Kansas coach Lance Leipold had one request for Jayhawks’ 2023 schedule

Kansas football coach Lance Leipold didn’t have many requests for the KU administration regarding the Jayhawks’ 2023 schedule.

Except for one: Kansas plays its season opener on a Thursday instead of a Friday.

The Big 12 released its full conference football schedule on Tuesday. The dates for games on KU’s website were also updated, including the FCS opener against Missouri State, and Leipold got his wish.

KU plays Missouri State on Thursday, August 31, at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. .

“I know the first two years we had to make a concession to play on Fridays, which isn’t always great with high school, especially our two local high schools in town (Lawrence High and Free State), “ Leipold said. “(Thank you) to our administration (for) making it happen that we could open the season on a Thursday night.

“You see a lot of benefits for that, especially on a Labor Day weekend and stuff. Hopefully our student crowd and other things (will) still be (there), (with us) getting it out this early and having the opportunity there.”

The conference will have four newcomers in the 2023 season: BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. All of the new members finished above .500 last season. Leipold felt each team is a quality addition to the conference.

“We get to play what, three of the four, right?” Leipold said. “OK, we played Houston last year, so I guess we played them all in a short period of time.”

The four conference teams KU doesn’t play are Baylor, TCU, West Virginia and Houston. The Jayhawks played each team in the 2022 season.

This is primarily due to the Big 12 having 14 teams with the new members joining and OU and Texas yet to depart.

“That’s what happens once you get past a ten-team league and you stop playing everyone,” Leipold said. “That’s why you know the division, no division thing, I just find it very odd.”

KU plays seven home games at David Memorial Booth Stadium — its most since the 2019 season.

“It’s pretty exciting to me that we had seven home games,” Leipold said. “So hopefully that’s something we’ll try to do when we can.”

The Jayhawks have a Week 8 bye (Oct. 21), compared to a Week 9 bye last season.

“I like where the bye week is; I think it fits at a good time,” Leipold said. “It’s probably one week earlier or two weeks earlier than (it was) last year.”

Leipold hasn’t looked too intently at who the rest of the conference is playing.

“I had somebody print it off for me. I am still a paper guy that likes it, but I haven’t looked at each team’s schedule,” Leipold said. “I saw maybe one or two. ... Everybody is going to, I think, talk about who doesn’t have to play who and who has to play somewhere when it’s cold. They never talk about whenever everybody has to play somewhere when it’s hot. I always found that interesting.”

As for how much influence Leipold has on KU’s schedule?

“That’s more of a Travis Goff question. … You get to put a couple of things in, but I am not sure,” Leipold said. “I know who they are not asking and that’s Lance Leipold.”