KU Director of Athletics Travis Goff talks football and more

Published: Nov. 14, 2022 at 11:49 PM CST
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LAWRENCE, Kan. (WIBW) - After KU became bowl eligible for the first time since 2008 after cruising to a win over Oklahoma State, Director of Athletics Travis Goff says this is just the beginning.

13 Sports was able to talk with Kansas Athletics Director Travis Goff about the state of the program.

“I think it recalibrates the bar,” Goff said. “I think it resets the sights so to speak right, it helps people, the entire KU community understand that football not only can be successful, but can be successful at a high level and can stay at that kind of level of success and I think that’s really healthy for a place that really hasn’t seen that or felt that and maybe has forgotten what football can be.”

He says the vision and the proven track record of Lance Leipold and his staff is what KU needed.

“The substance, authentic, real proven track record. When you take that combination for someone whose frankly done it at all places like (University of Wisconsin) Whitewater and built a dynasty,” Goff said. “At the end of the day, how many dynasty’s have there been in college football in modern times? Then you look at what he did in Buffalo. A challenging environment, a challenging program to build to the level of success they did and then you layer that on with the staff that you knew he was going to bring with him. The track record they had of building culture, building identity, having accountability... KU needed that kind of direction, KU kind of needed that vision and that’s what Lance has applied here.”

With football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball coming along now, he’s optimistic more things will happen in the future.

He says he came to Kansas because of the foundation and how the community cares for the university and he’s thrilled to accelerate that more.

“A great foundation, a place for a long time has been special, has a great history and tradition and more than that, it’s the people who are committed and care about the place... who are committed to supporting athletics and knew the importance of athletics,” Goff said. “You take that all together... our student athletes did the heavy lift. They’re the ones who have inspired and demonstrated that we can have a higher ambition for what athletics could look like at KU.”

While some players did stay like Running back, Devin Neal, Safety Kenny Logan Jr. after Leipold was hired, Goff credits the students athletes for sticking together.

“The guys a year and a half ago when coach Leipold arrived needed some continuity, needed some consistency, needed some accountability and direction. They bought in and stayed the course and got hit with adversity particularly last season and the way they’ve responded and the way they’ve progressed from the start of this year until now and you’re so proud of those guys.”

Goff says the support the fans have given has been off the charts too.

“The fans were absolutely starving for good football at KU and for them to have a chance to experience that and support this team, it’s pretty special,” Goff said.

13 Sports also talked with Goff about the self-imposed four game suspension the university gave head coach Bill Self and assistant Kurtis Townsend. Goff says it’s an unfortunate situation but hopefully brings some clarity.

“The most important thing for us is to have alignment throughout the university and with leadership on campus with myself, coach Self... honestly I’m so proud how the programs handle it. They’ve (players) have been mature and really haven’t even flinched. Coach Roberts is a great guy to have on that bench for those four games in terms of his experience... we’ll be okay, we’ll get through it and I believe and I hope this will be the step forward to getting a conclusion in that case,” Goff said.