BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 8, 2026

Lance Leipold

Ford Center at The Star

Kansas Jayhawks

Press Conference

LANCE LEIPOLD: Thank you. It's great to be here. As many of us have said before, it's kind of the time that we know the season is right around the corner. We appreciate everybody being here, covering the Big 12 Conference and our programs.

Really excited about the opportunity to bring five of our players here today, Blake Harold, Leroy Harris, Cam Pickett, Calvin Clemons and Trey Lathan who do a great job representing our program.

Also, this morning's release that our partnership with XRP, to have our jersey sponsorship with them, is just another step in the great job that our administration has done moving our programs forward.

At this time I'll open it up for questions.

Q. Coach, bringing in Yasin Willis from Syracuse, what you saw in him in the backfield, what he's done up to this point, why you feel like being at Kansas might be his best chapter yet?

LANCE LEIPOLD: Yeah, great question. I appreciate that. Yasin has done a great job. He's a big back, physical back, downhill runner, able to move the pile a little bit. Andy Kotelnicki has returned to our program as play caller, and I know he's really excited about what he gives us.

That and the addition -- we really like the depth of the room we have at the running back position, Yasin being complementary with Dylan Edwards, we think we have two different running styles that can give us some explosiveness at offense and some versatility.

Q. We talked to Kenny Dillingham yesterday about the challenge of the game in London. Can you talk about the challenges and the rewards?

LANCE LEIPOLD: I think for both our programs, for this conference, obviously it does have its challenges, but when the commissioner brought this opportunity to us, first of all, as giving up a home game, we're in phase 2 of our stadium renovation, and we're at a reduced capacity, so that was a part of the formula.

But I'm still about -- and I think we're still about student-athlete experience, and I think we're providing an opportunity for our student-athletes to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience to go over there and play a football game.

I've mentioned it many moons ago when I was a graduate assistant at the University of Wisconsin we played in Tokyo, Japan, and when I run into former players at that time, they still talk about that game and the trip and everything that went along with it.

Now, playing week 3 is definitely going to be unique to us and the challenges that are provided. Both teams will have an open week afterwards. But getting there, acclimating time change, everything from meals to practice facilities -- I had a chance to go over there in April to see it. It's going to be a great setup. We get to play in one of the more iconic stadiums in really all the world and all the places that it's had.

I think it's going to be a special experience, but one, like you said, and Kenny has alluded to, as well, to have our teams ready to play that day but then to continually play the nine games afterwards will be very important.

Q. To follow up on your match-up with Arizona State in Landon, is there more urgency for that, considering when teams play over there, like what happened to Kansas State last year, they lost that game and then they kind of had a disappointing season. Is there more urgency to try to go out there and win? What are you planning on doing to try to utilize the spotlight and exposure of that game?

LANCE LEIPOLD: You know, a little bit of difference, and again, when you go over and play that game, if you win, everything is good. If not, then everybody has that as that's the reason the rest of the season, and that's a tough opportunity.

The one thing I think is a little different, even though it's in week 3 for us, versus the Kansas State-Iowa State game of a year ago, both those teams came back and had to play that next Saturday. It didn't matter if it was an FCS opponent or who they each play, they had to get their teams back and ready, and that's tough.

I think hopefully we feel we have a very confident plan that when we do get back about how we're going to get our guys, A, some time down, transition back, and then get ready for a game on October 3rd.

I think that'll be very important as we move forward. Yes, there's probably some obstacles that go with it, but we feel good about that.

Obviously the opportunity, Big Noon Kickoff is going to be at the game. That's huge. Anytime there's a chance for your university to be separate and on the stage with Arizona State, the opportunities that will bring, the coverage that will bring. Hopefully many of you are still going to cover that, as well, and hopefully the branding of that it does really for universities across the board, not just football, but we hope all these things can happen.

Really I hope it's just the start of things for this conference to really take advantage of things that will happen internationally.

We talk about a lot of things in our sport now that are going on that emulate a lot of things that are done in the NFL. Well, there's a reason why the NFL keeps adding more and more international games for different reasons. Yes, they have more open weeks, they have more games, but if it wasn't beneficial to the overall bottom line, and let's face it, we've got to worry about the bottom line, if it wasn't beneficial, they wouldn't be doing it.

I think, again, with the vision of Commissioner Yormark and his aggressiveness to maybe be outside the box in some things, I think that hopefully we'll be on the cutting edge of this for years to come.

Q. Coach, I'm going to take a shift here. I'm going to focus on impact a little bit. I know that life after football is really important, and your impact on your team is really important. What are the fundamentals from this program that you hope your players take with them on into life and hopefully when they do go to the NFL or if they do get drafted?

LANCE LEIPOLD: Great question. I appreciate that. I think a lot of things that we do in our program transitions to what life is about. When we talk simply in our program about our simple things. Number one is punctuality, being where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to be there. That's a life skill. Honestly, many times we lose sight of that. If you can't be on time, you want to own a business some day, you're going to have appointments, you're going to expect people to be there.

