LAWRENCE — Ideally, Kansas coach Lance Leipold would prefer having senior day on KU’s campus. But he’s hopeful Arrowhead Stadium will make the perfect backdrop to honor this year’s senior class when KU plays Colorado on Saturday.
“The thing I always say is we have to be careful because we have a lot of guys that’ll be recognized on Saturday,” Lance Leipold said Monday during his weekly press conference. “And though I want them to reflect and enjoy all of that, it can overtake you emotionally that it drains you so much.
“I’ve been part of teams where you don’t play very well because it becomes an emotional drain right before kickoff. So maybe that’ll be a small positive of not being in Lawrence per se, but we’ve talked about it. To me senior day is like a homecoming game. As a football team it’s your job to go out and play well so you have a great memory of it and win a football game. And if we can balance that — I don’t want to take away from the guys — but if we can balance what the day is, hopefully we can make it a special day for them.”
KU (4-6) is coming off consecutive wins against ranked opponents, defeating Iowa State two weeks ago and BYU last Saturday on the road. After starting the season 1-5, the Jayhawks have won three of four and are still alive for a bowl game.
No. 16 Colorado (8-2) has won four straight this season, and are led by coach Deion Sanders, quarterback Shedeur Sanders (3,222 yards passing and 27 touchdown passes) and wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, who has 74 catches for 911 yards and nine touchdowns on offense while making 24 tackles and three interceptions on defense.
KU running back Devin Neal, cornerback Mello Dotson and wide receiver Luke Grimm are among the 30 seniors who will be honored Saturday. This senior class has led KU to back-to-back bowl games and helped turn the program around.
Leipold, who’s in his fourth season as coach, has fond memories of this year’s senior class.
“There’s so many with this group, especially the ones that were here for all four with us,” Leipold said. “The ones that stayed, the ones that believed, the ones that were really program changers and what they’ve done not just on the field and how they’ve gone about it daily and bought into what was being done and saw the benefits.
“And hopefully when we have former players come back and watch practices, I hope they’ll be the kind of guys that come back and talk about the days when they were here and how they helped implement and build this program.”
