Lance Leipold was prepared for change at offensive coordinator

When Andy Kotelnicki took the offensive coordinator job at Penn State, Lance Leipold had a smooth transition with the offense play-calling for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.

Leipold was prepared for the situation and quickly named Jim Zebrowski the offensive coordinator for the bowl game. Leipold said on Sports Radio 810 he had several coaches get play-calling experience in practice before Kotelnicki’s departure.

“We had a good feeling that Andy was going to get to have opportunities,” Leipold said. “So, last spring I had Andy give the other assistants, Jim Zebrowski, Terry Samuel, Jonathan Wallace, opportunities to call plays during certain scrimmages and part of that was so that they would have opportunities if this day ever came. Especially in a short turnaround before a bowl game.”

When that time did come Leipold was already two steps ahead. Within minutes of the change at offensive coordinator Leipold elevated Zebrowski to the full-time co-offensive coordinator and put him in charge of calling the plays for the bowl game.

“Jim was the most experienced,” Leipold said. “And again, my first three years at head coach, Jim was the play caller. And I think the other thing he added to us is Jim is a highly upbeat, positive guy and to make the most of a situation of change and turnover, he handled it extremely well.”

Since Zebrowski arrived at Kansas he has done a good job developing the players in the quarterback room. He maneuvered through quarterbacks and injuries his first three seasons to help the players succeed.

“If you watch the job he's done with our quarterbacks, whether it be Jalon or Jason or how he had Cole Ballard ready to play and all those things is a tribute to him.” Leipold said. “And I think that played and showed itself in that bowl game.”

Leipold is in Florida with his family and has a copy of the bowl game. Usually by now he has reviewed the game film, but not this time. He is still frustrated with the number of penalties called in the game.

The Jayhawks were flagged for 18 penalties and 216 yards.

Kansas entered the game one of the least penalized teams in the country.

“Well, honestly, I haven't watched a game yet because I don't want to at this time because I'm still frustrated over that because that was unwatchable from many standpoints,” he said. “In today's world officiating and game flow and everything we worked at; I don't know what's there. But, for a team that had five penalties on average per game, to have 18 in a game, it's unacceptable as me as the head coach, so I've got to figure that out.”

Leipold said one official told him a penalty could be called on every play. He said it made him appreciate the Big 12 crews that work their conference games.

“It was disappointing in many different ways and that's about the best I can leave it,” he said. “One official said we can call holding every play. Well, yeah, that's been said for many years. So, what made us decide which ones we decided to call in which fashion. But it's a bowl game, it's not our conference officials.

He continued: “It made me appreciate our conference officiating more and I'm never happy during the game officiating. That's just the way I am. I'm trying to fight for our team. But yeah, it was a frustrating moment that I think took away from the game quite a bit.”