Three Things Kansas Coach Lance Leipold Said ahead of the Jayhawks’ Trip to Stillwater

Fresh off a big win against one Kansas school, the Cowboys will look to make it two for two against the Sunflower State this weekend.

Oklahoma State hosts Kansas at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium. Just as OSU coach Mike Gundy met with the media Monday, KU coach Lance Leipold did the same. Here are three things he said that stood out about his team’s upcoming trip to Stillwater.

Leipold Knows a Thing or Two about Three-Way QB Battles

When Leipold took the job at Kansas ahead of the 2021 season, the Jayhawks entered the year with a three-way quarterback battle — the same amount of dance partners Mike Gundy had in his backfield at the start of this season.

KU’s three were Jason Bean, Jalon Daniels and Miles Kendrick. Bean ended up playing the most that year, appearing in 10 of KU’s games, but Daniels played in six games and Kendrick in five.

The triple threat match of Alan Bowman, Garret Rangel and Gunnar Gundy lasted three weeks before the Cowboys’ staff landed on Bowman as the featured guy, but two years removed from his own three-way battle, here is what Leipold had to say of the spot Gundy was in.

“I don’t want to speak for Coach Gundy or any of his people, but to me I kinda look at when we first got here, and you had three quarterbacks or so that are all pretty close and you’re trying to give everybody a chance,” Leipold said. “It’s not easy. You want to be fair. You give everybody an evaluation. Nobody’s really taking the job. I wonder if that’s what happened there. I don’t know, and then all of a sudden maybe something was the tipping point.

“I know what we went through the first year when we had Miles, Jalon and Jason. That was some of the things — they all showed flashes, but nobody really stood out. So you keep going through it, and sometimes it takes a little longer.”

Jalon Daniels Didn’t Practice Monday

It looks as if the Cowboys will get another look at Jason Bean this weekend, with Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year Jason Daniels still battling through an injury.

Leipold said that Daniels did not practice Monday, and ESPN’s Pete Thamel tweeted Tuesday that Daniels is “doubtful” for the Jayhawks’ trip to Stillwater.

Bean has played in all six of KU’s games this season, where he has thrown for 503 yards and four touchdowns while running for another 91 yards. Daniels has played in just three games this season, throwing for 705 yards and five touchdowns while running for 74 yards.

The Cowboys got a good look at Bean last season when he led the Jayhawks to a 37-16 win against OSU in Lawrence. That game saw Bean complete 78% of his passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns while running for another 93 yards and a score.

Cowboys Coming Off ‘Best Game of the Year’

A week ago this game probably looked significantly easier for the Rock Chalk faithful, but all of a sudden, the Jayhawks are tasked with finding a way to win on a field their Sunflower Showdown rivals lost on just eight days before.

Here is what Leipold said generally about OSU:

“They played their best game of the year, I think, Friday night against the defending conference champions,” Leipold said. “They’ve been rotating quarterbacks, I think they’ve settled now. Size and experience up front shows itself again. A lot of career starts, a lot of good, solid football players.

“They haven’t had the start of the season, probably, that they desired, but they get two consecutive home games — that’s a tough place to go play. For us, it’s a game we bus to. There’s some things we talked about today with our team that we’ve gotta make sure we’re in the right mindset and approach it in the right way that we put ourself in position to play our best football.”