Lance Leipold has been around for some time. Winning for some time, too. And maybe 10, 15 years ago a forward-thinking athletic director, wise to the world of Division III success, would have plucked Leipold out of Wisconsin-Whitewater and given him a chance at a plum football gig. This is not the way the world works anymore. Mostly because athletic directors, by and large, aren’t terribly forward-thinking. They’d rather recycle than take a risk. Hence why Kansas suffered through Mark Mangino, Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, David Beaty and Les Miles — and all of two winning seasons — while Leipold was busy winning DIII titles and then bowl games at Buffalo.
But now here we are. Lo and Leipold! Kansas is 5-2 and everyone wants him. Schools that surely should have known about him (hello, Wisconsin) are canning their own division-winning head coaches to ensure that their own heir apparent can win, lest they also need to join the Leipold Sweepstakes.
This is not, of course, a football phenomenon. Basketball does it, too — usually somewhere between February and March the hot new It coach emerges, and the frenzy begins. Desperate extensions are offered, clandestine meetings are held at the Final Four, plane tail numbers are tracked and suddenly everyone wants to know who’s getting the Cleveland State coach (Congrats, Missouri).
So I figured why not get ahead of the curve and identify college basketball’s future Lance Leipold — the one guy who ought to get a shot at a legit Power 6 job come spring? There is no shortage of candidates, as
