#1: Neal begins final year at KU
In what we do you never try to get favor a player, but it has been tough not to do that with Devin Neal. He's a first class young man. And that's not to say a lot of other players aren't. But getting to know him during recruiting and talking with him over the last five years, it hit me today this will be his last first day of fall camp in a KU uniform.
I asked him about that.
"Oh, man, I know Coach Wallace said right before it's the first of last, and I was like, oh, man, he set it in for me," Neal said. "So, yeah, I mean, it feels good just being back and enjoying this last year, and I think we have a lot of great things ahead of us, for sure."
It is hard not thinking about a KU team without #4, but here's to a great season for Neal and leaving with some records to his name.
#2: Will be interesting to watch the new analysts
The new NCAA rule for this season allows for analysts to coach in practice and games. I was watching them today and you can tell there are more coaches involved. I have talked to people in college football and this can be tricky, because sometimes you can have too many cooks in the kitchen.
It is a far cry from when Leipold arrived because KU was coming off NCAA trouble for having analysts coaching before it was allowed. Leipold said that is something they put a lot of thought into.
"You've got to be careful. You’ve got to make sure everybody’s on the same page and comfortable and we all check our egos, but make sure that we’re still in alignment on what we’re doing."
#3: The facilities matter
Every player got a smile on their face when talking about the new facilities for the players.
They moved in yesterday and saw them. You can tell it meant a lot to them.
"Yeah, it was just a good impact," Jereme Robinson said. "It's like almost a refresher. Like, we can battle with anybody in the country with our facilities and now we can just show it off and wait on our stadium."
#4: Jalon Daniels looked good in practice and had a long road back
I asked him what it felt like to be back out there and he had a big grin and smiled. He said it felt great. This was not easy and it took a lot of hard work. I talked to him about the process to being ready.
"It was definitely a process. You know, started off slow because I couldn't be out there with the guys during the winter. And at the end of the day, that's something that hurts you most as a competitor, as a football player, let alone as a man, when it's something that you want to be able to do when you can't do it. So, you know, it was slow at first because I wanted things to move faster, but as things started to go along, you started to gain more confidence in the process of being able to stay where your feet are.
"As the spring came along, I started to feel as if, I was back to who I wanted to be, back to the player that I wanted to be. And now that summer is here, I'm just ready to go. Ready to play some ball."
In what we do you never try to get favor a player, but it has been tough not to do that with Devin Neal. He's a first class young man. And that's not to say a lot of other players aren't. But getting to know him during recruiting and talking with him over the last five years, it hit me today this will be his last first day of fall camp in a KU uniform.
I asked him about that.
"Oh, man, I know Coach Wallace said right before it's the first of last, and I was like, oh, man, he set it in for me," Neal said. "So, yeah, I mean, it feels good just being back and enjoying this last year, and I think we have a lot of great things ahead of us, for sure."
It is hard not thinking about a KU team without #4, but here's to a great season for Neal and leaving with some records to his name.
#2: Will be interesting to watch the new analysts
The new NCAA rule for this season allows for analysts to coach in practice and games. I was watching them today and you can tell there are more coaches involved. I have talked to people in college football and this can be tricky, because sometimes you can have too many cooks in the kitchen.
It is a far cry from when Leipold arrived because KU was coming off NCAA trouble for having analysts coaching before it was allowed. Leipold said that is something they put a lot of thought into.
"You've got to be careful. You’ve got to make sure everybody’s on the same page and comfortable and we all check our egos, but make sure that we’re still in alignment on what we’re doing."
#3: The facilities matter
Every player got a smile on their face when talking about the new facilities for the players.
They moved in yesterday and saw them. You can tell it meant a lot to them.
"Yeah, it was just a good impact," Jereme Robinson said. "It's like almost a refresher. Like, we can battle with anybody in the country with our facilities and now we can just show it off and wait on our stadium."
#4: Jalon Daniels looked good in practice and had a long road back
I asked him what it felt like to be back out there and he had a big grin and smiled. He said it felt great. This was not easy and it took a lot of hard work. I talked to him about the process to being ready.
"It was definitely a process. You know, started off slow because I couldn't be out there with the guys during the winter. And at the end of the day, that's something that hurts you most as a competitor, as a football player, let alone as a man, when it's something that you want to be able to do when you can't do it. So, you know, it was slow at first because I wanted things to move faster, but as things started to go along, you started to gain more confidence in the process of being able to stay where your feet are.
"As the spring came along, I started to feel as if, I was back to who I wanted to be, back to the player that I wanted to be. And now that summer is here, I'm just ready to go. Ready to play some ball."
