Updated Sunday at 9:30 p.m.
Simmering unease among Kansas fans was threatening to boil over Sunday afternoon until KU football coach Lance Leipold posted on X, “The guys come back to campus tomorrow. Can’t wait to get back to work with them in ’24!! Rock Chalk!!”
An increasing number of reports had begun to connect Leipold with the University of Washington’s opening for a new head coach, including suggestions from ESPN and The Seattle Times that Leipold and Arizona coach Jedd Fisch were at the top of UW’s list, as well as a report from FootballScoop that called Leipold “the focus” of athletic director Troy Dannen’s search.
Leipold made his own post 10 minutes after that last report went out, and in doing so announced his plan to remain in Lawrence.
Washington, which reached the national championship game this season, had been looking for a new leader since Kalen DeBoer departed Friday to fill Nick Saban’s seat at Alabama. It officially announced that it had hired Fisch Sunday night.
Sunday was not the first time Leipold has had to refute interest in other jobs. Even as he has repeatedly reiterated that he plans to stay at KU — as on the Austin American-Statesman’s “On Second Thought” podcast in September, when he said “You can never say never in this game because you never know exactly what happens internally or externally, but it’s our expectation that we finish my career at the University of Kansas” — the level of success to which he’s led the program has made him a natural candidate for jobs at top national programs.
In November, after a Michigan-based radio host suggested that Leipold had interviewed for the Michigan State job, the coach said on his “Hawk Talk” radio show that “Hawk Talk” itself was the only interview he had done.
Athletic director Travis Goff, who hired Leipold immediately after arriving at KU in April 2021, said in November (upon the signing of basketball coach Bill Self’s amended lifetime contract) that he also wanted Leipold to coach “right here in Kansas until the wheels fall off, until it’s time to shut it down.”
Leipold had received one contract extension during the 2022 season, as he was in the process of leading the Jayhawks back to their first bowl game since 2008. Goff said in November, “We demonstrated a strong commitment a year ago, but that doesn’t mean you just sit idle,” but added he didn’t want to disrupt the football team during the home stretch of its season.
Leipold is 17-21 in three seasons at KU, and his team most recently won the Guaranteed Rate Bowl on Dec. 26. With the offseason fully underway, the KU administration will have the opportunity to weigh another new contract for its head football coach.
The Jayhawks will move further up in the hierarchy of the Big 12 Conference next season with the departures of Oklahoma and Texas, but will face new competition from the likes of Utah and Arizona — the latter will now be looking for a new coach.
