Kansas football turnaround under Lance Leipold proves pivotal for Gateway District project

LAWRENCE — That announcement Tuesday, about the Gateway District and Kansas football stadium renovation, was a long time coming.

It even had former Jayhawks star Chris Harris Jr. joking at the reveal event in Lawrence that back in 2007 he was thinking it would be great if they got a new stadium.

But the moment did come. There was a clear vision that players, coaches, administrators and fans were able to celebrate. And according to Travis Goff, KU’s athletic director, you’d be hard pressed to say this would be happening the way it is without the renaissance the football team is experiencing under head coach Lance Leipold.

“I think it’d be disingenuous to say that without the momentum, without the success, that we’ve had with such a short timeframe with Lance and the program, that we’d be here today,” Goff said. “We’d be here at some juncture. We just don’t know, maybe, the when. And I don’t know if, to this magnitude quite frankly, either. So, that’s absolutely been at the forefront of this.”

Leipold’s tenure started a couple years ago, back in 2021. Even amid a 2-10 season, Kansas was able to garner some momentum and breathe some life back into the program. One of those wins came on the road in overtime against Texas, and featured a two-point conversion pass-and-catch between two players — quarterback Jalon Daniels to now-tight end Jared Casey — who are among the faces of the team’s turnaround.

Then, in 2022, the Jayhawks rattled off a 5-0 start that helped propel them to their first bowl game in more than a decade. Daniels became not just a local star, but a national one in a way that still hasn’t gone away. That momentum Goff is talking about, it’s continued to deliver over the course of the offseason ahead of one of the more anticipated seasons Kansas has had in recent memory.

Leipold said it means a lot to hear how much weight Goff is giving to what he and the team have accomplished so soon. He valued that current players whose careers at KU will end before the project is completed were able to enjoy the reveal event the university put on, and see how their efforts are creating change. He noted that the people have been getting things accomplished, to get this project moving, at a speed he hasn’t seen anywhere else that shows how important it is to have an athletic director and a chancellor who are on board.

Time will tell just how much this has on recruiting, but Leipold already considers what the program has going to be game-changing. Remember, the renovations for the locker room and weight room were just unveiled as well. From Leipold’s perspective, it all shows the university and its administration are committed to the team being successful at the highest level of college football in an environment of college athletics that places critical importance on football.

“We’re not existing anymore,” said Leipold, who also called this a statement to recruits and the fan base. “And I know there’s so much with this district that needed to be highlighted today and rightfully so, but there is a lot in this next phase as well that’s going to add to our building and really our daily efforts and really for our student-athletes to reach their fullest capabilities.”

RELATED: KU football 2023 preseason award watch list tracker: Jalon Daniels, Devin Neal recognized

RELATED: ‘Rocking and rolling’: Kansas football's 2023 season is nearly here for Daniel Hishaw Jr.

RELATED: For Kansas football offensive lineman Dominick Puni, it feels natural playing left tackle

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: Kansas football turnaround was pivotal for Gateway District project