After the 2021 season ended, Lance Leipold set off on the recruiting trail to put together a decent list of commitments ahead of National Signing Day. View the full list here.
Since arriving in May, the college football recruiting landscape has changed Leipold's staff’s thought process and has presented a new set of obstacles for the program to approach.
“We’re evaluating everything that can come across,” Leipold said. “We knew the 2022 class would be slow-going to the start because of our late arrival. As it kind of continued to go, then we saw opportunities after evaluating some of our games, experience, and things like that.”
Of the recruits (6 scholarships, 8 total), Leipold spoke on just a select few and where he sees their contributions heading with the program.
Adding to the QB room
Firstly, he touched on the signing of Ethan Vasko, a Rivals.com 2-star recruit who led Oscar Smith High School (VA) to three-straight state championship appearances.
“We evaluated him while we were at Buffalo,” Leipold said. “Coach Zebrowski always liked him, stayed in contact with him. Tall-range, he can run the ball as well, but he’s got a strong arm, very mature man. Just the whole package that we thought was going to fit into our system.”
Kansas recently lost two quarterbacks, senior Miles Kendrick, and redshirt freshman Conrad Hawley to the transfer portal. Leipold said he’s comfortable with the state of the position group and will be keeping his eye out.
“We have these talks all the time,” Leipold said. “The importance of the position and today’s atmosphere of a climate of college football and what happens, you know the depth that you need. You saw what happened to us in the Kansas State game.”
“We’re pleased with our quarterbacks” he added. “The play of Jalon Daniels late in the season, very inspiring. But we saw flashes of what Jason Bean can do as well. Right now at this point, that’s (where) we want to go.”
Joey Baker comes from a football background
The offensive line made considerable progress in 2021, even if it wasn’t showing up on the scoreboard. But the additions of Mike Novitsky and Bryce Cabeldue helped push things up front in a more positive direction.
Leipold scored another offensive line contributor in Joey Baker, a Rivals.com 3-star recruit from Southlake Caroll High School (TX). The First-team all-district 4-6A member joins the KU program carrying a rich family history in the game.
“He comes from an excellent football program,” Leipold said. “He was here during the summer on an official visit, committed during that time, came back again. Comes from an athletic and a football family, which I think is going to be very important. His father (Joe Baker) coached many years in college football, but also coached in the NFL (Dallas Cowboys 2012-2017).
“Great family,” he added. “(I'm) really excited about him and his maturity because I know he’s been around the game the way he has. From his high school program, the grind and the length of a college season, and all those things. I think when you put in some of those intangibles, I know he’s going to be a great addition.”
No projection on final numbers, considers summer additions part of 2022 class
Leipold doesn’t have any concrete expectations on how many commitments he’ll be able to bring into the program before next season. But the head coach took an opportunity to recognize the talent he was able to move over from Buffalo.
“I think part of this class is some guys you saw this fall,” Leipold said. “I think Mike Novitsky is a pretty good member of this class. I think Rich Miller is a big addition to this class. Trevor Wilson, Michael Ford, I think this recruiting class already has paid some dividends for this program.”
Settling into his first true offseason at Kansas, Leipold has his priorities in front of him before he places another roster on the field.
“Our main focus has to be that we make our football team better,” he said. “Better for the short-term and better for the long-term. We have to create more situations of internal competition each and every day to get everybody to their highest potential.”
“We’re looking at where we’re unbalanced,” he added. “We inherited a situation where we’re highly unbalanced in offensive and defensive scholarships. We have some positions that are highly over (on scholarships). Based on a breakdown, not of people's abilities, it’s just where you want them at and that causes depth problems at times.”
The final three games on the 2021 schedule boosted recruiting/portal hopes
Kansas’ final three-game run against Texas, TCU, and West Virginia showed some promise from the program, as the Jayhawks finished the year 1-3 picking up a Big 12 win against the Longhorns in Week 10.
The late stretch of competitive matchups helped market the program in a more positive light, according to Leipold.
“I think it definitely helped,” Leipold said. “I think the maturity depending on how long they’ve been in college is definitely different. I think it’s definitely different also (in) their set of criteria of what they’re looking for. It’s not always the biggest stadium and the most uniform combinations and what photoshoot they get. It’s more about, I use the word substance, ‘Where do I fit in?’ Who am I fitting in with?’ What’s it more about?’ and “Is it going to help me get to my next goal?’”
Leipold believes the clean-cut, personal approach is going to be a winning formula on the Kansas recruiting trail.
"The substance and genuineness and thoroughness and the integrity part, I think that we'll be able to hold up just well with that," Leipold said. "And I'm excited about the last three games of the year.
He continued: "Not just (in the transfer portal), it was high schools as well moving forward. I was in Dallas right away, the first day out. The thing I was so highly impressed with its the number of high school coaches that talked about those games late in the season, (they) had watched the games. I really want to credit our players and assistant coaches because (the high school coaches) talked about how hard our players were playing."
The Jayhawks entered Week 10 against Texas sitting at 1-7 (0-7 Big 12) and were slated against a Longhorns program looking to grab its first conference win since September.
"When you're 1-7, there's a lot of ways for a lot of people not to show and not play as hard, and be on their own agenda," Leipold said. "For us to get a win in Austin and then to keep playing this hard is definitely things that not only internally are going to help us, but it's going to help us recruiting this year and down the road, and that's exciting."
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