Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football HC Lance Leipold Gets Raise + Latest on McCullar's Injury for KU Basketball

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Lance Leipold has a new contract with KU. Kevin McCuller gets an update to his injury. We're going to discuss both on today's edition of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Jayhawks. On today's edition of the show, we're going to be going over KU football, giving Lance Leipold a contract. I guess extension's not the right word, but a re-up, a raise basically.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Latest on Kevin McCullers' injury from Bill Self and why I think the Houston game is the game that I'm targeting, that if he's going to come back, that's going to be kind of the drop dead date, which is closer than you think. And KU women's basketball keeps rolling. You can find locked on Jayhawks anywhere. Your podcast, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:00:58 And thank you for making us your first lesson every day. I'm Derek Johnson. Find me on social media at D Johnson radio. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. New customers join today and you'll get $150 in bonus bets. If your first bet of $5 or more wins, visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started today.

Starting point is 00:01:22 So we're going to start with Lance Leipold, then move to the Kevin McCullers stuff and then KU women's basketball. This was reported earlier today by Pete Thamel of ESPN that Lance Leipold had agreed to a contract extension, and then it was confirmed by KU later who sent out a release. The contract does not actually add any new years. He was already under contract with KU to 2029. So that would give you what six more seasons if you include the upcoming one

Starting point is 00:01:49 in 2024. So it doesn't add any extra deals, but it does give him a raise. He was previously going to be making about 5 million, or I think did make 5 million in 2023. When you factor in some of the bonuses that he added on to, and now he's going to be making around 7 million. I've seen some people say that it could end up being closer to 8 million, but basically that's

Starting point is 00:02:12 seven, seven plus million dollar range. I'd imagine there's going to be plenty more incentives to like, Hey, if you finish ranked, or if you win another bowl game, or if you go to a playoff or win the big 12 and all that stuff, here's an extra $100,000. Here's an extra $250,000 that can certainly add to that a little bit more. But basically, this was Travis Goff being aggressive and trying to make sure your coach is happy. And obviously, he had a lot of interest from other schools this past offseason, as he kind of did the year before, too. You've got to continue to make your guy happy. And that's just kind of how the college football and the coaching world works at this point.

Starting point is 00:02:47 He now is top three in average salary in the Big 12, and I believe top 20 in the country in terms of that average salary now is Leipold. Here's what the KU release had to say from Travis Goff. Today's announcement is an indicator of two absolute truths surrounding Kansas football. Lance Leipold is among the very best coaches and leaders in the country. The University of Kansas continues to be unwavering in its commitment to building a championship caliber football program for the long haul. Since Lance and his staff arrived in Lawrence,

Starting point is 00:03:14 our program has seen exponential growth in every facet, both on and off the field. Winning nine games and earning a bowl trophy is an incredible accomplishment, but we are equally proud of the team for earning the highest grade point average in program history. Every aspect of our program is on an unprecedented positive trajectory, and we're eager to continue this prodigious build with Lance. So a couple things that stick out among the contract stuff,

Starting point is 00:03:36 because this is obviously great news for KU. Anytime that you can try to make yourself feel a little bit more secure in terms of retaining your head coach. That's a positive when it's been as good as it's been here with Lance Leipold over the last couple of years. I do find it very interesting that there's no added contract years. I find that very, very fascinating as maybe a possible breadcrumb. So Lance Leipold is 59 years old. And some guys want to coach till like Bill Belichick was in Pete Carroll early 70s, right? Andy Reid's in his mid 60s and he could keep going strong for a while. Some guys want to retire in their early 60s, right? They don't want this to be everything they do. And I don't know where Lance Leipold lies on that. And also, it's one of those things where like Bill Self is a perfect example.

Starting point is 00:04:31 For a while in Bill Self's career, he was like, I didn't see myself as being somebody who was going to coach in my 60s or 70s or whatever. But now that I'm here, now that I'm 58, 59, whatever years old, that you start to realize, okay, I, you know, and not to a point where it's different than I thought it was going to be. Like, I still feel young at heart. I can still go for a while, right, health permitting and all that stuff. So it is possible the closer you get, the more you kind of push that off and that this could not be the case.

