Players going through heavy install in spring football

There are several starters gone from the 2024 offense. In a sense, the Kansas coaches will be breaking in new groups at receiver and tight end.

Most of the production at those positions left due to graduation, but there are some positive signs after the start of spring football.

At receiver there were four players signed from the transfer portal and three are on campus. Offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski likes what he sees from both groups.

“Overall, I’m impressed with how our guys are all moving,” Zebrowski said. “Like the receiver groups really have done a really good job moving well. All those guys, the new guys and the guys that have been around. I think that group’s been fun to watch and see how they run well, and it’ll be fun to keep watching them.”

At tight end Deshawn Hanika is back after last season with an injury and they added Keyan Burnett from Arizona.

“The tight end group has some new guys in there and they’ve been doing a good job,” Zebrowski said. “Some good size and done a good job with some different types of catches and different things we’re trying to do for them.”

Returning players can show big gains from the offseason

Spring football can bring surprises and new players from the program can emerge. Zebrowski said players can improve a lot in the offseason and catch their attention in spring football.

“It’s usually more of a bigger, stronger, faster version of somebody,” he said. “You’re like, ooh, that guy got stronger. That guy got bigger. Gosh darn, he’s more explosive. That’s kind of fun. The growth of the young guys becoming not as young guys becoming older.”

The team spent the first two practices in spider pads and will transition to full pads. Even though there has not been a lot of hitting they can spot the differences with players.

“I think that’s the biggest time where you see it and then all of a sudden does it match up with the results they’re having?” he said. “And that’s what’s most fun for us. To me, that’s where I see it the most. It’s like, wow, that guy really worked hard, really got faster, and then he’s making more plays. Like, that’s awesome. You can spot some of that stuff when they’re just in the spider pads too.”

Zebrowski said the evaluations will go on the next 13 practices. They will get a better idea once the pads go on in practice.

“We’ve had two days of non-padded,” he said. “Now we put the pads on, let’s see what happens. Then people start getting tackled. That’s kind of fun. You’re hoping to find out as much as you can, so you’re not surprised come fall.”

Coaches working with heavy install early in the spring

The feeling of this spring is different than last. Going into last spring there were a lot of returning starters and veterans in the program.

This spring they are trying to install and teach a lot with transfers who arrived this semester. There are young players who did not get as many reps who are trying to factor in the two deep.

They are cramming them with a lot of information through the early part of spring football.

“It’s heavy install, especially with a number of new people,” Zebrowski said. “I guess heavy is probably the wrong way to say it. It’s a good amount, but to make sure our guys understand what’s going in. It’s not like last year where you had a bunch of older guys that had been there a couple years.”

Some of it is teaching the basic parts while they try to find out what players will absorb the concepts and advance forward.

“We’re like, hey, let’s go back and teach our base concepts,” he said. “It’s still a good install in terms of base concept wise but teach the basics. Let’s find out who are going to be those top receivers or running backs or, the quarterback. All the depth charts and all the different positions. That’s the biggest thing, is kind of find out who you have in terms of what they do best to kind of matchup.”