Brutal Kansas Football Stat Proves Lance Leipold Can’t Close Out Games

As much good as Lance Leipold has done for the Kansas football program, one glaring weakness continues to haunt the Jayhawks. No matter what transpires up to the fourth quarter, he struggles to pull out wins in close games.

Now in his fifth season at the helm in Lawrence, Leipold is just 9-13 overall in one-score games — and he seems to be regressing in late-game situations.

After KU's devastating loss to Cincinnati in Week 5, Leipold and Co. have now dropped eight of their last nine one-score contests since November 2023. This has become a troubling, repeated scenario that the program cannot seem to shake.

Lance Leipold Continues To Struggle in Close Games

This is a movie Jayhawk fans have seen before. KU took the lead with less than two minutes left on Saturday, only to surrender a 10-play, 75-yard game-winning drive capped by a Cincinnati touchdown with 29 seconds remaining.

It mirrored last year's brutal start when KU dropped three straight one-score games to Illinois, UNLV, and West Virginia, even blowing fourth-quarter leads against Arizona State and Kansas State later in conference play.

Against Missouri earlier this year, Leipold decided to punt late in the fourth quarter on a fourth down, giving the Tigers the ball back instead of trusting his offense to extend the drive. Missouri iced the game with a long touchdown run, and the same conservative approach showed up again against UC.

Leipold has long been criticized for being too passive with his play-calling, opting for field goals on short fourth downs and coaching not to lose rather than coaching to win. That mindset once again left KU vulnerable, giving the Bearcats too much time to score.

At this point, the pattern is too consistent to be called a coincidence. Leipold is the common denominator, regardless of which coordinators he has cycled through.

In 2023, Leipold threw away the Oklahoma State game with poor fourth-down calls. The 2024 team could have won eight or nine games but instead missed a bowl game in what was supposed to be the program's best season since the 2007 team that won the Orange Bowl.

Now at 3-2 with a tough schedule ahead, the same passive style could yet again be a fatal flaw. History suggests that it is not something Leipold is going to fix.

No one can take away what he has done to rebuild the culture of Kansas football, but it's time to start having difficult conversations about his in-game coaching. As long as KU continues to falter in late-game battles, it won't come close to reaching the level of a true Big 12 contender under Leipold's guidance.