#10
Lance Leipold — Kansas, May 2021
Kansas 2021–The Buffalo coach who took the Kansas job in May with no spring practice — and produced the program's first bowl game in 14 years by year two.
Year-2: 6-7 (1st bowl since '08) · Year-3: 9-4 · turned Kansas into a program
Leipold's May 2021 hire — after the Mike Houston search collapsed two days before the announcement — gave him no spring practice and the worst Power-5 inheritance of the decade. Year one (2-10) was triage; year two (6-7, the program's first bowl since 2008) was vindication; year three (9-4) was a top-25 finish that the Kansas program had not produced since the Mark Mangino era ended in 2009. The Leipold operation has made Kansas a credibility-restoration template the rest of the bottom-tier Power-5 sport now studies.
Cohort divergence
Stat-folks rank
#10
Casual-fans rank
#10
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consensus
Year-over-year
Prior edition rank: — \u00b7 Movement: ↑ NEW