Illinois Football: Is Lance Leipold right for the Illini; the verdict is in

The Illinois football team is looking for a new head coach, and it seems that momentum has us close to hiring current Buffalo Bulls leader, Lance Leipold.

Leipold is a solid coach in his own right. A successful play-caller with Wisconsin-Whitewater of the DIII level, Leipold earned a job with Buffalo. With the Bulls, he has seen success as well. After his first two seasons of 7-17 football, Buffalo has been at .500 or better in each of the past four years.

During this solid four-year run, the Bulls made two bowl games and took home the crown in the Bahamas Bowl in 2019. In the last three seasons alone, Leipold is 23-10, which is a great run with a program like Buffalo.

Last night, all of Illini Nation got to see who could be the next coach of the Illinois football program. Leipold and his Buffalo program made the MAC title game and took on another solid team in Ball State.

It looked like Buffalo was going to be a tough team to stop after scoring quickly on their first few possessions. But the Cardinals stayed tough and were too much to handle. Ball State would have a 17-point lead at one time and would end up winning the game 38-28.

This was a disappointing loss in my eyes because I wanted to see Leipold win this game. I have been skeptical of whether or not he is the right fit for the Illini. So, a MAC title over Ball State would have helped make up my mind. Honestly, the loss to the Cardinals only solidified my original thoughts.

Leipold is not the right choice for Illinois.

I am not just basing my opinion, which is an opinion, off of just one game. The Ball State loss hurt in my eyes, but it was just the icing on what seems to be nothing new with Leipold as the head coach.

The records of the past look good on paper, but once you look a little closer, you will see that Leipold’s record doesn’t quite pass the sniff test.

Against teams that are above .500, Leipold has a record of 12-21, and a number of these games came against 7-6 MAC programs. While there were some okay victories against the likes of Temple and then Charlotte in the bowl game, there was never a signature win.

You can dive a little further into his overall wins. Leipold has 36 wins at Buffalo, of which only 12 of those victories were teams above .500. The other 24 victories break down as 20 wins against teams who were .500 or worse and four of the wins were against teams not even in the FBS.

At the end of the day, Leipold is a solid MAC coach. He should do whatever is best for him, his family and his career. But do I think he is the right fit or the right coaching hire at Illinois? The answer is simply, no.