Lance Leipold expects coordinators to play key roles in KU football rebuilding project

By Benton Smith     May 18, 2021

Nick Krug
Head Football Coach Lance Leipold talks with media members on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at the Anderson Family Football Complex.

Before the Kansas football team’s new offensive and defensive coordinators fielded questions from reporters for the first time since joining the staff, their boss, Lance Leipold, reiterated how important he thought it was to bring them and several of his longtime coaches aboard.

“I don’t stand before you without them,” Leipold said Tuesday during a press conference. “I don’t know any other way to do it. This is the greatest team game there is and being a team is also a staff being a team.”

As Leipold pointed out, the 2021 season will be year 15 for him working with defensive coordinator Brian Borland and year nine for the head coach and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki teaming up. Their professional partnerships date back to Leipold’s time as the head coach at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater. The coordinators followed Leipold first to the MAC and Buffalo, and now to the Big 12 and KU.

Borland worked at Whitewater before Leipold arrived there and the two won six national titles together. Kotelnicki joined the Whitewater staff for the final two years of that run, as the team went 15-0 in both 2013 and 2014.

The way Leipold described it, he feels fortunate to have been around the coordinators long enough to know more about them than whether they are good coaches.

Nick Krug
Offensive Coordinator Andy Kotelnicki coach talks with media members on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at the Anderson Family Football Complex.

“I know them as people, husbands and fathers,” Leipold said. “And, again, they know me.”

The new KU football coaching staff includes five former UB assistants, as offensive line coach Scott Fuchs, quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski and linebackers coach Chris Simpson (Leipold said Simpson also will serve as KU’s recruiting coordinator) joined the coordinators in giving Leipold some staff continuity as he tries to rebuild the program.

Because Leipold knows and trusts the former UB assistants, he said they will play a key role in the ongoing transition phase for the program.

“The coordinators and the guys who have come with also have to spread the message about how I go about doing things as a head coach, how we go about running our program, what’s our culture like, what’s our expectations,” Leipold said.

The coordinators and assistants who helped Buffalo’s recent turnaround, the head coach said, will be able to share Leipold’s vision for KU with players, as well as retained assistants and support staff.

Nick Krug
Defensive Coordinator Brian Borland talks with media members on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at the Anderson Family Football Complex.

“Having all those people here, in on-field and off-field roles,” Leipold added, “is going to be imperative for us to build this football program.”

Kotelnicki’s offense in a nutshell

KU’s new offensive coordinator, Kotelnicki opened his portion of Tuesday’s press conference by providing a synopsis on his offensive approach.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of questions about the kind of offense we’re going to run. So I’ll be preemptive in answering it,” Kotelnicki began.

“I’ll give you the elevator pitch of what it is. It’s a multiple pro-style offense that uses spread components and concepts. And the optimal word there is multiple,” he emphasized.

Leipold previously has highlighted how Buffalo’s offense adapted from year to year to play to the Bulls’ strengths. For example, after UB thrived as a passing team in 2018, the Bulls relied far more on the run game the past two years.

It’s that pliable nature of the offense that Kotelnicki thinks is so important.

“Regardless of what level of football you coach,” KU’s O.C. said, “you’re going to be in a situation where the system that you would say you’re going to recruit to — or at the NFL level that you would try to draft to — at some point your personnel doesn’t exactly line up. So you have to be multiple enough on offense to be able to utilize the personnel that you have. And that’s our day one approach.”

Borland familiarizing himself with KU defenders

Although Borland said it’s “maybe a little early” for him to know for sure what the strength of the defense will be in 2021, the new defensive coordinator is studying up on the players he will soon get to know much better.

Borland said since he got to KU he and other assistants have reviewed game footage from 2020, as well as the spring game video, and they’re getting started on dissecting the film from KU’s spring practices.

“We made some pretty good, I think, evaluations of players — who they are, what their strengths are, where they could fit in to things,” Borland said. “So I think we’re making progress in that area.”

Of course, the D.C. will become increasingly familiar with the team’s defensive personnel in the weeks ahead.

But it’s those preseason practices that begin in late summer that will really help Borland and KU’s assistants learn about this year’s defense.

“Obviously there’s no substitute for actually putting your eyes on guys out on the field, seeing them move around,” Borland said. “And then I think we’ll have a lot clearer picture about, ‘Hey, is this guy in the right spot? Is he not in the right spot? What can he do? How can he help us?'”

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