Starting point is 00:05:00 But maybe that is a bit of a breadcrumb from Lance Leipold to say, hey, you know what? I don't want to coach till I'm 70 years old. I don't want to coach till I'm 75. I'm going to do the best I can, try to win a bunch of games, try to win a big 12 championship, all that stuff. And then I'm going to peace out into the sunset with all my money that I'm making. I'm going to live on a beach somewhere, whatever he ends up wanting to do, right? And I do think it's interesting that there weren't any of the extra years tagged on for that specific reason.

Starting point is 00:05:30 Maybe it is a bit of a hint from him to say, yeah, that is kind of my target goal with target destination. I'll coach the next six years. It'll be 65. Then I'll retire. You know, maybe the time you get to 2027 or 2028, it's a different conversation. And he's going, man,

Starting point is 00:05:43 I still feel wrong young and fresh and I'm loving the competitiveness that this is bringing. Sign me up for three more years. Sign me up for four more years. Maybe that happens. I don't know. Maybe there is a bit of a hint in that. Maybe it means nothing. And this was just more about the money than the years.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Anyway, one thing that's not great as part of this, the buyout is only $5 million, which means that if, and that would be this season it would like go down you know year in and year out after that which means that if another school poached Lance Leipold away Kansas would only get five million dollars out of it which in today's day and age in college football is not very much like that's not going to be able to pry you another coach from another school unless it is a lower level so that's not great but if the idea here is Lance Leipold is going to stick around and he's already fended off some of these other schools, whether they offered him and he said no, or whether he just wasn't interested from the get-go or whether it just didn't line up and

Starting point is 00:06:34 now he's going to stick around, whatever it is. If you believe he's going to stay, then this doesn't matter anyway. And if he believes he's going to stay, this doesn't matter anyway. So that is obviously a scary thing to not have to give you that protection. It's almost like a prenup, right? In marriage. Like that's a very controversial thing that some people are like, well, why would I get a prenup? I'm not going to get divorced. Like that's just a bad omen. That's this or that. And then other people are like, well, you know, we're not planning for this bad stuff to happen, but it's good to have the security blanket and said, that's kind of like what this buyout is in that scenario. So maybe it doesn't end up mattering at all for KU. One of the cool parts that was a detail of this contract

Starting point is 00:07:13 is it added $200,000 for every assistant coach and the head strength coach, Matt Gildersleeve. And then it adds a hundred thousand dollars for every off the field staff. So like your analysts that are off the field, you know, still making, I don't know, very like big moves of importance in terms of what's going on behind the scenes that maybe you don't see in terms of game planning or doing some of the things around the program that's so important. So that's cool too. And that's obviously not just important in terms of, I guess, having the ability to fund the rest of the staff because you have to have that too. But in a, I guess, time right now where Kansas has lost a bunch of their assistant coaches this year

Starting point is 00:07:58 than the other years with Jordan Peterson and Andy Kodelnicki and recently with the offensive line coach with Scott Fuchs, which, by the way, I don't even think we've talked about this on the show. KU does have a new offensive line coach with Northern Illinois assistant Daryl Agpulsa. I don't know if that's the way to pronounce it. He was at Northern Illinois. He also coached with Lance Leipold at Buffalo and Wisconsin-Whitewater

Starting point is 00:08:18 before he went to NIU. So it seems like there's trust there. And if Lance Leipold's confident enough to hire you twice, that's probably a good thing. And anyway, in a year where you've lost some assistant coaching staff, it was important to be able to pony up and say, hey, look, we're in the game of wanting to retain you guys and we're going to take care of you if you stick around. And I think that was very important as part of this contract, too. In the same way that his last contract extension, I don't think it's something that you can actually write into the contract, but it was kind of a handshake agreement.

Starting point is 00:08:50 Maybe it was written in the contract. I didn't think it could be. But about like NIL that, you know, you can't specify, hey, we need this much NIL every year, but that there had to be a good faith from KU donors and everything each year in NIL and that there would be enough direction from the athletic department and everything to get enough NIL to make the players happy and content and build a proper roster for

Starting point is 00:09:10 KU. And I do think that's something really cool that Lance Leipold has done that these contract extensions haven't just been about what can you pay me? It's yeah. Okay, great. Pay me more. Cause you know, not that there's going to be a huge difference in his life and Lawrence from $5 million, $7 million, like either way, he's going to be living, you know, at a pretty, pretty good way. Um, but it's more about the respect that comes with it. But when you're getting those other things that help build the program and take care of the people around you, that's, I think what a good boss does. Speaking of good bosses, next up, Travis Goff, he's got to get an extension here soon, right? Uh, he deserves a raise as well for everything that he's done.

