Tramel's ScissorTales: Lance Leipold performing miracles with Kansas football

It’s OK to ask Lance Leipold why he would take the Kansas job. Others have asked, probably to check his sanity.

But the people who ask with more skepticism than curiosity don’t know the life of a small-college coach.

Leipold is a national phenomenon – the man who has resurrected Jayhawk football; the second coming of Bill Snyder – and it’s easy to remember Kansas as the derelict program that won eight conference games the previous 13 Big 12 seasons.

But give Leipold multiple choices of why he took a dead-end job, and he’ll check every box.

Challenge. Geography. Status. Money.

“Honestly, you probably hit all four perfectly,” Leipold said this week after a KU practice.

It’s a challenge, all right. Win at Kansas, and you’re a made man in college football history. The Midwest is friendly territory; until going to Buffalo, Leipold spent his entire life in Wisconsin and Nebraska. The status of a Power Five Conference job is enticing; television money makes things a lot easier for a coach who has spent a combined 21 years at either Nebraska-Omaha or Wisconsin-Whitewater.

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And think about it. A 56-year-old coach at the University of Buffalo had to be wowed by Kansas’ six-year, $16-million contract offer.

That’s pedestrian money for most Power Five head coaches, but it sounds sweet for a small-college veteran.

“Yeah, if you’re not, you’re lying,” Leipold said. And now the Jayhawks have offered a huge contract extension, and Leipold is considered a major candidate at Nebraska, if not Wisconsin, so either way, he’s about to get paid much more than $16 million.

Leipold doesn’t chase money. He was a 42-year-old offensive coordinator at Wisconsin-White in 2006, making $33,000 a year.

Fast forward 14 years, and Leipold was making over $600,000 a year as the head coach at Buffalo. But he hadn’t been banking a bunch of big paychecks.

When KU came calling, the money was enticing.

But so was the challenge.

“It was the challenge that others didn't think could be done,” Leipold said. Same thing everyone thought of Snyder, who 33 years ago landed at K-State to launch the Manhattan Miracle.

Snyder didn’t come to Manhattan with grand visions. Leipold adopted Snyder’s gameplan.

Get better today than you were yesterday. Control what you can control.

Leipold didn’t dream big. He just went to work. And now he is winning at Kansas. Kansas!

And just in his second season, to boot. The Jayhawks showed some life last season – beat Texas, scared the life out of OU, back when that was a thing – but still finished 2-10. Typical KU record.

But now the Jayhawks are 5-1 as they invade Owen Field against the wounded and crippled Sooners. And Leipold is the runaway leader for national coach of the year.

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He’s winning even speedier than did Snyder, whose first Wildcats team (1989) went 1-10, followed by 5-6, 7-4, 5-6 and by 1993 the ‘Cats were off and running. The greatest college football story ever told.

K-State has a much longer history of football despair than does KU. In a 55-year span, 1936-91, K-State produced four winning seasons.

Kansas’ current 13-year malaise pales by comparison. But those 13 years are the worst by any program in major-conference history.

And 18 months after he was hired, he’s got Sooner Nation legitimately scared of the Jayhawks.

“What can you ask of people?” Leipold said. “Give me your best today. Try to be a little bit better than yesterday. We asked for and demand punctuality. Good life skills. We could stack some things together, and we'll see improvement.”

Leipold got the job in spring 2021, after Les Miles’ sudden firing. Leipold didn’t even have the luxury of a 2021 spring practice.

“You don't see many coaching changes at the time I got the job, and trying to build trust, let alone implement things...” he said.

But a few things broke in Leipold’s favor, primarily the transfer portal, which he has used extensively to rebuild the Jayhawks. Then, name, image and likeness.

“We’ve got other ways to get players now,” Leipold said.

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And now, excitement has returned to Kansas football. Three straight sellouts. ESPN’s College GameDay was in Lawrence last week for the KU-TCU showdown. Kansas has announced a $180 million capital-improvement project for football.

“That announcement is starting to address some of the things we need,” Leipold said. “We’re not going to have all the resources of an OU or a Texas. But we've got to stay up with the institutions that are more peer schools, in resources, staff salaries, staff support.”