By enforcing the importance of that is something that we start with. We talk about our academics. We continue to do great things in the classroom. We had over -- second semester in a row over a 3.4. You can't just be a good football player; you need to be good in everything. If you strive to improve in every facet of your life, you'll get better.

We try to emphasize, if you get better in the classroom, we see guys all the time, they may not come from a great academic maybe foundation from high school or some things, but they get academic success through support in college, their personal confidence grows. It grows. Their confidence on the field grows. They talk more. They talk more confidently. They ask more questions. They're inquisitive. They're proud when they're doing things. Those things are all life-building things.

We talk about that all the time because as we know, the average NFL career, though we hope they all can get there, is going to be very small. I tell our guys even that are here, I'll give you five years in the NFL; that's fine. I'll give you a five-year career. Odds are you don't have enough money to live the rest of your life, and B, you'd better find something else to do, and you won't even be 30 years old yet. So you'd better have something else to fall back on, and we try and emphasize that daily in our program.

Q. Under your direction this program has really risen from the ashes, perennial basement dweller to where you're at now, a couple of bowl appearances and then a win. But from where you're at to where you want to be, a contender on the national stage, I'm curious if the approach is different from where you took over to building it back to where it is now to that next step to where it can not only be relevant in the conference but nationally?

LANCE LEIPOLD: I appreciate the question. Obviously standards have changed and expectations have changed in Lawrence, Kansas, since we arrived, and I'm proud of that. Obviously the last couple years have not gone the way we want. We haven't found a way to close out some close ballgames. We've had some opportunities, probably well documented, some close losses that easily put us that we could be sitting up here today talking about four consecutive bowl games and yada-yada yada, but we haven't done that.

And where does it fall? It falls on the head coach to do that. Our players embrace that. They understand that we're getting people's better shots than we did a couple years ago as far as who the Kansas Jayhawks are, and we have to embrace that.

But I also know that our guys believe that we put together a staff and a team this year that can be extremely competitive, can be surprising.

I love the depth that we have in our program, and we're going to put ourselves in a position because the one thing about the parity in this conference that kind of goes through the balance is that we've seen the years, and I've probably said it before, I think the 2021 season where it was Baylor thought of before they won the league in preseason; TCU was probably more the middle of the pack the year that they went to the playoffs; Arizona State was picked at the bottom or near the bottom the year Kenny took them to the playoffs.

So there's a lot of things that can happen in this. And through the new portal era, I always think it has to do a little bit with some of the additions that people don't talk about that add depth and quality depth and sustainability to certain teams that allow them to compete. And I think one of the things that we feel good about our team this year is from the first guy that steps on the field to the next guy, the gap there is the least it's ever been in our time.

Q. Coach, you're one of seven coaches in the Big 12 to play a night game at (indiscernible) stadium, you're the only one to win. What does it take to block out all the noise in each game that you're going to, especially going to London?

LANCE LEIPOLD: Are you trying to jinx me? No, I don't know. We pulled out an exciting game there a couple years ago. I remember once in a conversation with Chris Klieman after he had played there earlier that season talking about what a great environment, college football environment that is to go play in. It truly is, the environment, the energy, all those things, and it is a tough place to play.

But you've got to embrace it, and you've got to know and you've got to prepare for the noise and the excitement and all those things that go along with it.

Again, we tried to keep a game close and tried to find a way to win it late, and we did.

Q. KU football has only had two head coaches in the last 50 to 100 years that have actually had a winning season six years or later, Mangino and Mason. What pressure are you feeling? You've got the new stadium coming up and where the Big 12 is and you've got basketball schools like Indiana winning National Championships. Why is it so hard to win at KU after year six, and kind of where you're at now versus six seasons ago?

LANCE LEIPOLD: Well, I'd say this: Extra pressure into year six, I think I probably put enough internal pressure on myself for our team to be at its best year in and year out, whether it be year three or year six.

Like I kind of said earlier, there's no doubt expectations are higher. Sustained winning is difficult, and again, you mentioned Indiana; Indiana has done an excellent job. Now many people think everybody can do it. But there's a lot of different things that go into that and roster, investment, and a lot of things, along with great evaluating and great coaching that go hand in hand, and they've done a great job.

Our expectation is that we improve, that we put ourselves in position to compete for conference championships. Just like everybody wants more teams in the playoffs, we put ourselves in position there.

Glen Mason, Mark Mangino did excellent jobs there. Again, for us to be able to contain and sustain and move forward, I think in today's era of having the ability to add to your roster honestly probably gives us a little better chance.

I've talked to Coach Mangino in the past about what he thought after they went to the Orange Bowl, maybe some decisions in recruiting and things that he wishes he would have done differently, and some of those is still staying with the same model that got you there without maybe trying to go a different route than they had before.

All of those things we're taking a look at. We look at what we can do each and every day to put ourselves in position, and we're excited about what this team will be.