football’s appreciation for earning a second-straight bowl appearance

LAWRENCE — The ways Kansas football players learned of their bowl destination this year differed from a year ago.

Junior running back Devin Neal said he got a call from his mother earlier this month, on selection day, that they’d play in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. Senior tight end Mason Fairchild thinks it was his fiancé who first sent the news his way that day. And back in 2022, Fairchild said the team was gathered together to learn they’d play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

But while the delivery changed in 2023, the appreciation of their opportunity remains strong. Fairchild noted they were also still receiving updates in a leadership chat with head coach Lance Leipold. And the ability to have some time off to relax, be with family and more was certainly something that was valued.

“I think just last year with the circumstances of not making it for so many years, I think that was something we needed to experience together,” Fairchild said. “But I think now, especially after a long season, it’s good to kind of go home and unwind.”

Fairchild was quick to point out multiple times the reality that so much has changed for Kansas football in recent seasons. Although Leipold’s first season at the helm in 2021 saw the Jayhawks go 2-10, they’ve now reached bowl games in back-to-back seasons. That’s the first time that’s happened since 2007-08, more than a decade ago.

Last year’s bowl appearance didn’t go Kansas’ way, as it lost against Arkansas in triple overtime in Memphis. But this year on Dec. 26 the Jayhawks will face UNLV in Phoenix. A new opponent and a new city bring with them a new opportunity.

Fairchild said he has every intention of playing in the game, and has given no thought to opting out and starting his preparation for the NFL draft. This is everything they’ve worked for, in his eyes. He doesn’t want to stop now given this has been a goal across the five years he’s spent in Lawrence.

“Sending the seniors out, including myself, in the right way, and then to propel the young guys to having a great offseason into the next great season,” said Fairchild on what he wants his team and himself to accomplish in this year’s bowl game. “So, there’s a lot of things on the line here. We’re not going to take this game for granted. We’re going to prepare the right way.”

It’s a line of thinking Leipold seemed to share when he reacted to where Kansas would play in a bowl game this season. He said when anyone takes a look at the game notes for this contest, they’ll see how many firsts have been happening for the Jayhawks this year. He added that seeing those things pop up routinely over the course of a season make him more proud of his staff and players than he ever thought he would be.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Leipold is satisfied with where Kansas is at. He recalled how a booster told him at a function that the Jayhawks could have been 10-2 in 2023, and the two had a good laugh when Leipold reminded the booster they were 2-10 in 2021. But the Guaranteed Rate Bowl can be another building block for the program.

“It still shows that there’s potential here,” Leipold said on selection day. “We’ve got things in really great alignment and a chance to keep building within the bowl system of our conference is truly exciting. And with the playoff format, even though I said I love the bowls, there’s going to be even more opportunities for this program to truly — we keep this nucleus of this team together and what we have returning, this team could be mentioned in preseason as a conference contender. And that never would have been thought of three and a half years ago.”

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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.

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This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Inside why Kansas football appreciates reaching Guaranteed Rate Bowl