Kansas football opens camp with new confidence

By Henry Greenstein     Aug 1, 2023

article image Chance Parker/Journal-World photo
Kansas Football huddles up during the first day of Fall Camp on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023.

The Kansas football team held a lengthy, administrative meeting Monday night to help prepare its players for the start of training camp. At one point, head coach Lance Leipold said, he asked his players what was different from two years ago when his staff first came in.

Leipold cited Lawrence Arnold — a redshirt freshman then, a redshirt junior and one of quarterback Jalon Daniels’ go-to targets now — as one player who was able to “rattle off” one difference after another, as KU has gone in the interim from a winless team to a bowl-eligible one. Indeed, after a workmanlike practice session Tuesday morning to open fall camp, a variety of team veterans shared their perspective on what Leipold called a “night-and-day” contrast from 2021.

“You don’t have to worry about a lot of people not knowing what’s going on,” linebacker Rich Miller said. “Today, you say one thing, everybody knows what’s going on.”

“It was a lot of energy around the field,” Daniels added. “You can tell that the attention to detail was there, and we know what we have to do to be able to take that next step.”

Leipold has repeatedly taken care to emphasize, as he did again Tuesday, that 2022’s 6-7 campaign and Liberty Bowl berth were just a step along the way toward what his staff hopes to accomplish: “We are in no place for complacency in where we’re at; yes, progress has been made, but there’s still a lot ahead of us,” he said. But certainly, he said, the Jayhawks are already demonstrating the results of what they’ve accomplished so far.

“One of the things I think that has changed externally, of course, is expectations,” Leipold said. “But internally I think what’s changed for the better, of course, is confidence.”

Tuesday’s practice was the first of 14 open to media over the next three weeks as the Jayhawks ramp up to their Sept. 1 opener against Missouri State. Leipold noted, however, that KU isn’t beginning from scratch as it did in 2021, not only because his staff was new then but because rule changes have allowed for more summer work, creating what he called a “continual flow.” In addition, the program has retained such a high proportion of its talent from 2022.

“We don’t have to waste time on trying to fix little things,” Miller said.

article imageChance Parker/Journal-World photo

Kansas junior Jalon Daniels runs through drills during the first day of Fall Camp on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023.

Offensive line in the spotlight

One of the stronger units for KU in 2022, the offensive line lost Earl Bostick Jr. to graduation, but otherwise returns its talent. Position coach Scott Fuchs isn’t slated to speak to reporters until next week, but his unit adds a pair of key transfers in Logan Brown and Spencer Lovell, and Lovell, a Fort Collins, Colorado, native who played at Arizona State and Cal, earned plaudits in particular from Leipold Tuesday for the work he has put in to improve his body during the offseason.

“Spencer’s the one that’s maybe made the most change, body-wise, that I think is really going to help us interior-wise,” Leipold said. “I like it, and I think it’s going to create great competition, not just the depth that we’re looking for.”

A locker-room leader on the offensive line and a preseason all-conference selection, center Mike Novitsky is back on the practice field after being limited all spring, an experience he said helped him see the offense and the backfield from a different perspective. He too praised the newcomers.

“They’ve been able to pick up the plays, and they’re quick on their feet,” he said. “They’re getting the technique right, so it’s good.”

Leipold also took time to comment on the versatility of lineman Dominick Puni, who made the leap from Division II Central Missouri to KU last season and emerged as a reliable starter. In the spring, with Novitsky absent, Puni slid around from position to position.

“He is a tough, special guy for us, and very underrated, I think, within the league,” Leipold said. He also compared Puni to Chris Bober, a lineman whose time at Omaha coincided with Leipold’s and whose substantial physical growth helped him get to the NFL and carve out an eight-year career.

The status of Joe Krause

Leipold said he didn’t have an update to share on Joe Krause, the redshirt sophomore offensive lineman who was charged with aggravated criminal threat last week following a bomb threat on the KU football complex.

“Joe is suspended, right now, from the program,” Leipold said, “and that’s really all I know and can tell you from our perspective.”

Krause was originally slated to have his next court appearance Tuesday but will instead have his preliminary hearing over Zoom at 9 a.m. on Aug. 9.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off "California vibes," whatever that means.