Asmussen | Leipold 'always grateful' for Bielema's helping hand

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The call came in early December 2014.
Lance Leipold had just been named the head football coach at Buffalo and a peer was reaching out.
It was Bret Bielema, then the coach at Arkansas.
“Bret offered for me to come down to Fayetteville, sit down and he’d go through anything I wanted to learn about his schedule, about running an FBS program,” Leipold told me Tuesday. “He called a second time and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to be around if you want to come down.’”
Leipold flew to Fayetteville and spent the day with Bielema.
“I have the utmost respect for Bret,” Leipold said. “I consider him a friend, and I’ll always be grateful for that. He really helped me get my feet on the ground as an FBS coach as far as year-round development.”
Leipold first got to know Bielema when they were both working in Wisconsin. As Bielema led the Badgers from 2006-12, Leipold built a Division III super power at Wisconsin-Whitewater.
During his time at Whitewater, Leipold also met current Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman, then the AD at Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Small world.
Years later, Leipold talked to Illinois about the vacancy the school had after Lovie Smith was fired in 2020.
“We had a conversation,” Leipold said. “But when I heard Bret’s name involved, I knew Bret Bielema would be the right fit for the University of Illinois.”
Coming soonFriends Leipold and Bielema will meet again on Sept. 8 when Bielema and his Illini pay a visit to Leipold and his Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium on the University of Kansas campus. It has been a while since the teams played in Lawrence, Kan. You have to go back to ‘92 ... 1892 that is. In the third year of the Illinois program, Kansas spanked E.K. Hall’s team 26-4 (two safeties?).
Overall, Illinois leads the series 3-2, with the most recent meeting a 47-7 home loss in 1968. No shame there for Illinois. Kansas finished as Big Eight co-champions that season and lost to Penn State 15-14 in the Orange Bowl.
Mirror ImagesLike Illinois, which had its first winning record since 2011, Kansas is coming off a breakout 2022 campaign. In his second year as boss of the Jayhawks, Leipold guided the team to a 5-0 start that made the program the talk of college football.
Kansas cooled off and finished 6-7, dropping seven of its final eight games. Still, the team reached a bowl for the first time since the 2007 season.
“It was so important,” Leipold said. “With belief, with support, with, ‘Hey, this can be done.’ With the fan base.”
Kansas lost 55-53 to Arkansas at the Liberty Bowl in three overtimes. The Jayhawks trailed by 25 in the third quarter before rallying.
“It was another moment of our football’s team growth,” Leipold said. “Our guys battled back and played with that pride that we want them to.”
Historically, Kansas football has struggled. Other than brief runs of success under Glen Mason and Mark Mangino, Kansas has been a Big Eight/Big 12 also-ran since the late 1960s.
“You hear all these people who have had season tickets for 20, 30, 40 years and talking about some of those tough afternoons they’ve had at the stadium,” Leipold said. “Yet, they’ve been loyal.”
Leipold’s first priority upon arrival was to get the players to buy in.
“Holistically, stability was going to be important for them to gain trust,” Leipold said. “Meeting with the players, they wanted more leadership. They wanted more structure. They wanted more discipline. And they wanted to be held accountable. Those are some of the most resonating conversations I had. I think it fit the way we run our program as far as being on time and doing what you’re supposed to do and giving the effort that was expected.”
Remember, Leipold took over later than normal. He wasn’t hired until April 30, 2021, following the departure of Les Miles over issues he had while at LSU.
“August was really our spring football,” Leipold said. “September was really our fall camp. October was the growing pains of September.”
The team won its 2021 opener against FCS school South Dakota, then dropped its next eight games. Six of the losses were by 25 points or more.
Leipold started to see a hint of the potential late in the 2021 season. The Jayhawks beat Texas 57-56 in overtime at Austin.
During the next two games, the program took “even bigger steps” in close losses to TCU and West Virginia.
Kansas football wasn’t a pushover anymore.
“Those last three weeks, trust, confidence and maturity really helped propel us into that next offseason,” Leipold said, “which helped us get off to that good start.”
Next stepBy most measures, the teams hooking up in Lawrence on Sept. 8 underneath the Friday night lights are going in positive directions.
“Last year’s start was a pleasant surprise,” Leipold said. “I don’t know if there was a schedule. I’m probably more like, ‘Hey, are we getting a little bit better today than we were yesterday?’”
Sounds like a line from Bielema.
When current Kansas athletic director Travis Goff interviewed Leipold, he didn’t push a quick fix. He understood the late hire would have a negative impact. The AD was looking for progress, and Leipold delivered.
Leipold, who just turned 59, isn’t going anywhere.
He is not a “job-hopper.”
“We’re trying to build for sustained winning,” he said. “At this stage in my career, this is where we want to be.”
The 2023 Kansas schedule is difficult, with games against Texas, which is likely to be ranked, in addition to Oklahoma and Kansas State.
“Playing Illinois in Game 2 is going to be a big challenge,” Leipold said. “We could be a better football team this year, and if we don’t make sure we take care of some small things, I don’t know if it will show up in the record.”
Kansas averaged 35.6 points per game in 2022, second in the Big 12. It figures to be stellar again with 10 starters returning on offense. None more vital than quarterback Jalon Daniels. He threw for 544 yards and five touchdowns in the Liberty Bowl.
“He’s a difference-maker for us,” Leipold said. “He’s embraced our offense and allowed us to evolved and do different things.
Daniels is just as important off the field.
“He’s got a personality and charisma that’s very contagious,” Leipold said, “but he’s highly competitive.”
Daniels put the team first in 2021, giving up his redshirt to play the final three games.
“You don’t see that today,” Leipold said.
Program builderNobody is expecting the coach to do at Kansas what he accomplished in Division III.
During Leipold’s eight years in charge at Whitewater, the Warhawks won six national titles. His record at the school was a ridiculous 109-6 with five 15-0 seasons. Leipold parlayed those results into success at Buffalo, where he went 37-33 in six seasons and took the Bulls to three bowl games before finding his name in the mix for Power Five jobs.
Leipold hasn’t changed the way he coaches.
In fact, his defensive coordinator with the Warhawks, Brian Borland, is in the same job at Kansas. Current Jayhawks offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki was with Leipold at Whitewater.
“We’ve had to evolve to FBS football, to Power Five football,” Leipold said. “We’re still trying to do a lot of the same things we did there.”