Sports

UW-Whitewater football coach Leipold leaps to Division 1

 Successful coach won five national titles

 

UW-Whitewater football coach Lance Leipold roams the sideline during Saturday's win. The 50-year-old Jefferson native will take his talents to Division 1 Buffalo next season. (Bob Mischka/Whitewater Register)
UW-Whitewater football coach Lance Leipold roams the sideline during Saturday’s win. The 50-year-old Jefferson native will take his talents to Division 1 Buffalo next season. (Bob Mischka/Whitewater Register)

 

By Tim Wester

Sports Correspondent

Whitewater head football coach Lance Leipold has a long list of accomplishments in his coaching career.

Now the veteran coach is trying to accomplish something that very few coaches have dared to attempt – coaching two college football teams at once.

After accepting the head football coaching position at NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision member Buffalo Monday, Dec. 1, Leipold agreed to coach the Warhawks through the remainder of their NCAA Division III playoff run before working full time at Buffalo.

One week into his daunting endeavor, Leipold admitted how challenging it has already been.

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster in many different ways,” Leipold said. “But this isn’t about me, it’s about the players and hopefully anyone that is disappointed could see a coaching staff that coached their hearts out and compete until the very end.”

Leipold, 50, a Jefferson native and former Warhawk player, is bringing four UW-Whitewater assistant coaches with him to Buffalo, including long-time defensive coordinater Brian Borland and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.

Leipold informed his Warhawk players Monday morning that he was taking the job, the same day he met with the Buffalo players and media at a noon press conference.

Leipold then returned to Whitewater the following day to prepare for Wartburg.

 

Warhawks survive and advance       

Although Leipold and the Warhawk players did their best to focus on Wartburg, it was clear the Warhawks were a step behind against the Knights Saturday afternoon.

Wartburg rolled up 500 total yards against the Warhawk defense, and seemingly was in control of the game with a 33-16 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.

“We had some looks at times in the game where we were down a little bit,” Leipold said. “I challenged them a little bit and our assistant coaches on the sidelines asked them if they had it in them or not.”

The emotionally exhausted and nearly defeated Warhawks found a way to lead to escape elimination with a 21-point outburst in the final quarter to propel the Warhawks (13-0) into the Division III national semifinals this Saturday against Linfield (Ore.), at Perkins Stadium at 2:30 p.m.

Now, with the shock of the announcement out of the way, Leipold expects his team to return to normalcy as they prepare to take on the Wildcats.

But it certainly won’t be easy for Leipold, who is continuing to double fist between Buffalo and Whitewater for at least another week.

If Whitewater wins this Saturday, Leipold will face a third week of dual coaching duties before culminating at the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Virginia, Dec. 19.

If any coach could pull off this daunting task, it’s Leipold.

All he does is win

The veteran head coach has the highest winning percentage in NCAA history with a mark of 107-6 in eight seasons at Whitewater. If Leipold can lead Whitewater to a second consecutive national championship, he’ll have as many national championships (six) as he does career losses.

Before his historic run at Whitewater, Leipold methodically moved up the coaching ranks.

After finishing a successful player career as a quarterback at UW-Whitewater in 1986, Leipold was an offensive assistant coach at Whitewater and Doane College, before taking a graduate assistant job at Wisconsin in 1991.

From there, Leipold held assistant coaching positions at Nebraska-Omaha and Nebraska from 1994 to 2007 when he accepted his first head coaching position at Whitewater.

Now Leipold and his coaches are taking their talents to Buffalo, a program that finished 5-7 this season.

Buffalo is a member of Mid-American Conference, the same conference as Northern Illinois.

Making the jump from Division III to Division I head coaching position is extremely rare, but not uncommon to Wisconsin fans. Current Badger coach Bo Ryan made the jump from Division 3 UW-Platteville to UW-Milwaukee and now Wisconsin, and has become one of the most successful coaches in the country.

Can Leipold have similar success in football?

Everyone in Whitewater, Buffalo, and even the country will be eagerly watching to see if he can pull off the historic leap.

 

 

 

One Comment

  1. Too bad Lance isn’t going to UW-Madison, they could use him. And the climate is a hell of a lot better than Buffalo!