Like any fan or follower of college football, albeit one more invested than most, Kansas Athletic Director Travis Goff always has paid attention to the coaching changes that happen each year.
This year, more than ever, Goff was glad he did not have to be a part of any of the hirings or firings taking place.
He already had his guy in second-year KU coach Lance Leipold, and he was determined to make sure that nobody else would take him.
As rumors swirled throughout the season about Leipold being a possible candidate at both Nebraska and Wisconsin — if not other schools — Goff did his best to walk the fine line between being aggressive in his pursuit of getting Leipold to stay and giving him the space he needed to coach the Jayhawks.
“I think there were a couple full-court presses,” Goff said Sunday when asked about Leipold’s new contract that was signed in late November. “And there were times you just knew the right thing to do was to step back. What you don’t want is distraction in the season from the herculean task of being a coach during the year. We were both very mindful and cognizant of that. We did our very best to ensure there were not any distractions.”
That meant conversations often were casual and to the point. Goff and KU first showed their interest in giving Leipold a new deal early in the season. And while they gave him room to breathe from there, Goff said they never put too much time between reminders that KU wanted Leipold to stick around.
“You kind of pick and choose the right moments (and we made) sure we continued to have very good and honest conversations,” he said. “I also knew we weren’t going to sit back and kind of hope or wait for the perfect moment to talk about committing to the staff and locking this thing down. We were going to go at the time it felt right.”
Goff’s plan paid off. Just a few days before Nebraska announced Matt Rhule as its next head coach, Leipold agreed to a new contract at Kansas that nearly doubled his salary, was full of incentives and unique clauses and is slated to keep him in Lawrence through the 2029 season.
With so much of his attention and effort devoted to that outcome during the past several months, Goff on Sunday admitted to feeling “a sense of relief in a lot of ways” when the deal was finally done.
That relief merely intensified when he saw coaches starting to get hired and fired all across the country in and around the final week of the regular season.
“To be able to kind of sit back and observe the madness that occurs during that coaching carousel and (know) that here at KU we have exactly who we want and need to lead this program — and we’ve got him and his staff and the key pieces around them here for a long time — feels good for sure,” Goff said Sunday.
Goff credited his staff and the entire university community for reiterating to Leipold that KU was the place to be and then making sure they kept him.
“We had a chancellor committed to exactly the outcome I was committed to and a fan base and donor base that were somewhere along that journey as well in understanding it was critical (to keep Leipold),” Goff said. “I think KU, broadly speaking, transformed this fall around this football program and this build.”
Fans flocked to games again. Cheering for the Kansas football program became cool. And Saturdays around David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium were full of energy and excitement, with much of the week leading up to them packed with anticipation, as well.
That allowed KU to not only sell out three consecutive games and bring ESPN’s College GameDay to town, but it also paved the way for the school to announce a major stadium renovation initiative, plans that, unlike past iterations, were already full speed ahead toward completion and not just concepts or hopes.
According to the Twitter account @D1Ticker, KU’s average attendance for 2022 was a 96% increase in its average from 2021, one of the largest in the country without a stadium change.
Leipold’s new contract includes a clause that allows him to void the contract without penalty if he, in 2023, does not see “meaningful and substantial progress” toward the construction and renovation plans that have been set in place.
Goff said including that clause was a no-brainer.
“I love it,” he said. “That’s a win-win for everybody. That’s good for me as the athletic director. It’s good for our university and obviously it’s good for Lance and the program. To have that written, those were not ambitious dates or moments or progressions. Those are all what we knew was going to occur in 2023. If you know that, believe it and have got the right alignment, put that in the contract.”
The contract also includes a clause that essentially guarantees that Leipold will be paid at least in the top half of the Big 12 Conference for the life of the contract. That, too, was an easy thing to agree to, Goff said.
“I think it’s natural and really fits,” he said. “I guess the example I’d use is we don’t aspire to win some games in the Big 12. We don’t aspire to be 6-6. We aspire to win a Big 12 championship. I think that’s absolutely in the cards for this program and can be part of this journey. If that’s the case, then are you supporting and resourcing the program in that manner? Just by indicating top half of the league, that should be the minimum of what you are doing if that’s what your aspirations and goals are for your football program.”
With the rebuild in full swing and some scary days now behind them, the Jayhawks can move forward knowing that Leipold is their guy and KU is where he wants to be.
While that obviously keeps Kansas football in good hands, with a respected leader and program builder in charge, Goff said he was appreciative of what it means for his journey, too. After all, hiring Leipold was his first major move as an AD, coming roughly one month after he was hired by Kansas himself.
A couple of months after Goff announced the hiring of Leipold in the spring of 2021, former KU coach Mark Mangino recalled a key part of one of his conversations with Goff during the search to land Leipold.
“You and the football coach you hire will be tethered together,” Mangino told Goff then, the former KU leader told the Journal-World at the time. “He needs you. You need him. And if you’re successful and find the right coach, you’ll be the toast of the town.”
“He understood that completely,” Mangino added. “He understands that football is very important to him, personally as well as to the university, and he knows the stakes are higher for him.”
A mere 19 months later, as he stood inside KU’s indoor practice facility and talked not only about Leipold’s new contract but also about the Jayhawks accepting an invitation to the 2022 Liberty Bowl after their 6-6 season, Goff beamed with pride. He looked a heck of a lot more comfortable then than he did when he introduced Leipold as the Jayhawks next coach in the very same spot.
Not just because of the early success or the positive momentum. That’s all great, but both of the primary players involved in the rebuild — and dozens of others — will tell you that KU is just getting started.
Goff’s pride on Sunday came from the fact that everything he thought he knew about Leipold and his fit at KU when he hired him has thus far proven to be true. And now Kansas — and, therefore, Goff — is in position to benefit from that for years to come.
“We get along awfully well, probably as well as an AD and a football coach can in this day and age,” said Goff, when asked about the clause in Leipold’s contract that indicates the coach’s buyout to leave KU will be cut by 50% if Goff is no longer KU’s AD. “But it really is more about the alignment of just saying, ‘OK we started the journey in a lot of ways at the same time and together.’ … I’m not just talking about me but the administration and university really, with the chancellor at the helm, how we’ve worked together — there’s that theme of continuity again.
“I said it before the season, if people don’t know that this coach and this staff are the real deal, they are going to soon find out,” Goff added. “There’s a lot of great coaches out there; I don’t think there’s a better program-building coach and coaching staff in the country than Lance Leipold and this group.”