Notebook: Seniors with extra year, chance to finish strong

Last year the NCAA granted every player an extra year of eligibility. When you look at most rosters in the Big 12 players will have their current year listed and they would get plus one, but that comes with a caveat.

The school and player have to agree the extra year will be added.

There will be cases all over the country with college football programs where seniors move on from their current school. Some will graduate and leave football and others will enter the transfer portal.

The Jayhawks will have several players take part in senior day on Saturday. Kansas head coach Lance Leipold said more decisions could be made in the future.

“Some will go through senior day type activities based on their decision to do so, and then I guess some of them have made some decisions in their personal lives, so to speak, not necessarily football lives,” Leipold said. “Right now, I leave that to them, at this moment.”

There is no argument the Jayhawks have shown improvement under Lance Leipold in his first season. The strides are evident.

All year Leipold has talked about small steps they were making they could see on film. And then came a close game against Oklahoma followed by a win at Texas and a near win at TCU.

The biggest sign is shown by the win column, but there are a lot of other areas that can signal a program is trending in the right direction.

One of the most impressive stats has been the low amount of penalties. Kansas is currently the second least penalized team in the nation by yardage. Over the last three games they are the least penalized team when it comes to penalty yards.

“You want to play the game the right way and not beat yourself and give yourself an opportunity,” Leipold said. “Though we haven't had a lot of wins this season, and we're talking about a fine line of winning and losing, and we've played pretty much penalty-free. And we've seen how close the games have been these last two weeks, so we need to continue to do that. And it gives you a chance to be in football games.”

Leipold knows the small things and details can be a key factor in turning a program around. Now he has proof to show it to the players.

“It gives me something to tell them again, and the progress that we've made, and I'm proud of them,” he said. “I'm proud of our assistant coaches. I guess it goes back to even those practice methods that I think we try to emphasize. Just doing things right, and not develop the habits that carry over into games. And we need to continue to do that.”

The Jayhawks are not going to a bowl, but they have a lot to play for. Their play in several conference games shows the program is making improvement.

If they can beat West Virginia, or continue to play competitive games, it gives them momentum going into the offseason.

“You remember at the beginning of the month, we talked about, hopefully we will be a team that'll be, in a short period of time, playing in December or January,” Leipold said. “And in order to do that, you need to play well in November. We've talked about a chance to end the month 2-2 and a step in the right direction.

He continued: “Though minimal for many, maybe, but a .500 month would be a nice shot in the arm heading into the off season, heading into recruiting, and heading into winter conditioning. All those things will be great. And those are the things we talk about.”