Lance Leipold talks about the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, UNLV
Lance Leipold talked about the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, playing in an area they recruit, facing UNLV and how they are recruiting during bowl preparation.
See some of what Leipold had to say in his first press conference since the Guaranteed Rate Bowl announcement.
Opening comment....
On behalf of the Kansas Jayhawks and University of Kansas, I can't tell you how excited we are to be selected to play in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, have an opportunity to spend Christmas in beautiful Arizona. Our players have worked extremely hard over the last three years and have the opportunity to be bowl eligible two consecutive years and have a chance to play in a bowl game such as this is extremely exciting times for our program.
As we know, we got an outstanding opponent. In fact, I've had great respect for Coach Barry Odom and what he's done in his career, the job that he has done in his first year there has just been amazing. And how he's turned that program around so quickly.
Had a chance to exchange a couple of texts with coach here about a half hour ago. I said I thought we slipped him last year when he was a defensive coordinator at Arkansas and he took the job out there before. We played Arkansas in the bowl game last year. But again, we know we're going to have a great opponent, someone that's excited to get their 10th win and a lot of things there.
And it should be an exciting game on the 26th. And I think both fan bases will represent, well, a great, exciting time. And I know there's a lot of things in college football today that puts itself onto the playoffs, and rightfully so. But we are excited. I've always been one that loves the bowl experiences. I think it's important for student athletes today. I want to be important.
And we know that there's so many people in these communities that are volunteers for these bowls. But what it means to them and to me, it's a staple of college football. And to watch how many people give up their time, it's special and we will not take that lightly as we make our way down to Phoenix.
Lance, you mentioned after Cincinnati that you had plans for a handful of different bowl. Just was this one of them and what was your reaction?
Absolutely this was at the top of the list. We're right there, as I said a little earlier, about student athlete experience sometimes destination of where you have players from and if that's not one A, one B is also places where young men have maybe never been or may never get back to maybe in the right. And I think this is one of those places.
If you've never been to the Valley there it's a beautiful area. I think it has a lot of things for it that young men that maybe never have been there. Like I said, and I know we have a lot of meetings out there in the spring, and every time I come back about what a beautiful place it is and what a bowl experience it could be way back.
When my wife and I first got married and it was the Copper Bowl. My wife and I went to that down in Tucson and then, like, three days later went to the Fiesta Bowl as well. We spent two bowl games down Arizona. It's a great time. It's great weather that time of the year, a lot of great things and it definitely was at the top of the list.
Who will call plays and the latest on the offensive coordinator….
I don't mind answering some of that, but I think for the respect of the bowl game, I think we can get that out another one when we get back together. We're moving forward on that. But to give due respect for everybody on here, I'd like to keep the questions centered around really where we're moving forward on the bowl.
On playing back to back bowls and getting extra practice time
It was a huge difference. You could see it right away in the spring as you go the retention level, especially your younger players. Now in our three short seasons here, two and a half years, whatever it's been, we have to be smarter because now we've become a little bit more of a veteran team with our starters and some of the guys that have played.
So, we’ve got to make sure we're watching player load and things like that. But for our younger players, we know it's a long season and go things, but again, as you reformat some of your practices, that extra time of development and now that the rules give you the opportunity to play some of these guys without it counting, it's awesome, and I'm sure it's going to pay off for us.
What does the next couple weeks of recruiting look like…
I'm on a plane in about 25 minutes to a half an hour hopefully. So, I'll try to shorten my answers. But, yeah, we're out yesterday, the guys were out Friday. We're going to try to get to as many as we can. We feel good about the committed guys and then we got to get back and start prepping for the Rebels. So we got a lot of things going, but good things are happening in your program when you're staying this type of busy.
Do you expect the players who played a lot to play in the bowl game…
Yes, absolutely. We have not had any discussions there differently. We gave them some downtime. I know that's important for everyone. I think our team, our leaders care for one another. They care about this team. They know what this does for our program moving forward, what a 9th win would do for Kansas football. There's a lot of things, and though each and every player has to make decisions for their best interests and their futures, I sure hope and expect everyone to be available, that is. Thank you, Coach. Yep.
You are recruiting Arizona how does playing a bowl game there help…
Well, again, brand wise, our football brand has continued to grow here in the last two years. Respect is for those that are following college football to see a change in what's happening here in Lawrence. I think the realignment and the additions to the Arizona schools, to the Big 12 Conference will also help.
So there's a lot of positives that you can have, and I would assume that Coach Odom would feel the same way. When you start playing in games like this and there's not as many games on it in time slots, you have a chance for a lot more eyeballs on you and it does wonders for your program and gives chance for you to talk about your program a little bit in different ways.
And young men get a chance to see if they fit and again, then spending a few days and have a chance to be around the local community and they kind of see what we're about. High school coaches get a chance, come watch games, things like that. We hope it's positive for both programs, but of course we wanted to pay dividends for the Jayhawks as much as possible.
UNLV is going to a bowl for the first time in 10 years. How challenging was it for you and thoughts on UNLV…
It's kind of one of those from afar that you kind of read and get glimpses because it's not crossover games, but you're kind of hearing about how things are turning there. I have our communication staff give me we kind of check some of your articles and things that are happening because they are on the schedule for next season. So, I started getting some there. We haven't seen film, but exciting offensive schemes on both sides of the ball that are using a lot of weapons in different ways. But to see how quickly that has turned. It's not surprising knowing coach’s (Odom) background, but it really says about him and his staff to make it happen that quickly.
We did play out at Reno in a non-conference game early this year, so a little bit there. But to see that and then I know he'll build something of consistency there that we're trying to do here and watching the realignment angles and where things were going. I know UNLV was always one kind of mentioned as one that continues to grow. I've heard great things about what they're doing facility wise. Obviously one of the best stadiums in the country, so they’ve got a lot to build on. And it's something that we have to make sure as a program that here in the next three weeks that we put our full efforts in preparation and focus on making sure we're at our best for that game.