Weather prevents Kansas from making in-person appearance at Big 12 media days

Jul. 16—ARLINGTON, Texas — Lance Leipold's first Big 12 football media days as Kansas' head football coach never got off the ground — literally.

Inclement weather in the Lawrence area Thursday prevented a departure for the plane scheduled to fly Leipold and his two players to Texas.

"Got some early text messages that we were having difficulty finding a window to take off out of Lawrence here today," Leipold told ESPNU. "Really disappointed for our players, Kwamie Lassiter, Kenny Logan, and of course all of us to have a chance to be with you in person today. But as we know in this game, sometimes you've got to make an audible and you've got to make the best of it."

While Leipold, Lassiter and Logan didn't step foot in AT&T Stadium on Thursday, they still made appearances via video conference.

"I'd just like to take the time to apologize for not having the opportunity to be there in person," Leipold said. "It's unfortunate we could not get clearance to depart Lawrence here this morning."

Thursday's flight mishap was the latest twist in a bizarre, tumultuous offseason for the KU football program, which fired former head coach Les Miles in March following allegations that surfaced regarding inappropriate behavior toward female students when he still was the head coach at LSU. Last week, The Kansas City Star wrote an in-depth piece on former player Caperton Humphrey, who alleged that Miles and former athletics director Jeff Long ignored harassment and other criminal behavior committed by Humphrey's teammates. Humphrey said that KU asked him to sign a non-disparagement agreement in exchange for continuing to pay his tuition after moving back to West Virginia and taking online classes at KU.

None of that troubled Leipold on Thursday, however, as the first-year head coach focused on the positives that he said already have taken place since he took over the program.

"It's been an exciting few months, with a lot to do in a short period of time," he said. "Through that time, getting a chance to know our players, (I have) really come to appreciate their attitude and efforts in accepting this change and their excitement to turn the page and put Kansas football back on the track to be a consistent, winning football program."

While he conceded the timing of his hire April 30 wasn't ideal, Leipold said he's never been someone to turn down a challenge.

"I think for many of us, our past and our path to the Big 12 Conference is one that we've had to work in different situations many times in our careers without spring football, without players around in the summertime," Leipold said. "Many of those things we look back on, and we're going to use those resources to kind of get us to work towards camp."

After missing spring practice with his new squad, Leipold noted that the Jayhawks' preseason camp next month will be critical in establishing not just what he seeks to achieve this season, but beginning to lay down a foundation for the future.

"We know it's going to be critical in the first couple weeks of getting things taught, implemented, executed and creating that culture of competition as we have to have a short period of time to evaluate this roster," he said, "and get us ready for opening week against the University of South Dakota."