S-2
Friday, October 23, 1970
University Daily Kansan
Lieppman's Original Plan Did Not Include Football
By JIM FORBES Kansan Sports Writer
When the scoreboard shows third down and six yards to go, and the KU football team is backed up to its own goal line, he turns to turn to their punter to get them in. That number is kkien Killman.
But Keith, Lieppman hadn't intended to throw the U for this year, fact, the thought he was going to get to a football game would be to the
"I GUESS IN THE middle of August, I desired basketball was a ball, and I wanted to play that ball," Lippman said. "I wanted to concentrate on baseball. Then I asked for a coach, and they asked me to come out. So I thought I could help the coach."
Lieppman is not only helping out his team, but also helping to give teams as he now leads the league in punts, averaging 43 yards a season. He was one of three coaches he decided to stick with football even though he plays down his old rivalry.
**SPEAKING ABOUT THE**
THEIR stumps and watches their
teammates "struggling" all
afternoon, and all he does is kick
them off.
"I knew I would have missed it if I hadn't come out," he said. "But I don't feel like I'm doing that much now."
"I feel like I'm kind of standing off from the group," Lieppman said.
Lieppman was doing some serious thinking about football last spring and about his future in baseball.
"I DIDN'T FEEL that I was going to lose," he said and I hurt it murky in last year's Nebraska game. I hadn't planned on coming out this week.
Concerning baseball, he said, "I just sat there and the man drafted by the Atlanta Braves I sent and checked everything on him I wanted to know."
Now Lieppman has gotten used to his new position and hopes there is a future in it.
"I F CAN KEEP up my punting I'd like to continue with it, he said. "I think that would be cool," he said. Jerry Wiley has got it made. Wilson, a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, is leading the pros
Lieppman said that in baseball, a player is lucky if he plays ten years and many of those years could be in the minors. He said that in football, he would know how to play because he was going to make it or not.
"I don't know if I'll get drafted in the February football draft." "You never know what they are thinking about you."
LIEPMAN HAD ONE of his punts blocked in the K-State game, the first in his short career. He said he doesn't really have time to think about much of what happens when he is asking the ball.
"You don't see anyone coming up the middle, because you've got three big blocking hacks in front of you. You can see them coming out of the corner of your eye. All you worry about is getting the ball off. Your practice it so long, that it works a natural action unway."
"I DON'T KNOW where the ball is going when I kick it. I've just got汀 into it and eventually I'll learn where the ball is going. I'm gonna hit it with my knee and it really hurt at first and put a lot of strain on my knee."
Lieppman is also sharing the kickoffs duties with Bob Helbacher, St. Louis sophomore, and Jon Wheeler, senior, place kicking that Helbacher is using. Lieppman said that he finds more pressure on him in the backfield.
When he was asked how he got into kicking soccer-style, he said he just went up and tried it one more time. He said his team gave him tips on it since then.
Lieppman is "standing off" from the group in another sense. He is also a member of the team on scholarship that is not living in Jayhawk Towers.
"I would have lived in Jayhawk Towers this year but I didn't know I was going to be playing with the team, I signed a lease to live here."
Keith Lieppman (25)
... leads Big Eight in punting
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