Lance Leipold shoots down interest in Wisconsin job

Kansas is the cinderella story of college football at the moment, starting the season 5-0. ESPN’s College Gameday will be in town for Saturday’s game vs. TCU as the Jayhawks look for another Big 12 win. All of the success is thanks to head coach Lance Leipold, bringing the program out of the cellar.

The only negative, at least from Kansas’ perspective, to all the success has been Leipold’s name being linked with other jobs. Nebraska was one of the first but after Wisconsin fired Paul Chryst, Leipold is thought to be a top candidate.

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On Tuesday, Leipold commented on possibly leaving for Madison, shooting down the idea. He has “no plans on going anywhere” and said it’s all rumors. Based on what Leipold is saying during press conferences, the Kansas head coach will not be leaving.

“We’re happy here,” Leipold said via an ESPN article. “We have no plans on going anywhere. Anything else is rumors. Some of these things are happening while we’re in the film room — I didn’t even know some of the stuff Sunday until later in the evening, when I’m getting all these text messages. I had no idea.”

Leipold began his coaching career in the state of Wisconsin, working with Wisconsin-Whitewater. He eventually became the program’s head coach as well, winning six DIII national championships. The only connection Leipold has with the Badgers comes from working as a graduate assistant for three seasons.

Lance Leipold comments on Wisconsin firing Paul Chryst

After speaking on his potential interest in the Wisconsin job, Leipold commented on Chryst being fired. He was shocked somebody who averaged nine wins a season would be let go but called college football “a changing world.”

“Paul Chryst is a close friend. I’ve known Paul since his late father tried to recruit me to Wisconsin-Platteville. That’s a good family, a good man,” Leipold said. “That’s a guy who averaged nine wins a year and got let go. But you know, that’s a part of what we signed up for these days. It’s a changing world in a lot of different ways and that’s unfortunate.

“And I’m not questioning anyone’s decision because there’s a lot of factors that go into these [firings] that nobody really knows,” Leipold added, “but that’s me speaking as a person and as a fan, not as a coach.”