Kansas football coach Lance Leipold has all kinds of ideas for what the KU program can become and how he wants to build it in the years ahead.
And while a lot of that has to do with the kind of team KU will field and the talent it will attract, Leipold on Tuesday shared one of his more immediate goal of his that has nothing to do with X’s and O’s.
As the Jayhawks (5-2 overall, 2-2 Big 12) prepare to head to Baylor this weekend to take on the Bears (3-3, 1-2) at BU’s Homecoming, it will mark the second consecutive week that KU is playing a road game during the opponent’s homecoming weekend.
“We’re a lot of teams’ homecomings,” Leipold noted on Tuesday. “That’s one of the other goals of this program, to not be everybody’s homecoming. In most cases, schools strategically pick a homecoming game, and we have to make sure that we’re not to be peoples’ homecoming game.”
It certainly seems like things could be heading in that direction.
In addition to winning at Texas late last season, the Jayhawks played TCU tight in the second-to-last game of 2021 and already have proven this season that they’re no longer a gimme victory for their opponents when they go on the road, with wins at West Virginia and future-Big 12 foe Houston and a 10-point loss last weekend at Oklahoma.
Leipold said Tuesday he did not think that the added juice around homecoming has added to KU’s challenge, but he did say almost all homecoming games have a more energetic atmosphere surrounding them. Even if they don’t need it.
“Most of the schools we’re playing are drawing really well anyway,” Leipold said. “I’m sure there’s an extra energy in their stadium (for homecoming). Then again, maybe it’s an extra distraction.”
Regardless of what festivities their opponents have planned in the Jayhawks’ three remaining road games — Saturday at Baylor, Nov. 12 at Texas Tech and Nov. 26 at Kansas State — Leipold said his team is well aware of the fact that the hardest part of its season is just beginning.
With five wins under its belt, Kansas needs just one more to become bowl eligible for the first time since the 2008 season. KU’s five remaining opponents enter this week with a combined record of 21-10.
“This schedule’s not going to get any easier,” Leipold said. “That’s been the theme of every midfield conversation in conference play with the opposing coach — the topic of how tough this conference is from top to bottom. I guess it’s a nice way of saying maybe we’re pulling our share of the rope now.”
KU and Baylor are slated for an 11 a.m. kickoff Saturday from McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