Starting point is 00:09:45 So be on the lookout for that. All right, Kevin McCuller is injured. Bill Self talked about it a little bit after the BYU game. And I am circling the Houston game for if he's going to return this year, that would be the one to go to. Let's discuss next on Locked on Jayhawks. We are brought to you by eBay Motors Passion Drive and Patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive.

Starting point is 00:10:10 eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance from superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has got you covered. With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay Guaranteed Fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back. Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash.

Starting point is 00:10:33 With all the parts you need and the prices you want, it's easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit, only available to U.S. customers. Thanks for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. We'll have an episode tomorrow previewing the Kansas-Baylor game happening in Waco, so make sure to subscribe to the show anywhere

Starting point is 00:10:58 you get your podcasts and or on our YouTube page. Thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every episode. Why Kansas needs Kevin McCuller back for the finale, the regular season finale, I should say, against Houston. Let's start with the latest update on Kevin's injury. Bill Self in the post game after the BYU loss reiterated that Kansas is preparing as if Kevin McCuller won't return. Now you can take that a couple of ways. That sounds pretty cryptic to me that I don't know, like just take it for what it's worth that he might not return. Right. Then again, you could easily parse that and say, well, of course they would prepare like that.

Starting point is 00:11:37 Right. Like what good would it do them to be like, yeah, we're, we're just counting on Kevin McCuller to be back if they don't actually know for sure, if it is kind of a 50-50 proposition, right? And so if you don't know for sure, then it behooves you to prepare for the worst case scenario. And in a certain way, you can't just be reliant on in the back of your mind, oh, we're not doing well now, but that's okay. Kevin will be back in a few weeks. No, you have to get it done yourself. It's like if you're working at the office and your boss is out of town for the week and they're overseas in Europe, they don't have phone signal or anything, and something comes up at work, and normally you might ask your boss, hey, what do you want me to do about this?

Starting point is 00:12:16 You don't have that luxury here. You've got to do it yourself. You've got to get it done. And that's kind of where Kansas is at in this regard. So I guess for what it's worth, I do take that as he's not going to be back this season if I was guessing but let's say hypothetically he can't it's not and I hope I'm wrong with that and I have no like inside knowledge so I don't know maybe that's just over reading between the two lips um I think the Houston game is the one I circle where I'm like yeah he, he's got to be back by this game.

Starting point is 00:12:45 And it's not even about beating Houston. That'd be nice if you could beat Houston on the road and get a sweep against them, especially with how the Big 12 season is gone. KU's not going to win the Big 12. And this is very likely if KU goes 2-1 or worse in their final three games, then it'll be the worst conference record that Bill Self has had since his days at Oral Roberts in terms of conference winning percentage. So clearly it has not gone great, but if you get a sweep of Houston, you know, that'd be huge going in the postseason and everything, but it's not even about that. Would be a nice chair on top. Are you really going to have Kevin McCuller come back for a tournament that you could have to play

Starting point is 00:13:24 three games in three days? Or even at this point, it's not that for a tournament that you could have to play three games in three days, or even at this point, it's not that unthinkable that Kansas could have to play four games in four days. And that's if you continue to win out. I guess, theoretically, if you're in the situation where you'd have to play four games in four days, what are the likelihood you're actually going to play all four games? Probably more likely you'd only play two or three. And what I mean by that is the Big 12 tournament with the added teams, the top four seeds get a double buy. The seeds five through ten all get a single buy.

