photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas wide receiver Trevor Wilson crosses the end zone for a touchdown on a punt return against UCF in Lawrence Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold will tell you he has more pressing matters to attend to than surveying David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium to assess attendance levels in the middle of a football game.

Support for KU has become a hot-button topic in recent weeks, particularly after athletic director Travis Goff penned an open letter hoping to stir up interest from ambivalent fans. But Leipold said Monday he was pleased with the crowd that turned out for Saturday’s victory over UCF.

“People are surprised when they come to our games about the noise level, the way the stadium sits, the way our student section and fans get into it,” Leipold said. “We need them, and we need them because it does create a home-field advantage.”

KU announced an attendance of 46,107 on Saturday, just over a thousand fans short of a sellout at 47,233. The team has sold out one of its four home games so far, the Sept. 23 conference opener against BYU, while winning all four; 41,091 fans saw KU beat Missouri State and 45,089 turned out for the victory over Illinois, both games that took place on Friday nights.

The evening of Sept. 28, Goff disseminated a missive to Jayhawk fans. Within, he discussed his initial expectations upon hiring Leipold in 2021, and the extent to which the team had exceeded them by becoming a contender within the last two years. Goff thanked the fans who had shown consistent passion for the program and noted he was addressing supporters “on the fringe” when he wrote, “We need you. And we need you now to be part of the story that is being written right here at KU.”

“We have tickets available, and frankly, we shouldn’t,” he wrote, referring to what were then four remaining home games. “We should expect advance sellouts. We should follow the lead of our football program and we should continue this build faster than anyone thought possible.”

Last year, as the Jayhawks opened the season unbeaten, they were able to sell out three consecutive home matchups in successive weeks against Duke, Iowa State and finally, as KU hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay,” TCU.

Leipold on Monday called the crowds this year “solid,” and said fan turnout is all relative.

“Again, what are we evaluating against?” he asked. “Last year at a certain point in the season, or are we going to talk about (the) first game here against South Dakota (which drew just 26,103 fans)? So we’ve come a long way and hopefully we make this a thing where it’s a tough ticket to get your hands on.”

Leipold, whose previous stops as a head coach were Buffalo and Wisconsin-Whitewater, added, “When you coach in the MAC (Mid-American Conference) on a weeknight, you know what sparse crowds look like, let alone Division III.”

He did note a trend that has become a common point of criticism on social media, which is the diminished size of the crowd following halftime. (For the UCF game, KU rolled out a set of promotions for students that included discounted third-quarter prices at concession stands and a cash giveaway of $500 each for five students.)

On Saturday, the Jayhawks led 24-0 heading into the break.

“I think that’s the thing of, hopefully, maybe because they felt the game was in control,” Leipold said. “I never did.”

From an optics perspective, Leipold noted, crowd sizes, as part of a broader game-day environment along with the rest of KU’s bells and whistles, can also impact recruiting, as “young men are impressionable.”

“There’s a lot of things, but you try to check enough boxes,” Leipold said, “but keep what’s really most important, most important.”

The Jayhawks, currently ranked No. 23 in the AP Top 25, are on the road this week at Oklahoma State, then enter a bye week. Their next home game is Oct. 28 against Oklahoma, which could enter that matchup unbeaten as one of the top teams in the nation.

photo by: AP Photo/Colin E. Braley

Kansas cheerleaders perform during a timeout during an NCAA college football game against UCF on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in Lawrence.

photo by: AP Photo/Colin E. Braley

Kansas cheerleaders perform before an NCAA college football game against UCF on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in Lawrence.

photo by: AP Photo/Colin E. Braley

Members of the Kansas marching band perform before an NCAA college football game against UCF on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in Lawrence.

photo by: AP Photo/Colin E. Braley

The Kansas marching band’s saxophone section before an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in Lawrence.

photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas wide receiver Lawrence Arnold pulls in a catch for a touchdown Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, against UCF in Lawrence.