Lance Leipold may have become MSU’s best non-Urban Meyer candidate

Michigan State is turning up the temperature on a coaching search and Lance Leipold may be the best non-Urban Meyer candidate.

It’s Week 11 of the college football season and you know what that means? The nightmare that has been the 2023 Michigan State football campaign is almost over. Now the Spartans must look toward hiring a new head coach. And one name sticks out above the rest not named Urban Meyer.

Lance Leipold.

For weeks, I’ve been all-in on Mike Elko if Meyer didn’t work out, and now I’m leaning more toward Leipold as he continues to build a historically mediocre football program into a winner. And this isn’t the first time he’s turned around a program.

Before he accepted the Kansas job, he was at Buffalo, turning the Bulls into winners in the MAC which is not something they’re typically known as. In fact, in the 16 seasons before Leipold, the Bulls went to two bowl games. In the six seasons he was there, they were bowl eligible four times. That’s an incredible turnaround. Plus, he’s responsible for the first — and only — 10-win season in Buffalo football history.

Even before he turned Buffalo around, he won six Division III national titles with Wisconsin-Whitewater in eight years. He was one of the most accomplished coaches outside of the FBS when Buffalo hired him.

Kansas caught wind of his ability to turn around a perennial loser and hired him ahead of the 2021 season. He went 2-10 in his first year with the Jayhawks but put the program on the map with an upset win at Texas. Leipold then went 6-7 in 2022, leading Kansas to its first bowl game since 2008. He ended a 14-year bowl drought in his second year with the program.

Now in year three, Kansas is off to a 7-2 start and ranked No. 16 in the latest playoff rankings. The Jayhawks have won seven games for the first time since 2008 and he’s not done yet. And he’s done a lot of this damage with a backup quarterback leading the way.

I get it, Urban Meyer is the best possible option as head coach. He’s one of the best of all time. But let’s say Michigan State can’t close the deal with him. Leipold has to be the next guy up.

Although he may be closing in on 60 years old, he’s a proven winner who can turn programs around in a hurry. Michigan State needs exactly that.