For the second straight year the Jayhawks took Kansas State to the final possession only to come up short. Under Lance Leipold, Kansas has turned the Sunflower Showdown into a competitive game, but he said several times he is not looking for moral victories.
In the Jayhawks six losses, five of them came down to the last minute where they had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead at the end of the game. Those five losses averaged under four points.
The road does not ease up with three of the final four games coming against teams who are in the Big 12 title hunt in Iowa State, BYU, and Colorado. BYU and Colorado have not lost, and Colorado only has one in conference play.
Leipold, said on Sports Radio 810, he used a post-game conversation he had with the Kansas State coaching staff to motivate his team.
“I have a lot of respect for Chris Klieman and his staff and what he's done in his time there and taking over for Bill Snyder,” Leipold said. “One of the reasons is we know a lot of guys on their staff. A lot of their guys came up through college football many of the ways like many of us have on our staff. And we've known each other for a long time. And there's a lot of things that go about that is very respectful.
He continued: “In post-game conversations with some of them, those type of compliments have come out. One of their coaches thought that we were the best team that they had played this year. And that's something I shared with our team because we have some big challenges coming down the road.”
So many close losses can add up and it could become a challenge getting a team ready to play each game as the season progresses. Leipold said his team has not shown any signs of that and continues to play hard and with effort.
“I still say that if we can play the way we did Saturday and the week before that, we're going to have a chance to win a lot of football games yet down the stretch,” he said.
Going into the Kansas State game Leipold said he put an emphasis on the rivalry. But he also wanted to make sure his team realized there is still more football after the KSU game whether they win or lose.
He was asked if it is difficult to bounce back after a game like Kansas State.
“Well, I think that's probably a to be determined question to be honest, to see what the results are,” he said. “And that's about as honest as I can be right now with it. We talked about it last week also about not putting all your eggs in one basket about one game in a rivalry game because I think I said win or lose, you've got to line up and play again in the upcoming week.”
They are getting a rare bye week again after having one earlier in the month.
“That's one of the odd ones is the way the schedule laid out this year,” he said. “When we got the schedule they said it's just that's what you get this year obviously is two within a three week period or four week period is not really what if you have two open weeks and you play 12 games, you'd like them every four weeks would make a lot of sense to me.”
He said they will have meetings with the team early this morning and will practice today.
“We'll evaluate what we'll do for tomorrow,” Leipold said. “We'll practice again on Thursday, have a weight training session on Friday. They're off on Saturday. We will be back on the field Sunday night, getting in preparation for the Iowa State game.”
