8 April 2023
LAWRENCE (KSNT) – It’s only spring, but the Spring Showcase is a special day for KU football.
The pads are on. Helmets are out. The referees are back and there are flags on the play. It’s the Jayhawks’ first time playing in front of fans in almost four months. Plus, a lot of their families came to the showcase.
“We’re hungry to keep on getting better, but we definitely made a lot of strides for the team we want to be and we’re just going to keep getting better,” running back Devin Neal said.
The team ran through plays in the spring schedule’s finale. The showcase is a culmination of everything it’s been working on for the past nine weeks.
“We came out of this a more physical football team with things we needed to improve on,” head coach Lance Leipold said. “Nights like this, you’re kind of holding your breath to make sure you get out of it as healthy as possible. I thought we had a lot of young players play hard, show some flashes of doing some things and all in all, very pleased with this spring.”
Some of the regular starters didn’t play much because, like Leipold said, they’re trying to stay healthy. Offensive lineman Michael Ford Jr. left at the beginning of the showcase because of a potential injury, so the O-line got moved around a bit. It continues to be an area Leipold is working on, but he feels better about the offensive line than he did in August.
That means it’s a big day for the younger players. The Spring Showcase is a heavy evaluation for them, including Topeka High grad Tylan Alejos. He took most of the carries Friday night.
Now, the team gets a break from organized practices before fall camp starts.