Kansas Jayhawks head coach Lance Leipold talks about the excitement in the fanbase about the bowl games and his message to seniors playing in their final game during Media Day of the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix, AZ.
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00:00 It's amazing how many times your phone blows up about people trying to ask which one so they can book a ticket.
00:07 There's people that are booking flights to three different cities and three different hotels and then wait to see what happens.
00:14 And the excitement there is something that I hope we can make a regular thing in our stadium.
00:20 With just the seniors like Jason Dean and Rich Miller not playing again, what is your message to them as they play in what looks like their last fall game?
00:29 Yeah, you know, probably haven't thought through the total message yet.
00:34 Because one, you want to be very appreciative.
00:37 But I want these guys to go out and play, have fun and not make it anything more than it's another game.
00:46 Because if you start distracting them, we talk so many times about the routines and what we do and we're not making one game more than another.
00:55 So if I change that in the last game of their career, I'm not probably doing my job correctly.
01:01 So you're trying to make them, you want to embrace it.
01:04 Maybe you take an extra second here and there and absorb it.
01:09 But you know, when the ball snaps, you've got to go.
01:12 You've got to do what your responsibilities are and then hopefully you have a chance to soak in as much of this along the way.
01:18 And it's not always just the game.
01:21 It's these experiences.
01:24 It's when they get to go do all of those things that I think those of us that have played, I think many times when we talk to players, yeah, the games are great.
01:33 But it's a lot in conversation.
01:36 Some of the bus rides and flights.
01:38 So hopefully they've been embracing that the whole time.
01:42 And I think the guys should.
01:44 With these extra few weeks of practice, have any of the young guys stuck out to you?
01:48 Yeah, I think always the looking guys.
01:51 I mentioned Calvin Clements.
01:52 I look at a guy like James Livingston who's battled some injuries.
01:55 He's gotten to get through his rehab a little bit more.
01:59 Logan Brantley, Keaton Quebec are a couple guys that played early and we've signed a red shirt on them that now still have another game to play that should see special teams opportunities.
02:09 Jameel Cross, another young corner that we think's got a bright future.
02:13 He's had the opportunity.
02:15 Cole Ballard again having the chances.
02:19 We were able to save the red shirt here, but it's available for this game.
02:23 The extra practices again.
02:25 You just keep stacking these things.
02:27 And really every freshman will have a chance.
02:29 We'll really see it.
02:31 We'll see some of that in March.
02:33 But we'll really see that next August with these guys.
02:36 And that's what's exciting.