Kansas is a basketball school, and everybody knows it. At times, that has been a detriment to football, either because a football coach resents it or the administration caters too much to basketball, or both.

But Leipold embraces coaching at a school where basketball is king.

Basketball coach Bill Self “has said to me, how much he wants and needs a successful football program, atmosphere, all those things. We got a glimpse of that the last few weeks. I’ve never viewed basketball as a competitor. They're not on our schedule.

“My background, I’m a small-college guy, I'm perfectly comfortable and want Bill Self to be the face of the athletic department. It fits me. I don’t want it.”

Leipold is a long way from being big coach on campus. But in this autumn of 2022, waiting for the hardwoods to open for business, Kansas fans have an outlet. A football program that makes them proud.

“I want it to stop being written, ‘Even Kansas,’” Leipold said of KU’s gridiron futility. “We’re going to build this into a respectable football program.”

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National pregame: Josh Heupel puts Tennessee in the spotlight

Tennessee took a 23-7 halftime lead on Louisiana State last week, and LSU coach Brian Kelly was succinct during his ESPN halftime interview.

“We’ve got to coach better,” Kelly said. “We’re getting outcoached.”

Kelly spoke truth, in part because LSU foolishly kept trying to convert difficult fourths. But also in part because Tennessee coach Josh Heupel is on a roll.

Fired as offensive coordinator by OU, his alma mater, almost eight years ago, Heupel resurrected his career and now finds himself on a huge stage.

His sixth-ranked Volunteers are 5-0 and host No. 3 Alabama on Saturday in a Southeastern Conference showdown. This is Tennessee’s highest ranking in 17 years, and Heupel has become a Rocky Top hero.

“We're playing well is what it comes down to, man,” Heupel said. “So it's not about me. It’s we got a full locker room, 125 guys and a great staff. The way that we've continued to grow, the way we continue to compete, strive to get better, that's why we're playing the way that we are.”

Regardless of what happens against Alabama, or even Georgia on November 5, Heupel will be a national coach of the year candidate, though Kansas’ Lance Leipold should be the frontrunner.

Alabama has won 15 straight in the series, and 12 of the verdicts have been by at least 20 points. But in 10 of those games, Bama has been ranked No. 1 or No. 2. In only one of those 10 games have the Vols been ranked in the top 20.

“Obviously, this is why you come to Tennessee and why you want to be in this league,” Heupel said. “We got a big-time matchup this weekend, really excited.”

And Rocky Top is excited about its coach.

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Coach on the hot seat: Mike Norvell

Mike Norvell doesn’t have a great record as the Florida State coach – 12-15 in 2½ seasons, and the Seminoles have yet to make a bowl game under Norvell. He’s 1-5 against top-25 opponents.

Worse yet, his game management is under constant scrutiny. The Seminoles beat Louisiana State 24-23 on Labor Day, but only after blowing a 24-10 lead with five minutes left and needing a blocked extra point to avoid overtime.

Last week, FSU lost to North Carolina State 19-17 when N.C. State’s Devan Boykin intercepted Jordan Travis’ pass with 38 seconds left in the game. Florida State needed only a field goal to win and had a 2^nd-and-8 at the Wolfpack 22-yard line.

The Seminoles had lost to Wake Forest the week before and now are 4-2, with Clemson coming to town.

Norvell took a pay cut in the pandemic year of 2020 to help with Florida State’s budget crisis, but his contract was extended, and the end result is his buyout after this season would be $21.25 million. That’s no way to avert another budget crisis.

But Florida State has fallen far from its glory days of the previous decade – the Seminoles were national champions in 2013 and a year later made the first College Football Playoff. Since then, FSU’s record is 30-35.

Florida State can’t afford to fire Norvell, but patience is in short supply in Tallahassee. A victory over Clemson would settle down a fan base that is growing quite antsy.

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Upset special: Kentucky over Mississippi State

What was shaping up as a special Kentucky season has gone off the rails. The Wildcats lost 22-19 at Ole Miss, when a late touchdown was wiped out by penalty. Then last week, UK played without star quarterback Will Levis and was upset by South Carolina.

