Nate Lie joins Kansas soccer on five-year contract as Jayhawks’ new head coach

LAWRENCE — Kansas soccer has its new head coach, as Jayhawks athletic director Travis Goff announced Monday that Nate Lie would take over the program.

Lie comes to Kansas after serving as the head coach at Xavier from 2017-23. With the Musketeers, he compiled an 82-37-19 (.663) record and reached four NCAA tournaments. And now he joins the Jayhawks on a five-year contract, through the 2028 season, as they look to enjoy success in a challenging Big 12 Conference.

“I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to Travis Goff, Jason Booker and the entire search committee for providing me this tremendous opportunity,” Lie said in a KU release. “I was overwhelmed by the energy, positivity and passion of the Jayhawk community and I am completely sold on Travis’ vision of the future of Kansas Athletics. My time at Xavier was so meaningful, and I thank Greg Christopher and Brian Hicks for believing in me and our program. I have tremendous gratitude for the players and coaches that shared the journey.”

Lie continued: “I believe, with deep conviction, that Kansas Soccer will be a consistent force in the Big 12 and on the national landscape. My family and I look forward to immersing ourselves in the KU community and I will work tirelessly alongside our student-athletes to bring Kansas Soccer to new heights! Rock Chalk!”

Lie follows Mark Francis, who retired earlier this year after serving as Kansas’ head coach for the past 25 seasons. Francis was the longest tenured head coach in program history, and remains the winningest. So, it’s the start of a new era for the Jayhawks.

Lie, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, has spent the past decade-plus coaching in the state of Ohio. Prior to being the head coach at Xavier, he was on the coaching staff at Cincinnati from 2013-17 and on the coaching staff at Miami (OH) from 2009-13. Not only did he recruit a talent rich area while he was the head coach at Xavier, but he was the recruiting coordinator for both Cincinnati and Miami (OH) while he was an assistant at those two schools, too.

Time will tell how quickly he could be able to elevate the Kansas program in Lawrence. The Jayhawks are coming off of a season in which they went 4-8-6 overall and 1-7-2 against the Big 12. But if his blueprint for success can translate, he brings a blueprint to Kansas that helped him win three Big East Conference regular season titles and one Big East tournament title at Xavier.

“This was an exhaustive search that was highlighted by a deep pool of accomplished, strong leaders,” Goff said. “Throughout it all, Nate Lie stood out with his diverse experiences, his unwavering values, his fierce competitiveness, and his ability to build a program for long-term success. We are unbelievably excited to bring in Nate, who will undoubtedly instill a strong culture of competitive excellence. The future of Kansas Soccer is incredibly bright with Nate at the helm, and we are thrilled for him to get to work. Our entire athletic department is elated to welcome Nate, his wife Emily, and their three children, Michael, Grace and Joshua to the Kansas Athletics family.”

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.