Kansas running back Daniel Hishaw Jr. (9) celebrates a touchdown against Utah during the second quarter on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Photo by Nick Krug

The Kansas football team seemed poised to reach a bowl game for the third straight year for the first time in program history ahead of the 2024 season.

Instead, the Jayhawks have now missed bowl eligibility twice by going 5-7 in back-to-back seasons, leaving questions about what needs to happen to get back to hitting the six-win mark. Kansas coach Lance Leipold said he has “mixed emotions” about the five-win seasons following the two bowl appearances.

“Mixed in the fact of where we’ve come as a program that that in a very short period of time has become the expectation,” Leipold said. “… As far as two 5-7 years compared, probably, about expectations, we’ve underachieved by most people’s standards.”

Leipold and the coaching staff have a month before the transfer portal opens, which will be the only time the portal is open this year. Early signing day comes on Wednesday, and Leipold said in the meantime he will take a look at everything the program is doing to see what the team could do better.

The pressure to get back to bowl eligibility is there for Leipold, but he said the pressure comes with the job no matter the situation.

“There’s pressure in this job every single day,” Leipold said. “Expectations, no matter what they’re at, they’re there all the time. They just are. And if you win five games or you win six games or you win nine games or you win two games, the pressure is always there to try to make it better.”

Redshirt seniors Daniel Hishaw Jr. and quarterback Jalon Daniels have been with the Jayhawks throughout coach Lance Leipold’s tenure. They’ve seen the program change from a winless 2020 season under Les Miles to a 9-4 year in 2023 to five wins being a disappointment in 2024-25.

Still, the turnaround in expectations doesn’t make the results any easier, especially as this spells the end of players like Hishaw and Daniels’ Kansas careers.

“It’s super tough — nobody wants to come up short of a bowl game,” Hishaw said. “We want to win more than six games. It’s always tough but I’m just proud that we did what we did this year, with the team we had, with the new program we had and all that.”

Despite how their tenures ended, they have confidence in Leipold and the program going forward. Hishaw sees success for Leipold and the Jayhawks in the future, as long as they stay together and stay consistent all year long.

“I see success — I always see success in Coach Leipold and the program,” Hishaw said. “Especially once he got here, I (never) thought we weren’t going to be successful in the season. I still don’t believe that even for the next years on — it just depends on how the players want to attack every day and making sure the players come with the right mindset every day. If they do that, they’re going to be successful.”

While most of the major contributors of the 2022 and 2023 seasons have moved on, there are still Jayhawks on the roster who have been with the program through the wins and losses but just haven’t been able to get to the field yet. Daniels said he’s seen a lot of those players make plays in practices, and that it’s just a matter of opportunity before they show their potential under the lights on Saturdays.

“I’ve seen a lot of young guys have ability, have talent to go out there and make plays,” Daniels said. “When they do get their chance to be able to be in the spotlight and be on that big stage, they’re going to go out there and make the plays shake. I’m very excited to see the future of Kansas football.”