Pete Thamel shares hilarious story about Lance Leipold meeting Paul Pierce

If the name Lance Leipold doesn’t ring any bells, don’t sweat it. Unless you’re an ardent college football fan or fairly in touch with Kansas athletics, you probably haven’t heard his name much. In fact, even if you’re Kansas royalty you might not know him.

Well, at least if you’re Paul Pierce, that is.

On Wednesday, while on a podcast with the ESPN College GameDay crew, ESPN’s Pete Thamel shared a hilarious story about Lance Leipold, the Kansas football coach. Who, if you are one of those avid college football fans, you know at this point is quickly making a name for himself.

“I’ve known Lance Leipold for a bit and it was the Monday night of the (college basketball) national title game,” Thamel told host Rece Davis. “He was with a Kansas contingent that flew down for the weekend. We’d been texting just throughout the Final Four and I was, you know, you get to these games three or four hours early or whatever if you’re a reporter, so I went to go see Lance Leipold in the stands.

“Lance is a son of Wisconsin, modest guy, you know, sort of just a Midwestern (guy), working in Nebraska for 12 years. He’s in with the Kansas VIPs, like you name it, Kansas basketball All-Americans there. So we’re chatting and I won’t say which Kansas legend it was because I don’t want to be mean, but Lance was like, ‘Hey, give me a second Pete, I want to go get a picture with this guy.'”

Continuing his story, Thamel outlined the hilarity that ensued.

“So Lance goes over, shakes his hand and this former Kansas All-American had no idea who he was,” the ESPN analyst said. “I mean none.

“Lance, to his credit, is very deprecating, he gets a picture. He walks back over and says, ‘He had no clue that I was the Kansas football coach.'”

If Lance Leipold continues rebuilding Kansas football he won’t be unknown for long

Davis, hardly able to contain his laughter on the podcast, quickly volunteered that it must have been Paul Pierce.

“It might have been Paul Pierce,” Thamel said, smiling. “It was Paul Pierce. … It was New Orleans, so Paul Pierce might have had some pregame festivities that didn’t involve a museum.”

It’s hardly surprising that someone of Pierce’s stature might not have recognized Leipold. After all, though he’s now in his second year with the program, it’s not like Kansas has really commanded eyeballs on the gridiron. He wasn’t all that well-known prior to his hire, having spent eight years at D-III Wisconsin-Whitewater before spending six seasons as the Buffalo head coach.

Under Lance Leipold’s direction Kansas won just two games last year, then watched as the basketball program went on to win a national title.

Of course, this year Leipold already has Kansas at 2-0 after springing a 55-42 overtime upset on the road at West Virginia last weekend. Before the meat of the conference schedule kicks in there are several tough but winnable games coming up — at Houston, then at home vs. Duke, Iowa State and TCU — that could greatly enhance Leipold’s profile.

Still, it’s hard not to find humor in one of the Kansas basketball greats not recognizing the program’s football coach. Thamel was happy to relay the story, offering a glimpse at the down-to-earth attribute Leipold seems to have.

“I will say this, a few minutes later Danny Manning was there and he popped over to do the same thing, got a picture with Danny Manning and Danny Manning says, ‘Coach, you’re doing a great job,'” Thamel said. “Danny Manning was locked in and knew it, but it was just sort of like that’s a little bit of the portrait of what it’s like to be the Kansas football coach.”