Lance Leipold

Head Coach, University of Kansas Football

Six-time National Champion Lance Leipold is widely regarded as one of the premier program builders in college football. Known for exceptional player development and a disciplined recruiting philosophy, he consistently shapes talent into high-impact performers.

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Bio

As a six-time National Champion, five-time conference coach of the year, two-time MAC Coach of the Year, and the fastest coach in NCAA history to reach 100 career wins, Lance Leipold knows what it takes to build a winning program. Coach Leipold started at Kansas in 2021 after a successful six-year stay at Buffalo, where in his final three years, he posted three straight winning seasons.

Since arriving in Lawrence, Leipold has reshaped the Kansas Jayhawks into true contenders. He guided Kansas to its first national ranking in 675 weeks, it’s first-ever College Football Playoff ranking in 2023, and hosted ESPN’s College Gameday in 2022 and FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff in 2023 for the first time in program history.

Coach Leipold has led the Jayhawks to back-to-back bowl games in 2022 and 2023, a feat that had previously only been done once in school history. He helped Kansas to its first-ever program win in Austin, Texas in his first season, their first-ever win over West Virginia in Morgantown in 2022, followed by a ranked win over #6 Oklahoma in 2023.

In 2024, Leipold led Kansas to its first preseason ranking in both the AP Preseason Poll and USA Today Coach’s Poll since 2008. He led the Jayhawks to three-straight wins over ranked opponents for the first time in program history that season.

Prior to arriving in Lawrence, Coach Leipold, led Buffalo to the most successful three-year run in school history, winning 24 games from 2018 to 2020. Before his time at Buffalo, Coach Leipold served as the head coach at Wisconsin-Whitewater for eight seasons from 2007 to 2014, capturing six NCAA Division III National Championships and tallying an astounding record of 109-6.

After taking over a Buffalo program that went 7-17 in his first two seasons, Coach Leipold put together a record of 30-16 over his final four seasons, including three bowl appearances and two bowl victories. In 2018, Buffalo won 10 games in a season for the first time in program history with the help of the Bulls’ record-breaking offense. Buffalo scored 484 points, 64 touchdowns and totaled 5,803 yards of total offense, establishing new school records in each category. In 2020, Coach Leipold continued showcasing his ability to create a winning team when Buffalo went a perfect 5-0 in the regular season, appeared in the national rankings at No. 24 for the first time in school history, and won the MAC East Division title for the second-straight year.

Coach Leipold is one of the best in the nation in player development and has a keen eye for recruiting. Leipold’s recruiting philosophy is to find under-the-radar prospects and put his time and effort into developing those players. This approach has come with great success for Coach Leipold, as shown by Buffalo’s school-record tying 12 All-MAC selections in 2020, all of whom were recruited by Leipold. Buffalo also had 12 all-conference players in 2019, a season that culminated in the school’s first-ever bowl victory – a 31-9 win in the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl. The 2019 season featured one of the best defenses in school history, ranking seventh nationally in total defense and fourth nationally against the run.

A native of Jefferson, Wisconsin, Leipold began his coaching career at Whitewater in 1987 as a quarterbacks coach before joining the staff at the University of Wisconsin in 1991, where he served as a graduate assistant for three seasons and helped the Badgers win a Big Ten championship.

Next, Leipold served as an assistant coach and later, offensive coordinator at Division II Nebraska-Omaha from 1994-2000, contributing to three conference championships. He then moved on to Nebraska, where he coached four seasons. He returned to Nebraska-Omaha for three years as associate head coach and offensive coordinator in 2004, before moving on to Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2007.

Leipold is a 1987 graduate of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he was a standout quarterback.

Leipold and his wife Kelly, have a daughter, Lindsey, and a son, Landon.

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