It might not have been quite as dramatic of a moment as when the 2025 Kansas Jayhawks got to practice in the newly renovated David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium for the first time last summer, but this year’s team made its own return to the friendly confines of the Booth on Friday morning.
KU spent its ninth practice of fall camp within the stadium, with its east side redone and the lower bowl and new south-end seating in place, but the whole enterprise still very much a work in progress. The Jayhawks will play in Lawrence throughout the season, albeit with reduced capacity.
“The new side looks awesome,” said tight end Leyton Cure, a sixth-year senior. “I’m really excited for what it’s going to be like when it’s finished, even though it’ll be after I’ve left, but I’ll definitely have to come back and see the full thing. It’s going to be a pretty cool spot this year.”
Both Cure, who joked about standing on the Big 12 Monster Energy logo for the first time, and head coach Lance Leipold said that training on the field brought some added energy to Friday’s practice.
“I think it makes it more real to where it’s like, ‘All right, we’re getting around that time of year where it’s about time,'” Cure said.
For Leipold, the trial run was about getting used to the latest iteration of the venue. They’ll be in there more, including at night, in the lead-up to the opener on Sept. 4. (They’ll also do some practicing on grass in preparation for playing at Wembley Stadium early this season.)
“Still being a morning practice, you just want to get in there and get acclimated to the surroundings,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of new players in our program, had an opportunity to be in there. Eventually, with lights and things, you still got to get used to picking up the ball, tracking the ball and things like that. With new surroundings, you try to get that.”
He said that some elements of the construction project have moved more quickly than he might have expected and that the current state of the stadium should make for an atmosphere that is “a lot better than I anticipated when it started after the season.”
“When they started to (put up lights) this summer or late spring, I was pretty excited that the whole lighting system will be there and be consistent throughout the stadium,” Leipold said. “… I knew it would be a lower bowl setting. I didn’t know also that the upper deck framework would be there to give us that stadium feel. So all of those were highly positive.”
LATEST NOTES
The press conference following Friday’s practice was Leipold’s third of four during fall camp and gave him an opportunity to weigh in on his team’s ongoing development in a variety of areas. Here’s some of what he had to say:
— Injuries at the nickel position have given an unlikely player a chance to fashion himself into “a guy that may have to play” this season, as Leipold put it. Freshman Trey Brown, a 6-foot, 190-pound cornerback from Carson, California, already came up once during camp as a potential special-teams contributor this year. But his involvement could be even more significant.
“Trey Brown’s the one that’s probably been as consistent and been healthy and been out there … For a guy who just enrolled in January, the moment’s not too big for him,” Leipold said. “He handles things well. He takes coaching. He learns every day. He’s in asking questions. It’s extremely important to him.”
He wasn’t even initially recruited to play nickel, but an opportunity has presented itself for Brown because a lot of other players have been inconsistently available. In discussing the nickel spot on Friday, Leipold mentioned Mississippi State transfer cornerback Elijah Cannon and safeties Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman, Mason Ellis and Jaden Harris. Harris has also been competing with Taylor Davis at boundary safety. He missed a recent practice but should be back soon, Leipold said. The other three were all highly limited during the spring but have been more present of late.
“It’s not that we don’t have anyone,” Leipold said. “You know, sometimes you’re grasping at who can it be … It’s a matter of just finding the guy that’s going to be the healthiest and steadiest of the group.”
— Elsewhere in the secondary is another position receiving scrutiny. Jalen Todd remains firmly ensconced as a starting outside cornerback for the second straight year. But Leipold described the other cornerback spot as “probably the one that I need to continue to watch and go through.”
Austin Alexander, last year’s primary starter opposite Todd, has battled injury throughout the offseason and experienced a recent setback as a result of a different injury. Leipold said he’s been getting healthier, but Ball State transfer Roman Pearson, former Georgia Tech transfer Syeed Gibbs and former Alabama transfer Jahlil Hurley are all in the picture.
— KU has a pretty clear set of three top-line specialists, all new this year, in Michigan State transfer kicker Martin Connington, Australian punter Matt Gill and Cal transfer long snapper Rino Monteforte.
But other members of the unit may find ways to make themselves useful. Monteforte was highly complimentary of the strength of walk-on kicker Dane Efird’s leg in recent days. On Friday, Leipold suggested that Efird could compete to perform kickoffs during the regular season.
He also praised Monteforte’s own backup, who has found an unusual way to make himself useful.
“Hollis Moeller is a walk-on long snapper who came in to me and asked about being — thought he could be — a holder,” Leipold said, “and so our backup long snapper’s going to be our starting holder and does a nice job, and it’s not every day that you have that combination.”
