Lance Leipold said Monday night on his weekly “Hawk Talk” radio show that Friday was the first time in his 17 years as a head coach that he had ever led a team without Brian Borland on the sidelines.
Borland was already in place as the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin-Whitewater beginning in 2002, five seasons before Leipold assumed his first head coaching role there. The pair, who had known each other even earlier as acquaintances growing up in adjacent towns in Wisconsin, jumped to the Division I level to build up the Buffalo program, then stuck together and headed to Kansas.
Borland couldn’t coach for KU Friday night, though, because he was recovering from a medical procedure. The coaching staff knew the procedure was going to happen for about two weeks, Leipold said, but it ended up being delayed to Thursday.
“I’m really thankful that I’m here and got the care I did,” Borland said Tuesday, as he thanked his cardiologist at Lawrence Memorial Hospital for connecting him with the “gurus of this procedure” at KU Medical Center.
In his stead, defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach Jordan Peterson called the defense. Peterson, as Leipold noted, had coordinated before. Indeed, back when he was a safeties coach on Les Miles’ staff in 2020, he had filled in for then-defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot, who was out due to a positive COVID-19 test for a game at Texas Tech. (Peterson has frequently switched roles at KU; in 2021 he stayed on with Leipold as a senior defensive analyst, then returned to the role of safeties coach in 2022 and now serves his dual positions.)
Kansas defensive passing game coordinator Jordan Peterson instructs defensive backs Brian Dilworth and Damarius McGhee as they run through a drill on Aug. 6, 2023.
Leipold said that before kickoff Friday, he had told Peterson, “I haven’t talked to you a whole lot about it, other than what’s normal… because I have the utmost confidence that you’ll do a great job.” Defensive analyst Mark DeLeone also helped out up in the booth, Leipold said.
“I knew they could handle what needed to be done,” Borland said. “Any slack there was, it was more than made up for. I thought Jordan did a really good job of calling the game and doing things, and you see the results. So nobody’s irreplaceable.
“I just hope I’m not Wally Pipp,” he joked, referencing the New York Yankee who got displaced from a starting job by Lou Gehrig.
On Friday, Leipold had said that he expected Borland back in the building “very soon.” Even he was impressed Monday, though, by how soon it turned out to be. Borland said he felt “better than ever, quite honestly. The miracle of modern medicine.”
“Some people miss more time on colds and sniffles than Brian Borland,” Leipold said. “He was in the office on Saturday working, damn near to the point we had to kick him out. So he’s back at it. It’s unbelievable but not surprising.”
In the meantime, his defense — Peterson’s defensive backs, specifically — generated a pair of late turnovers, two interceptions in a three-play span. Cobee Bryant, a preseason all-conference selection, seized on a pass from Jacob Clark that had been deflected by linebacker JB Brown. Then, two plays later, Clark tried to hit tight end Gary Clinton on a curl route but had the ball ripped away by Kwinton Lassiter.
Kansas cornerback Cobee Bryant celebrates with safety Kenny Logan Jr. after making an interception Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, against Missouri State.
Kansas cornerback Kwinton Lassiter pulls the ball away from Missouri State’s Gary Clinton Friday, Sept. 1, 2023.
Borland was able to watch the game live on television, though he said he couldn’t always see the entirety of what the defense was doing on any given play.
“It was unique,” he said. “I don’t want to do it, really, anymore, but it was a unique experience and probably something that I needed to do.”