Starting point is 00:13:56 And then you have 11 play 14, 12 play 13 in the opening round, which means if you are seeded five through ten, you get one by, but then you'd be playing on Wednesday and to win the big 12 tournament championship. That would mean Kansas has to play Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Okay. Four games in four days. Right. And right now Kansas is the four seed, or I guess they're the three seats. They have the tiebreaker on Baylor. Both are nine and six, but BYU, TCU, Texas Tech are all eight and seven right behind them. Then you have Oklahoma seven and seven, just one game less played. And so you have, at least at time of recording, they're playing, I think right now while I'm recording this at Iowa

Starting point is 00:14:38 State. Anyway, you have a bunch of teams behind you that if you lose this game to Baylor, all of a sudden you could be in the five seed or the six seed, which means that would happen. So for a guy that could be coming back from injury, are you really going to say, hey, we're going to bring him back before the NCAA tournament for a situation where he could have to play, you know, and you're worried about him getting re-injured.

Starting point is 00:14:59 You're worried about him being sore. You're worried about the recovery time after the game where you could have like three games in three days or four games in four days. That's not a very ideal scenario. And then Bill Self said, quote, if you start playing him after the Big 12 tournament, he wouldn't be worth a crap in the NCAA tournament, end quote. That is a direct quote from Bill Self. That is basically him saying, if you don't get him back by the Big 12 tournament, why would we play him in the NCAA tournament? Now that might be him over-exaggerating a bit. And I do think because of how thin this team is, I don't think it would be to a point where like, let's say hypothetically, Kevin is cleared Tuesday of the NCAA tournament and he hasn't played till then. Do you really

Starting point is 00:15:37 think Bill Self ain't playing Kevin at all? Now, maybe he plays less minutes than normal. Maybe he comes off the bench to reintegrate, but it would be a bit of a different role. I do believe that. And yeah, it would certainly have an impact on maybe the playing time or maybe Kansas would shut it down. I don't know. For what it's worth, anything about Kevin, I think wanting to sit out to preserve NBA future,

Starting point is 00:15:59 I don't think that would be something that you have to worry about here. When you consider Self's comments about him being an extra assistant coach. He made some of those comments earlier this week and that one of the biggest knocks that has been against Kevin for making it to the next level in the NBA is his ability to stay healthy. So clearly him playing games would help deter that. And obviously him being so active in the huddles as basically what Bill Self called an assistant coach means that he's still engaged. So that's not something that would be on on the mind there um but either way this is going to be a absolute tightrope for KU because if you're viewing it from that standpoint

Starting point is 00:16:35 okay um you're basically trying to find the perfect timing of not too soon versus not too late Remy Martin came back from his injury it was the end of February now this game for Kansas at Baylor to find the perfect timing of not too soon versus not too late. Remy Martin came back from his injury. It was the end of February. Now, this game for Kansas at Baylor is March, basically the end of February. It's not that far off. And interestingly enough, Remy Martin's first game back, I believe it was at Baylor, which was funny because I think his first game back, he had the injury and he threw down a 360 dunk or something in warmups.

Starting point is 00:17:04 I remember reading, which that was kind of funny, the optics of that, so to speak. But again, like unless there's a scenario where Kansas would sit Kevin McCuller for maybe the first game of the Big 12 tournament or say, you know what, because we could be playing four games in four days, we'll play in the first game. We'll let him sit the second game. And if we win that game, we'll play in the third game or, you know, whatever it is. But do you really want to be yo-yoing around at that point? Maybe you would say, hey, we're just going to sit him in the first game of the Big 12 tournament. Maybe we'd sit him the first two games and then just know

Starting point is 00:17:36 that either he's not going to play or if we make the semifinals, we'll play him those finals games. That's a risk because what if you lose in the quarterfinals? And then it goes back to bill self's comment about if he didn't play in the big 12 tournament are you really going to play him in the ncaa tournament he's going to be crap so you have all these things kind of going in junction um like what if you had kevin play in that first big 12 tournament game then decided to rest him if you play a second game and then let him play in your third would that be too ridiculous and not help with the idea of getting him back with, I guess,

Starting point is 00:18:09 rust shaken off and into the rotation, right? So when I look at it, the, the most logic salute, logical solution, the most simple solution is just, you need him back by the Houston game because the big 12 tournament does not

Starting point is 00:18:23 pose a good answer for Kevin McCuller to return to the lineup. And if that is the case and Bill Self said that, okay, but we're, we don't want to have him miss the Big 12 tournament and just be back for the NCAA tournament. So you can't come back for the Big 12 tournament alone. You can't go back for the NCAA tournament alone. Houston's your last regular season game. And that's a little bit scary because that's really not that far away. That's next Saturday. That doesn't give Kevin much more time.

