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Fall sports preview: KU football shoots for high-pressure style in first season under Lie

Fall sports preview: KU football shoots for high-pressure style in first season under Lie

August 18, 2024

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Kansas Athletics

The Kansas football team huddles in the exhibition game against Arkansas on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, Ark.

Nate Lie wants to tilt the field.

“We want to be one of the best press teams in the country,” said Lie, the Kansas football coach.

And that’s where the soccer statistic known as pitch tilt comes in – what proportion of time does a given team spend in the attacking third, compared to their opponents? In short, who gets the majority of offensive opportunities?

“We talk quite a lot about this concept of tilting the pitch,” he said, “in the sense of making it a goal, a stated goal, that we play as much of the game as possible towards the opponents’ goal and as little as possible towards ours. “

Lie admits that dominating that stat will require his team to adopt a “high-pressure, relentless approach to defense” and that, partly in service of playing with a certain pace and pressure, his squad will likely rotate between 18 and 20 players . from 15 to 17.

“If we defend deep for large periods of the game, we’re not going to be successful in that phase of the game that we set out to be,” he said. “It’s hard to do. They’re probably fighting a lot of trends that most of this group has been used to, but we’re going to try to get the first game going.”

Lie’s Jayhawks now have a game under their belt at South Dakota State on Thursday and will be on the road at Drake on Sunday. These are the first tentative steps in a new era under Lie, who replaced 25-year head coach Mark Francis.

Lie comes from Xavier, where he won the Big East three times and reached the NCAA Tournament four times. As he tries to bring success to KU, he will do so with a roster that is half holdovers from the Francis era and half newcomers.

“I think we’re all starting from scratch at the same time, figuratively starting from the same starting line,” he said, “and I think it gives everyone an equal chance to succeed and earn their spot on the team and on land.”

It will be a gradual process as they find their way to the type of football Lie hopes to play.

“This style of play only works if everyone is doing it together at the same time,” he said. “It takes a lot of trust that if I do my job, the people behind me will do theirs, the people in front of me will do theirs, and that if we all do it, it will work. And this is easier said than done, both in terms of that feeling of faith deep in your heart, and the execution, being able to maintain your focus in the heat and fatigue, and the amount of energy to which is physically required to perform. “

Several players have their positions in the team well secured. Returning midfielders Hallie Klanke and Avery Smith and Ohio State transfer guard Brooke Otto are the Jayhawks’ three captains. Smith was an easy choice for Lie, as she had held a leadership role on previous teams. Lie said of newcomer Otto, who was in Lawrence in the spring, that she “carries herself with a sense of gratitude, professionalism and is very considerate of others and I think she’s a natural relationship builder.”

For Klanke, Lie said, it’s an advantage to have been at a previous program, North Carolina, that competes during practice the way he hopes KU will.

“I think from day one to the end of the spring, I think Hallie was as consistent as anybody on the team in her approach, in her performance, in her demeanor as a teammate,” he said, “and that extended from field of training. even in the game, whether it was communication on the field or if a player made a mistake, she was the one you naturally saw going up to them and patting them on the back.”

Klanke comes in as KU’s rebounding leader with the most goals (four) and assists (five) of any Jayhawk in 2023. That season featured a dry stretch offensively for KU as he scored just five times in 10 league games, managing just around 4.3 shots on goal per game. Smith, Raena Knust (formerly Childers) and Lexi Watts are the only other returning Jayhawks who scored multiple goals last season.

Lie said in goal he was looking to develop depth while acquiring players who could make an immediate impact. He arrived alongside Otto as well as midfielders Emika Kawagishi (NC State), Makayla Merlo (UCCS) and Emily Tobin (IU Indianapolis), along with some late-arriving freshmen in forward Ebba Cronholm, defender Jordan Fjelstad and forward Shea Ryan. . Fjelstad and Ryan were previously signed with Oregon State before the Beavers’ coaching change.

Those three join five Francis signees and three winter additions (including some prior commitments to Lie’s staff from Xavier).

With so many freshmen, Lie will have to hope for a much smaller group of seniors (Mackenzie Boeve, Knust and captains Klanke and Smith) to provide leadership.

“As much as I can be an extension of the coaching staff that would be a huge asset to a program,” he said.

Goalkeeper Sophie Dawe, who did not play as a freshman, staked her claim in net with strong, diligent action in the spring. Hayven Harrison has some experience in goal and Addison Tauscher is coming in for her first season.

Lie acknowledged that it will be a process to fit these disparate pieces. At first, he said, the style of play won’t “look anywhere near our peak.”

“I told the recruits this: I say, ‘Feel free to judge us to some degree on games one through five, but I have a sneaking suspicion and I’m going to make a strong bet that we’re much, much, much better in games from 10 to 20’,” he said.

A key underlying goal is to make the Big 12 Tournament, which will be held at KC Current’s CPKC Stadium. That means being one of the top 12 teams in the new-look 16-team Big 12 after KU finished 13th of 14 last year.

“I think that’s a fair goal,” he said. “It’s not an end goal that doesn’t define a successful season, but I think I would be personally disappointed if we didn’t make that Big 12 tournament.”

Less concretely, he said, he wants to see his team “dictating more and more plays as the season goes on.”

KU is home for the first time against Tulsa on Thursday and opens Big 12 play at Rock Chalk Park against Iowa State on Sept. 12.

Kansas Athletics

Kansas sophomore Emily Tobin lines up a punt during the exhibition game against Arkansas, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Kansas Athletics

Kansas goalkeeper Sophie Dawe secures the ball during an exhibition game against Arkansas, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Kansas Athletics

Kansas forward Ebba Cronholm crosses the ball during the exhibition game against Arkansas on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Kansas Athletics

Kansas forward Mikayla Coore-Pascal chases the ball during an exhibition game against Arkansas on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Kansas Athletics

Kansas midfielder Kate Langfelder aims for the ball during an exhibition game against Arkansas on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Kansas Athletics

Kansas midfielder Jillian Gregorski plays for the position during the exhibition game against Arkansas on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Kansas Athletics

Kansas’ Sierra Herbert takes a corner kick during the exhibition game against Arkansas on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.