Lance Leipold reviews Kansas’ defense ahead of matchup with UCF

Kansas’ defense gave up over 600 yards of total offense in its 37-34 loss to Cincinnati last week. Lance Leipold met with the media on Monday, discussing what he saw from the defense ahead of a matchup with another high-powered offense in UCF. He also talked about the process of learning about Scott Frost’s offense.

Defensive issues were multifaceted, responded well in practice on Monday

The Jayhawks’ defense especially got gashed through the air, allowing 388 passing yards. After looking back at the film, Leipold said the issues occurred in different areas.

“Some misalignments, missed assignments really from the outset. We need to be better. We addressed that today,” Leipold said. “Again, we’re on the higher end of missed tackles. Like I say, misalignment. And I think, as I said after the game, I think we got tentative and played soft in some areas. I think our effort level, our strain and pursuit levels, have been better, and it has to be better moving forward. All those things kind of led to a tough day on that side.”

Leipold said that everyone has to own the struggles defensively, starting with himself. He said there were some positives to draw on, such as the effort in the second half against Cincinnati and the response in practice on Monday.

“I think today, going out there, our guys responded,” Leipold said. “Again, individually, I think we had some really good efforts from some guys, and I thought especially the second half, even though we didn’t get stops, I think as a whole we played better as a football team and responded.”

Instilling confidence in the secondary starts in practice

Lance Leipold mentioned multiple times that he thought the secondary didn’t play with confidence in coverage. It allowed Cincinnati to have a lot of success in its passing game, with receivers often being left wide open. Leipold said better attention to detail, starting in practice, can help the Jayhawks play more confidently.

“We have to have better practice habits this week,” Leipold said. “We’ve got to make sure that [we have] attention to detail and urgency about that, kinda helps those things and lets guys play a little more confidently.”

There were correctable things Leipold saw on film that could’ve been corrected with better detail. He said you have to have proper technique and be able to execute athletically.

“A lot of it has to do with trusting technique and assignment responsibilities, having your eyes where they need to be,” Leipold said. “And of course then athletically, you have to go do it and execute those things. There’s a culmination of a lot of those things that were major breakdowns for us on Saturday.”

Scott Frost leading strong offense at UCF

Kansas’ defense is set for another challenge, taking on a UCF team that is averaging almost 35 points per game this season. The Knights are led by Scott Frost, who was re-hired as UCF’s head coach. Lance Leipold called Frost an excellent offensive mind.

“Scott Frost is an excellent offensive mind. He’s had successful offenses at UCF in the past as well as his coordinator days and as head coach at Nebraska,” Leipold said. “They’re going to play fast. They’ve recruited well, like many people in today’s era of replenishing rosters due to multiple reasons. I think they’re forming that roster the way they want it to be, with excellent team speed at the skill positions.”

This is the second time Kansas will face a coach who has returned to a school they used to coach, with Rich Rodriguez also starting his second stint at West Virginia this season. Leipold said they look at former stops of the coordinators and coaches to help them prepare.

“Within those new staffs, they have new coordinators, whether it be the head coach calling the offense or a coordinator,” Leipold said. “So when they put those people together, we’ve gone back and watched everything. If a coordinator has gone against us at somewhere else, we’ll go back and watch that. We’ll watch as much as we can, obviously their four games so far, we’ve watched those. I don’t know if the guys went all the way back to his UCF days, but we looked back at Nebraska things and similarities and things like that.”