“You know, I thought about it,” Mark Mangino said with a smile, “but I had some work to do.”

Mangino held his first official practice as Kansas University’s head football coach Monday afternoon when the Jayhawks opened their 15-practice spring session with a 2-hour, 39-minute workout at KU’s practice fields.

“It’s a good feeling to go back out on the field after being off the field for a few months,” Mangino said. “It’s nice to get out there and get on the practice field, seeing the kids running around, all the enthusiasm. It’s a good day.

“It’s what coaches like to do. We like to coach. And after being in the offices for all those months and out on the road recruiting, it’s nice to get out to do what you like to do.”

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

Mangino said he liked the secondary’s speed, saw some good things from his quarterbacks and felt the linebackers were running around well.

Mangino added he also thought that junior running back Reggie Duncan “looked sharp,” and felt that senior offensive tackle Justin Sands “looked pretty good and will be a good leader for the offensive line.”

Duncan and Sands should be touched Mangino knew who they were. Others weren’t so lucky.

“I struggled a couple of times with a few,” Mangino said, “but I ran over and stuck my nose in his face mask to see who it was and patted him on the head for making a good play.”

Mangino, though, didn’t go so far as to have the players wear nametags for the first-year staff. He wants his coaches to know who the players are and vice versa.

The Jayhawks didn’t seem to have any first-day jitters on Monday. KU sixth-year senior wide receiver Harrison Hill appeared fully recovered from last year’s season-ending broken shoulder blade and junior transfer quarterback Bill Whittemore showed no ill effects from last season’s shoulder injury.

Kansas as a team was enthusiastic and moved rapidly between drills.

“That’s the way it ought to be done,” Mangino said. “That’s the way this game is supposed to be played with enthusiasm, people hustling, people running around, excited about practice and excited about playing. And our kids are. They’re genuinely excited.”

The Jayhawks didn’t have many fans on hand for the first of just three practices open to the public the second being Wednesday afternoon at the practice fields. But among the dozen spectators was Mangino’s biggest fan his wife, Mary Jane.

The KU coach greeted his wife on the sideline as practice was coming to a close.

“I just told her it’s nice to see her,” Mangino said of Mary Jane, who took pictures of her husband’s first practice as head coach. “She doesn’t come very often, but I think she was anxious to see what our team looks like.”

Mangino was thrilled with the first day of practice.

“It’s good,” he said. “I feel like the guys do on Opening Day. It’s good to go out in the sunshine, a beautiful day here in Lawrence. It was just fun to get back out there on the field. I really like the coaching aspect more than I like the paperwork, so it’s fun for me to be on the practice field.”

KU players won’t be available for comment until Mangino’s news conference Wednesday afternoon.