Kansas Jayhawks’ Lance Leipold on contract extension: ‘Very humbling and appreciated’

Second-year Kansas football Lance Leipold gladly accepted the offer of an additional year on his contract in a deal announced Thursday, the day before the Jayhawks’ 2022 football opener against Tennessee Tech.

“It is very humbling and appreciated,” Leipold said Tuesday in making his first public comments regarding KU athletic director Travis Goff adding an extra year to Leipold’s original six-year deal signed in April 2021.

“Travis Goff and Chancellor (Douglas) Girod, they’ve seen some of the progress we have made in the program as a staff. This is … again we continue to work toward stability and building this program the right way,” Leipold added.

Leipold reportedly will make $3.5 million in the final year of his deal in 2027. Terms of his original deal had Leipold receiving $2.2 million in 2021, $2.4 million in 2022, $2.6 million in 2023, $2.9 million in 2024, $3.1 million in 2025 and $3.3 million in 2026.

“Where that (extension) came (from), those were discussions, sometimes just in the holistic view that took place a little bit during the interview process, but more a couple casual conversations,” Leipold said.

“I don’t even remember what day it was that Travis was in my office. It might have been Saturday or Sunday (prior to game week). I was headed to a staff meeting. He said, ‘Well, just hold on a minute.’ We talked about a couple things and he said, ‘We are going to add a year to your contract.’ That’s about how it went,” Leipold said, laughing. “I went to the staff meeting, thanked him, then (there was) communication with people who handle that.”

Leipold was pleased Goff make the extension public when he did.

“To announce it before we kicked off is good,” Leipold said, “because it adds a little bit of speculation that some of you (media) all may have and things like that. We get to go back and do what we need to do,” he said of preparing for games.

Leipold, 58, who was head coach at Buffalo six seasons and eight at Wisconsin-Whitewater before taking over at KU before the 2021 season was asked if the announcement could help recruiting.

“We talk about our stability through the years. We’ve talked about that since we arrived with our staff and people that have worked together. That continuity and stability (in staff) is something we’ve talked about,” Leipold said. Five of his assistants at Buffalo joined him at KU including offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and defensive coordinator Brian Borland.

“This extension will give us something to add to that. When you are looking at what this program has gone through, those are good signs to the locker room, recruiting, fan base, anyone who is affiliated with this or could be at some time in their life I think this is all good.

“The majority of us I think in our group … I don’t think we have a lot of job hoppers on our staff. It’s not how I’ve gone bout my thoughts in hiring most of the time. Sometimes you end up in situations you know a guy will be with you a year or two. You look at my career, we’ve been able to matriculate recruiting classes through. You don’t see that very much any more. It’s not 10 jobs in 14 years or something like that,” Leipold added.

Leipold’s Jayhawks, 1-0 after Friday’s 56-10 win over Tennessee Tech at Booth Memorial Stadium, will next meet West Virginia at 5 p.m. Central time Saturday in Morgantown, West Virginia. The Mountaineers are 0-1 after losing Thursday at Pitt, 38-31.

Leipold was pleased after looking at game films of his squad’s 46-point win.

“There were things we were hoping to see. We have good depth between guys who went out there first and guys who went out there second,” Leipold said of his two-deep depth chart. “We handled our business in a game in which all due respect, Tennessee Tech is in a building process themselves. That was a game we probably should have handled and didn’t let get away from us. We played the way we needed to. I appreciate that approach. We generated bigger plays. You saw what Lonnie (Phelps Jr.) can do. We saw a lot of things that can play off each other. In true coach fashion, we saw plenty of things we have to improve on.:”

Redshirt junior defensive end Phelps was named the Big 12 defensive player of the week on Monday. Phelps, a native of Cincinnati, who played at Miami (Ohio) last year, had seven tackles, including three sacks in the opener.

Leipold said receiver Tanaka Scott, who was suspended for the opener, is available. The Jayhawks did not have any injuries to report vs. Tennessee Tech.