Kansas Jayhawks Season Recap: What Happens Now?

However, things were not as they seemed. Kansas had the talent to play good football, but you could see cracks as early as the Fresno State game. The Missouri game showed that the Jayhawks had trouble playing with a lead and, should they fall behind, making a comeback and keeping composure. This trouble with game management would all come to a head with the week 4 game against the Cincinnati Bearcats (7-5, 5-4). The Jayhawks and Bearcats kept it close all the way through. The Jayhawks took the lead late in the fourth quarter, but left far too much time on the clock and allowed the Cincinnati offense to carve up a Jayhawks defense that refused to adjust its soft coverage.

The Jayhawks fell to 3-2, and while they still had a winning record, the Jayhawk faithful were already getting a sick feeling in their stomach. That feeling ended up being justified, as while Kansas won against the UCF Knights (5-7, 2-7) 27-20, this was a game that Kansas should have handled easily. They allowed the Knights to take an early lead, and while the Jayhawks came back and won, it was more of the Knights failing to execute than it was the Jayhawks succeeding.

No more evident was this than in their next two games. Kansas fell behind early to both the No. 5 Texas Tech Red Raiders (11-1, 8-1) and the Kansas State Wildcats (6-6, 5-4). Rather than show fight and poise, the Jayhawks laid down and died, giving up 42 points to both the Red Raiders and Wildcats. The Jayhawks mustered up just 34 points and 566 total yards in the two games.

These two games were the backbreaker of the season for Kansas. They won just one more game against a pitiful Oklahoma State Cowboys (1-11, 0-9) team. While they showed fight against the No. 25 Arizona Wildcats (9-3, 6-3) and No. 13 Utah Utes (10-2, 7-2), the game management woes persisted and the Jayhawks couldn’t hold late fourth quarter leads against either team. It was like the team was destined for fourth-quarter collapses any time they had a sniff at victory.

Nonetheless, the Jayhawks finished the 2025 season 5-7, just as they had finished the year before. Now, the Jayhawks look for answers and Lance Leipold’s staff faces judgment.

What Happens Now?

The good thing for the Jayhawks is that this nightmare season is over. Another good thing is that the Jayhawks have certainly had it worse, being at the bottom of the college football barrel for well over a decade. Five wins would have been considered a success not even five years ago.

However, times have changed. Leipold has brought this program back to relevance, but is that his ceiling as a head coach? That is the question currently perplexing the Jayhawk football program. The Jayhawks recently gave Leipold a contract extension that makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in the Big 12, earning around $6 million a year with a $500,000 retention bonus. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to say that the game management issues the Jayhawks have faced over the past two seasons have fallen squarely on Leipold’s shoulders. Leipold himself has admitted he must do better.

“Again, those will be things we continue to look at. I would say I have to do a better job as a head coach. I think we have to be better at closing out football games.” Leipold stated after the Jayhawks’ week 14 loss against Utah.

If the Jayhawks closed out the games they had fourth-quarter leads in this season, they would be at least 8-4, perhaps even 9-3 if they managed to close out the Missouri game. Part of that falls upon the failures of the coordinators Jim Zebrowski, Matt Lubick and DK McDonald, but overall, those failures fall upon Leipold and critical mismanagement errors that snowball onto both players and staff.

Simply put, it has not been good enough with the talent the Jayhawks have on their roster. They’re paying for it in games, in the locker room and on the recruiting trail. Kansas has lost multiple highly-regarded recruits due to these struggles and are expected to lose more. The question at hand isn’t just if this is Leipold’s ceiling, it’s also what needs to be done to improve and keep up with the Joneses of college football so that the program doesn’t fall back into complacency and chronic mediocrity.

As Good as it Gets?

The Jayhawks face a come-to-Jesus moment this offseason. Leipold has done fantastic things for the Kansas football program, most notably bringing them back into the fold of FBS competitiveness. Given the age of the football arms race, however, Kansas also needs to consider their options.

Leipold’s buyout as of the start of the 2025 season is $27.8 million. This ranks as the No. 24 most expensive buyout in college football. Kansas doesn’t have that kind of money, at least not the kind that they are willing to part ways with along with Leipold. They have unfinished stadium renovations, an NIL war chest that they should do their best to maintain and many more items that could be put in immediate jeopardy should they choose the buyout route.

However, the question of Leipold’s ceiling is still one that needs to be answered. His contract is not up until 2029, and if Kansas wants to keep up in the football arms race, it needs to strive to get better on a quicker-than-yearly basis. A potential solution is to replace assistant coaches and get a fresh start that way. That is what happened last year, though, and it failed, so what now? Do they go through the same old song and dance, which also costs the program money? Do they give this staff another chance to make right?

A potential solution could be that Kansas goes “weakest link” mode and chooses the staff that has underperformed the most to trim out. To many, this would be defensive coordinator McDonald. It’s already being expected that defensive staff changes are coming and that it’s a matter of when and not if. Could McDonald be the first to go when the dominoes fall and will he be the only one to fall? That decision lies with the athletic director.

For now, the Jayhawks have much to think about. Changes might wait until after the December signing period, but the process needs to begin now before the transfer portal picks up. If this is as good as it gets for Leipold, when do they foot the bill for his buyout? What changes need to occur with the support staff before thinking about changing guard at the head? These questions and more need to be answered by the Kansas administration, should they want to continue in the football arms race. If they don’t, there’s always basketball season.