2021 season: 2-10, 1-9 in the Big 12 (10th in Big 12)
Head coach: Lance Leipold (2nd season)
If it’s possible for a team’s prospects to appear both promising and bleak at once, this year’s Kansas squad fits the bill. For the first time in a long while, new head coach Lance Leipold gave the Jayhawks faithful something to be excited about in the 2021 season—albeit while going 2-10 overall and earning just one win in Big 12 play.
That one win, though, is reason enough for intrigue heading into the fall season. After more than two months without a win, the Jayhawks put together a miraculous rally on the road, culminating in a gusty, why-not two-point conversion in overtime, to down conference foe Texas in the most dramatic of ways. In a grim season, Kansas gave itself one positive to hold onto before the long offseason.
Sophomore quarterback Jalon Daniels, now entering his junior season, served as the breakout star of the Jayhawks’ victory that night in Austin, Texas, kickstarting an eye-opening three-game run to end the season. The 6-foot, 215-pound Daniels has held that momentum and was named the Jayhawks’ first-night starting quarterback Monday for the first time in his career, supplanting redshirt senior Jason Bean.
But for as much fun as the combination of Leipold’s tenure and Daniels’ prospects makes the future seem in Lawrence, Kan., these Jayhawks still have the present to worry about, and the stark reality is that the 2022 season is unlikely to be much better than the one that preceded it. It took Leipold only a handful of years to transform Buffalo into a fearsome program, but the Big 12 is a tough environment to master: Even with a more experienced team and an improved defensive unit, no conference game is an easy one for this year’s Kansas team.
The good news, though, is that the Jayhawks have continuity throughout the program for the first time since before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That luxury should help Kansas earn a win or two in nonconference play with a pair of manageable home games against Tennessee Tech and Duke, and perhaps it will be enough to help these Jayhawks muster up the magic they put on display late last season to take down a Big 12 opponent or two.
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Jonathan Levitan is a Trinity senior and was previously sports editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.