Kansas fell 35-24 to K-State on Saturday despite multiple efforts to pull away throughout the contest. Special teams gaffes and a costly red-zone interception ultimately sealed KU’s fate, extending its losing streak in the Sunflower Showdown to 18 consecutive games.
The defeat dropped head coach Lance Leipold to 0-8 in rivalry matchups during his six-year tenure at the university. He’s responsible for one-third of the program’s losses to its in-state rival dating back to 2009 and was also unable to take down Missouri in either rendition of the renewed Border War.
While the Jayhawks have been trending downward ever since their outlier 9-4 season in 2023, it’s easy to forget how Kansas teams fared across the 2010s. Leipold leveraged that history to urge fans not to give up hope in the program during his postgame press conference yesterday afternoon.
“I can understand people [losing faith]. I ask that our fanbase keeps looking at this team competing and where we’ve been,” Leipold stated. “I still believe we can win every game on our schedule. Now, as I told our team, with a margin of error, every game is winnable. I think our guys have played and responded back to these situations, and it’s a challenge.”
There’s two sides to this conversation. Although Leipold is correct in saying that things can and have been much worse in the past, that doesn’t necessarily excuse him and his coaching staff for their shortcomings in recent years.
Nonetheless, Leipold acknowledged his extreme frustration over the ongoing losing skid. He noted how badly he wanted to secure a win for the fans, knowing how much the tradition and bragging rights mean to them.
“All losses sting, this one stings a lot,” Leipold said. “There’s a lot of people that count on us in games like this and a lot of people want this streak snapped… I’m frustrated that we haven’t won this game since we’ve been here. Frustration slash disappointment. Those kind of go hand in hand in this one. Some years, and I put this one in that category, some of the ones that I think that opportunity was there.”
No matter how much Leipold begs the fanbase to forgive his mistakes, there doesn’t appear to be much promise for this Jayhawk squad in 2026. They currently sit at 2-4 with a winless record in conference play and their only victories coming over Long Island and Middle Tennessee State.
Barring an end-of-season resurgence, the Jayhawks are on pace to miss postseason play for the third consecutive year. Leipold may have confidence in the program, but it’s safe to say that most fans aren’t too optimistic about its outlook right now.
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