Now the Wildcats host 5-1 Mississippi State and are a 3½-point underdog, a spread that is down from 6½ earlier in the week. All signs point to Levis’ return for the Bulldogs.

Kentucky has been too easily dismissed. The Wildcats went toe-to-toe with Mississippi in Oxford, then they withered without their quarterback. Oklahomans know what that looks like.

The wrong team is favored in Lexington. Let’s go with Kentucky over Mississippi State in the upset.

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Ranking the 10 best Saturday games

1. Alabama at Tennessee, 2:30 p.m., CBS: In the 25 years before Nick Saban’s arrival in Tuscaloosa, the Volunteers were 14-10-1 against Bama. I know. Hard to believe.

2. Penn State at Michigan, 11 a.m., Fox: Seventh straight season the Nittany Lions have been ranked in the top 10, but Penn State has finished there only once since 2017.

3. Oklahoma State at Texas Christian, 2:30 p.m., ABC: The first of a rugged four-game stretch for the Cowboys, with all four opponents ranked in the top 20 – Texas, Kansas State and Kansas follow, with only UT in Stillwater.

4. Southern Cal at Utah, 7 p.m., Fox: Win this game, and Lincoln Riley’s team almost surely will be 10-0 when it plays at UCLA on November 19. USC’s next three games are Arizona, California and Colorado, with only the former on the road.

5. Clemson at Florida State, 6:30 p.m., ABC: Clemson has just one road game left after Tallahassee (at Notre Dame). Not that long ago, this was the ACC’s marquee matchup, but not since 2016 have both teams been in the top 25 at the time of their game.

6. North Carolina State at Syracuse, 2:30 p.m., ACC Network: A combined one defeat for these teams, which is surprising. Syracuse being the undefeated side of this matchup is even more surprising.

7. Minnesota at Illinois, 11 a.m., Big Ten Network: Four of the Big Ten West’s seven schools have made the conference championship game. The three that haven’t -- Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue – might be the division’s best teams. The Gopher-Illini winner would become the favorite.

8. Mississippi State at Kentucky, 6:30 p.m., SEC Network: Mike Leach’s Bulldogs are 5-1. Beat the Wildcats, and Mississippi State would set up a big showdown next week at Alabama.

9. Arkansas at Brigham Young, 2:30 p.m., ESPN: The Razorbacks become just the second SEC school to play in Provo, joining Mississippi State (2000, 2016).

10. North Carolina at Duke, 7 p.m., ACC Network: We’ve sort of forgotten about the Tar Heels, but Mack Brown’s team is 5-1, with the only loss to Notre Dame. After the short trip to Durham, UNC has just two road games the rest of the way – Virginia and Wake Forest.

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Thunder defense shines in San Antonio

For a team that didn’t prioritize winning, the Thunder a season ago was quite competitive on one side of the ball.

The defensive side.

In defensive efficiency, OKC was 17^th among the NBA’s 30 teams, and that was after lingering closer to the top 10 for much of the season, before the tanking again took over. Before New Year’s, the Thunder was 13-22. After New Year’s, the Thunder was 11-36.

OKC never displayed a decent offense, but the Thunder’s defensive acumen was solid. And that was without much in the way of defensive standouts, outside of Luguentz Dort.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been a good defender and hopefully will be even better, if and when the games start mattering. Here’s hoping he’s building good habits for that day.

Darius Bazley turned into a decent shot blocker. Aaron Wiggins and Kenrich Williams are wings who seemed to care.

But in general, the Thunder was building a good defensive culture without necessarily standout individual defenders.

“We had a top 10 defense last year for a lot of the season,” Sam Presti said. “Does that mean we'll have a top 10 defense this year? No. We have to go back to zero and learn those lessons, not let other things block in.

“But we're also not playing other teams, either. The other teams are different. The deck gets shuffled every year, including our own.”

One of the bummers of Chet Holmgren’s lost season is the defensive setback. We’ve focused on Holmgren not getting to play with SGA and Josh Giddey, learning the various offensive nuances of each other.

But don’t forget about defense. The 7-foot-1 Holmgren is a potential defensive difference-maker, and playing with a shot-blocking whiz changes everything. That will delay the Thunder’s discovery.