Starting point is 00:18:52 And I think Kevin's impact is so clear to me in that this offense has just kind of fallen off since he's not been in the lineup. I mean, you look at Big 12 only games, he's got KU's second best on-off O rating from this season at plus 8.6. He's also got KU's best or one of their best defensive ratings in terms of on-off ratings in Big 12 only games. It's a huge loss to not have him. He's a first team All-American. If that happened to any other team, usually with the Blue Bloods, maybe you'd discuss it a little bit less because you're supposed to have

Starting point is 00:19:27 a bunch of other players ready to go, but that's not the case with this Kansas team. So obviously they need him back, and the Houston game is kind of the one where I'm like, if he's not backed by Houston, I don't know what to expect from there moving forward. All right, let's continue on. KU Women's Basketball got another big win, kept it rolling. We'll discuss it on the other side. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

Starting point is 00:19:48 Get buckets with your first bet on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 if your bet wins. You can bet on all your favorite NBA players and teams, college basketball players and teams, MLB players and teams with futures, with live same-game parlays, quick bets, exclusive props, and more. They have boosts. They have a bunch of ways for you to add to some of your winnings.

Starting point is 00:20:20 Just visit Fanduel.com and shoot your shot. Fanduel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA and the Locked On Podcast Network. Finishing things up, KU Women's Basketball got another victory. They have really gotten things rolling here at the end of the year. This time they defeated UCF. Kind of an ugly game, 65-53, but it goes further in line that when KU has been right, the defense has been right for KU, and that's been the case over this last, I don't know, month of the season for the Jayhawks and when they've been playing better,

Starting point is 00:20:54 and it was Tyana Jackson dominating 29 points, 10 rebounds for Jackson, who's really having a nice finish to this season. You also got 31 combined points from Zakiya Franklin and Samaya Nichols for KU, and you won the game that you're supposed to win. UCF is ranked in like the 80s in the net rankings, so this was not like a big resume boosting win for KU, but it certainly would have been a pretty big resume cracking loss. KU came into this game in the last four in in the ESPN Bracketology. They were first four out, then they beat top 10 K-State over the weekend, moved into the last four in on ESPN. And again, for all we know, the actual committee is different and they have KU better or worse than what the Bracketology is. But this obviously

Starting point is 00:21:37 doesn't, it just kind of sustains your spot, but it doesn't ruin it. And that was the importance of winning this game. Next up, you host number 20, Oklahoma. And I've kind of said this, that, okay, if you, you're at a point now because you won this UCF game, if you can win one more game, the rest of the season between Oklahoma on Saturday and then the big 12 tournament, it gives you a shot at making the tournament. But I think at that point it'd be a coin flip. If you want to feel like you are basically ticket punched, I think you got to win two more games. That could be winning Oklahoma, winning your first big 12 tournament game. That could be winning your first two big 12 tournament

Starting point is 00:22:13 games. And who knows, maybe it ends up having to be more than that because you never know with some of the non-conference or some of the conference tournaments of the conferences that are smaller leagues where maybe they had a team who was going to get you know an eight seed or a nine seed or a ten seed and they lose in the conference tournament and it allows the league to be a two big lead two big two bid league and then all of a sudden somebody else's bubble has popped that can happen kind of this time of year in the beginning of March so you want to keep it out of the committee's hands which we kind of saw last year and that didn't go well for KU.

Starting point is 00:22:50 Point being, you could still make it with just winning that one other game, but why even risk it? Saturday, number 20 Oklahoma, another chance for a big resume win. They only lost by five in Norman. Now playing at home, they got a good shot to win this one, and if they do, they're going to feel really good about where they're sitting on selection sunday coming in a couple weeks all right that'll do it for this episode of locked on jayhawks you can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts including on our youtube page we'll be back with a kansas baylor preview on next episode of the show make sure you're subscribed

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football HC Lance Leipold Gets Raise + Latest on McCullar's Injury for KU Basketball

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.