“Probably the best way to explain this spring is ‘new,'” coach Terry Allen said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon to open his fifth spring session at KU. “It’s exciting for me. We’ve got so many virtually new faces and so many changes.”

Among the unfamiliar faces heading into the 15-practice spring season are five new assistants, seven new junior college transfers and 13 red-shirt freshmen listed on the three-deep depth charts.

“If there’s ever a time where there’s a pre-spring ball depth chart that doesn’t mean a lot,” Allen said, “this is probably the time because of all the new coaches and all the new players. I think from that standpoint it’s exciting, but yet I promise you the two-deep you read right there will not be the two-deep we go into the fall with, and it could be at a number of positions. So it is an important spring for us.”

Among the chief concerns for Allen to address during spring drills which begin with today’s non-pad practice will be replacing two-year starting quarterback Dylen Smith. He departs KU with 3,562 yards passing, the sixth-most all-time.

The leading candidates to succeed Smith, in order of their placement on the spring depth chart, are sophomore Zach Dyer, junior Jonas Weatherbie and red-shirt freshmen Kevin Long and Mario Kinsey.

“I think probably the most exciting thing is what’s going to happen at the quarterback position,” Allen said. “We’ve got Zach Dyer there, who had the experience of being a backup last year as a red-shirt freshman. We’ve got Jonas, who’s been around forever. And then we have the two freshmen that have the great potential.

“For me to sit here right now and tell you who our quarterback will be is as much a guess for me as it is for you guys.”

Dyer, who Allen said is “obviously the No. 1 going in,” completed five of 12 passes for 60 yards in six games as the backup QB last season. Allen went on to say that statistically speaking, Dyer also is the Jayhawks’ most athletic signal-caller.

“Extra pressure? No, not necessarily,” Dyer said about being list as the No. 1 quarterback. “I think just for my situation, it will help me, knowing that I’m really, I guess, the only quarterback coming in with experience from last season. I’m the only other quarterback who really played besides Dylen, but it wasn’t that great an amount of experience.

“I think it helps a lot, just getting in there and knowing what it takes.”

Although he stands 6-foot-3 and weighs in at 205 pounds, Dyer actually is faster in the 40-yard dash than the slippery Smith.

As far as elusiveness, though, Kinsey who spent a stint as a guard on the KU basketball team before leaving to concentrate on academics might be the cream of the crop.

“With Kinsey you’ve got a very athletic individual, a guy that can make you miss,” Allen said of the 6-1, 194-pound freshman. “He is a very strong-armed athlete. He is one of the quote ‘prototype’ type quarterbacks that you see more and more in college football transcending into the NFL because he’s as much a threat to run the football as throw it, but he also carries a very strong arm with it.

“The thing that’s interesting is the similarities between the three quarterbacks.”

Not only are all three mobile Allen said Long runs a 4.7 40 but also all are big and strong.

Long, who’s listed at 6-5, said he’s bulked up from 190 to 220 pounds by hitting the weights. Kinsey said he’d put on 11 pounds in the weightroom as well since eschewing basketball.

“Mario’s very athletic, Zach’s very athletic, Jonas is very athletic and smart,” Long said. “I fall somewhere in between.”

The question now is where he’ll fall when things shake out with the depth chart this spring.

“Going into spring ball I think Zach’s the No. 1 guy,” Long said. “He was the backup last year and he does a great job for us. We’ve got Mario Kinsey, who’s a great athlete, as well as Jonas Weatherbie and myself all competing in the spring.

“Controversy? I don’t know about that. I think we’re all going to compete well in the spring and just try to make each other better.”