Kansas football once again picked to finish last in Big 12 in preseason media poll

By Matt Tait Jul 8, 2021

Nick Krug

New Kansas head football coach Lance Leipold talks with media members and guests during an introductory press conference on Monday, May 3, 2021 at the KU football indoor practice facility.

The way the media sees it, first-year Kansas football coach Lance Leipold has his work cut out for him.

With 39 points — one from each voter — the Jayhawks were a unanimous pick to finish last in the 10-team Big 12 conference in this year’s preseason media poll which was released Thursday.

In fact, KU was nowhere near ninth-place selection Texas Tech, which finished with 103 points.

Seeing KU in the cellar is nothing new, of course.

In addition to consistently finishing in last place year after year in the post-Mark Mangino era, the Jayhawks also have been picked to finish last year after year in the preseason polls.

This marks the 11th consecutive season that the Jayhawks have been picked to finish last in the Big 12.

In nine of the previous 10 seasons, under four separate head coaches, KU finished exactly where Big 12 media members believed they would in the final conference standings.

The lone exception was 2014, when KU, at 1-8 in Big 12 play, finished in ninth place, one game ahead of Iowa State, which finished 0-9.

The last time KU was picked to finish somewhere other than 10th in the Big 12 preseason poll was 2010, when the conference still had two divisions and 12 teams.

That season, KU was predicted to finish fourth in the six-team Big 12 North, but finished last in the division in Turner Gill’s first season, going 1-7 against conference foes and 3-9 overall.

Kansas has not won more than three games in a single season since going 5-7 in the final season of the Mark Mangino era in 2009.

The Jayhawks were winless (0-9) under former head coach Les Miles during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and will move forward hoping to begin the climb out of the cellar under new coach Lance Leipold.

The Jayhawks are slated to open the 2021 season against South Dakota on Sept. 3 at home.

Here’s a look at this year’s complete preseason media poll, which included Oklahoma in the top spot for the ninth time since the 2011 season.

1 – Oklahoma, 386 points (35 first-place votes)

2 – Iowa State, 351 (4)

3 – Texas, 273

4 – Oklahoma State, 266

5 – TCU, 255

6 – West Virginia, 185

7 – Kansas State, 163

8 – Baylor, 124

9 – Texas Tech, 103

10 – Kansas, 39

Key returners to represent KU football at Big 12 media days

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.