The Kansas Jayhawks have now had two consecutive 5-7 seasons. 

After Friday's loss to the Utah Utes, Jayhawks coach Lance Leipold didn't hold back when describing the state of the program. He was blunt about failing to meet expectations. 

"With mixed emotions," Leipold said of the season. "Mixed in the fact that where we've come as a program that in a very short period of time, has now become the expectation. How we have to continue to look at every aspect of our program in this era of roster building and things like that and how we're going to continue to do that to give ourselves the best opportunities possible. But as far as two 5-7 years, we've underachieved, by most people's standards."

The disappointment comes after the Jayhawks showed so much promise in 2023 when they finished 2023. Now, it seems the program has taken a step back. 

"I want our players to be confident enough that we should be able to be a team now playing bowl games," Leipold said. "That's what we want them to be. That's what we want them to aspire to be, and that's what we have to keep working to obtain. As we continue to do coaching, weight room, everything that we're doing, we have to make sure that it's an all the time thing. If we're going to continue to move our program, it has to be 24/7, 365 in what we do. With the parity that is happening in college football, the margin for error for teams like us continues to be fairly small."

Leipold has only one winning season during his five-year tenure. At some point, the higher ups are going to expect more consistent success. 

"For us, we're hovering on a chance," Leipold said. "What would our topics be today if one of the three closest games that we played would have gone the other direction? Some of the things that we're all frustrated about, that you have to ask about, are being asked, because it's this close. It's the new world of college football, where it's going to be more bunched up, I think, is what you're going to see. For us to continue to try to put ourselves in that above [.500] line, we got to continue to work and get better. That starts at the top."

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of JayhawksRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com