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The Thunder concluded its preseason schedule Thursday night with a 118-112 victory at San Antonio, and defense was prominently on Mark Daigneault’s mind.

Particularly his rookies’ defense.

“I thought we had a hard time getting a grip on the game defensively,” Daigneault said. “In the fourth quarter, we held them to 21 points … we closed really well on both ends, we were organized on offense, and we were tough on defense.”

Even with Holmgren gone, the Thunder still has a big youth movement. OKC played three rookies Thursday night: Jalen (Santa Clara) Williams, Jaylin (Arkansas) Williams and Ousmane Dieng. The Williamses started; each played at least 26 minutes.

Eugene Omoruyi, a two-league player, is a virtual rookie. He and Arkansas Williams drew Daigneault’s eye.

“Omoruyi and Jaylin Williams had a great verticality,” Daigneault said. “The next possession, J Dub (Santa Clara) had unbelievable verticality, his head above the rim. Just big time plays out of those guys. It was encouraging.”

Santa Clara Williams seems like a potential defensive jewel. Big, strong, athletic. I’ve compared him to former OSU player Isaac Likekele; an NBA version of Ice. But Santa Clara might be a bigger Marcus Smart (not to be comparing Santa Clara’s defense to Smart’s).

All of Thunderland is tapdancing between seeking improvement and improving lottery odds. And Presti is no fan of shortcuts in the OKC rebuild.

But the fastest way back to relativity/contention, besides massive talent infusion, is a hard-core defense. Plus, a commitment to defense helps build the kind of culture necessary to go from relative to contention.

Keep an eye on the Thunder defense early in the season, which starts Wednesday night in Minnesota.

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The List: Power Five bowl droughts

Kansas can become bowl eligible with a victory at OU on Saturday. The 5-1 Jayhawks haven’t played in a bowl since the 2008 season. Here are the longest bowl droughts among Power Five Conference teams.

2008: Kansas (beat Minnesota 42-21, Insight Bowl)

2016: Nebraska (lost to Tennessee 38-24, Music City Bowl)

2017: Arizona (lost to Purdue 38-35, Foster Farms Bowl)

2017: UCLA (lost to Kansas State 35-17, Cactus Bowl)

2018: Vanderbilt (lost to Baylor 45-38, Texas Bowl)

2018: Georgia Tech (lost to Minnesota 34-10, Quick Lane Bowl)

2018: Duke (beat Temple 56-27, Independence Bowl)

2018: Syracuse (beat West Virginia 34-18, Camping World Bowl)

2018: TCU (beat California 10-7, Cheez-It Bowl)

2018: Stanford (beat Pittsburgh 14-13, Sun Bowl)

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Mailbag: OSU’s onside kick fair catch

OSU’s Demarco Jones made a huge play last Saturday against Texas Tech, signaling a fair catch on a pooch kick after the Red Raiders’ game-opening touchdown. Tech recovered the ball, and without that signal, the Red Raiders would have retained possession and had much momentum.

Instead, OSU went on to a 41-31 victory. Jones was widely hailed, but at least one reader has seen that play before.

Charles: “There has been so much talked about the fair catch call the OSU player made to prevent the recovery by Texas Tech. It's amazing how so many people did not know this rule and are acting as if it has never been done before. I have to toot my horn, as well as the former head coach of the Muskogee Roughers, because we (produced) this play in the 1986 state championship game with less than a minute left against (Tulsa) Booker T. Washington. They (did) the same style onside kick, kicked it in the air and recovered the fumble with a chance to win the game. However, I called a fair catch and we were awarded the ball and took a knee to end the game and win a championship. I must say, Coach (Ron) Freeman had taught me that earlier in the year on a play against Tulsa Union, and in that moment, I remembered and called fair catch.”

Tramel: Charles is not making it up. Charles Thompson indeed made that potentially game-saving play, with the Muskogee Phoenix game story serving as evidence.

Muskogee had lost to Midwest City 40-36 in a rousing state championship game in 1985 (Mike Gundy directed a wild comeback for the Bombers). The Roughers won the title the next year, and 36 years after that, Gundy’s OSU team benefited from a similar, heads-up play. What a world.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Kansas football coach Lance Leipold performing miracles with Jayhawks