Liberty Bowl-bound: Kansas football selected for historic bowl game in Memphis

By Matt Tait     Dec 4, 2022

Nick Krug
Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels (6) celebrates his touchdown during the second quarter on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022 at Memorial Stadium.

The Kansas football team’s 14-year bowl drought is officially down to 24 days. That’s when the Jayhawks will take on Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on Dec. 28.

Kickoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on ESPN.

The news was made official around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, when the bowl selections were announced. It will mark the 13th bowl game in school history and the program’s second appearance in the Liberty Bowl. Kansas also appeared in the Liberty Bowl in 1973, losing 31-18 to NC State.

The Jayhawks have own a 6-6 record in bowl appearances, with wins in five of their last six bowl games.

KU Athletic Director Travis Goff said the Liberty Bowl reps were interested in Kansas from the outset, having conversations as far back as Big 12 media days last summer and visiting Lawrence multiple times throughout the season.

Now, as a way of saying “thank you,” Goff has some advice for Kansas fans.

“We need to paint that town crimson and blue,” he said Sunday.

Kansas to the Liberty Bowl had been rumored for weeks, so the Jayhawks landing at the historic bowl in Tennessee is nothing new. Their opponent might be, though.

For the past week, the talk surrounding KU’s first postseason appearance since 2008 was on whether the Jayhawks and Border rival Missouri would meet up in the Liberty Bowl, which annually pits a team from the Big 12 against a team from the SEC.

That became somewhat controversial, though, when it was reported by Brett McMurphy on Friday that the Tigers had asked not to play Kansas in their bowl game. Missouri’s official football Twitter account denied the report and MU coach Eli Drinkwitz later tweeted that his team would play anyone anywhere anytime.

This is the same Drinkwitz who playfully called out KU coach Lance Leipold — pronouncing it Lee-a-pold — during a TV interview in Kansas City in the summer of 2021, saying, “Lance Leipold, see you in 2025, man. MIZ.”

2025 it will be. That’s when the two schools are supposed to restart the Border War rivalry and with the Tigers are headed to play Wake Forest in the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, Florida, and Kansas turns its attention the Razorbacks.

That’s after some genuine appreciation for the moment, though.

Goff, who hired Leipold, described it as “a degree of surreal.”

“I’d be lying if I said we were penciling in playing in December in (Year 2 under Leipold),” the KU AD said.

Leipold liked that word but also said he never likes to put a ceiling on what his players and teams can accomplish.

“If you really held it up to me, I would say I didn’t know if we could make the jump from two wins to six maybe immediately,” he said. “But I’d never bet against this group and the coaches that work with them daily.”

Now that group gets to prepare for the 13th bowl game in KU history, and Leipold said the magnitude of that was not lost on his players during Sunday’s celebration after the announcement was made.

“You know, I saw a lot of smiles and cheers,” Leipold said via teleconference from the road recruiting. “(I saw) the look of some seniors and upperclassmen, who probably had doubts that something like this was ever going to happen in their careers. I saw a lot of pride and excitement.”

Even though the Jayhawks have been bowl-eligible for a few weeks, KU quarterback Jalon Daniels said Sunday made the whole thing seem a lot more real.

“I’m somebody (who) it has to happen for me to finally be like, ‘All right. It’s there,'” Daniels said with a snap and a smile. “So to be able to get that announcement today just means that it’s time to start preparing.”

That’ll come over the next three weeks. But Sunday was a day for reflection. Looking back, looking ahead and teammates looking at each other, knowing that the joy and excitement on the face they were looking at likely mirrored what was on their own faces.

“Just excitement all around,” sixth-year senior Sam Burt said of the emotions of Sunday. “It’s a great bowl, a great opportunity and I think we’re all really excited to go play.”

Added Daniels: “Coming in as a freshman, I listened to a lot of Nipsey Hussle and he was always someone who spoke about things happen if you speak them into existence. To be able to have this opportunity is something we’ve spoken about a lot; it’s been one of our goals. So, to be able to accomplish it means a lot.”

In Arkansas, Kansas will be taking on a team that finished 6-6 and lost to, of all teams, Missouri, in the season finale.

The Razorbacks finished fifth in the SEC West and boasted wins over Cincinnati, South Carolina, BYU, Auburn and Mississippi. Their losses came to Texas A&M, Alabama, Mississippi State, Liberty, LSU and Mizzou.

The Razorbacks lost three of their last four games. Because of the SEC’s unbalanced schedule, they did not face No. 1 Georgia or Tennessee this season. This is the third consecutive season in which Arkansas has qualified for a bowl.

Head coach Sam Pittman’s team was ranked No. 19 in the preseason Top 25, which was also the highest ranking the Jayhawks achieved this season after jumping out to a 5-0 start.

All of that’s in the past now, though. And Leipold recognized that clearly on Sunday afternoon, when, after landing following a short plane ride to visit a recruit, he received a text message from KU safety Kenny Logan Jr., who spoke about how excited the team was to get back to work now that they know who, when and where they’ll be playing their bowl game.

The gist of Logan’s message was simple: “We’re going to be ready to go,” Leipold said the note read.

The second-year Kansas coach, who last week signed a new contract keeping him in Lawrence through at least the 2029 season said he was hoping to read messages like that for years to come.

“We’ve got so many things going right now, it’s just kind of exciting,” Leipold said. “And I hope this becomes the norm for this program.”

Added Goff: “This isn’t an anomaly. This isn’t going to be this wonderful story of 2022. Now, we’ve got work to do, but I think this is a catalyst to make sure this is a regular thing. It’s going to be like March. Plan on being along on that journey like you have been with men’s basketball for as long as anybody can remember in the Decembers and Januarys ahead.”

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.