All things considered, Thursday night’s Fall Sports Jamboree didn’t look all that much different from last Saturday’s simulated football scrimmages.

Free State High did its fair share of passing, with its wide receivers continuing to impress, while Lawrence High’s running game ground out yards by the bunches.

Lawrence High's Brandon McAnderson punches through the defense during the Lions' scrimmage Thursday at the Fall Sports Jamboree.

But that’s where the similarities end.

Where Saturday’s scrimmage at Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium was a minimal production, done mostly to get each team on tape, Thursday’s annual jamboree was a happening where football was the main event.

It simulated the whole Friday night experience.

“It gets you out under the lights, puts fans in the stands,” Free State football coach Bob Lisher said. “It’s a little bit better atmosphere than last week.”

Circus is more like it.

Each school had more than 1,500 fans watching each game, with students packing the front rows. Each school introduced its fall teams throughout the game, named off the cheerleaders and showcased the band, and the cross country teams did their customary runs during each team’s “halftime.”

Booths were set up in the concourses selling school apparel, game officials worked out the kinks for fall and even the police got in on the act, directing traffic after the game as if it were a Friday night game.

It prepared everyone for the start of the season a week from today, though the football teams technically were the only ones practicing.

LHS showed off its size and speed in the running game, giving the ball to seniors Brandon McAnderson, who rushed six times for 45 yards, and Brian Seymour, six carries for 29 yards, and a host of juniors and sophomores.

Quarterbacks Tommy Mangino and Taylor Parker had some trouble throwing the ball, but Lions coach Dirk Wedd expects those problems to solve themselves by Friday’s opener at Leavenworth.

With the way Lawrence’s defense played, the offense didn’t need to do much.

“Our defense was really flying around the field,” Wedd said. “I felt like more hits were being passed around than last week. Our offense didn’t show off its best stuff, but that’s OK.”

That was because the defense was busy embarrassing the offense. Brandon Womack picked off Mangino’s first pass and returned it 94 yards for a touchdown. John Davis intercepted another Mangino pass about eight minutes later, but fumbled it when hit and Seymour returned the fumble and sprinted 61 yards for another touchdown.

Mangino still has his coach’s confidence though. Wedd said Mangino was the No. 1 QB heading into next week.

Free State has the opposite problem. Lisher has enough play-makers that he feels comfortable using them all, so he did Thursday.

Senior quarterback Matt Berner connected with tight end Matt Lane on back-to-back 18-yard completions on the Firebirds’ second series of the scrimmage, then found senior wide receiver Bijai Jones along the right sideline for 20 yards. Junior Cole Douglas punched it in one play later for a five-yard touchdown.

Lisher said Free State would throw 15 to 20 times a game in order to capitalize on those weapons. Of course, Friday’s home opener against Shawnee Mission Northwest will just be a test to see if the Firebirds’ absorbed everything the coaches have taught past two weeks.

“We didn’t overload the kids with offense or defense. We just tried to stick to working on the fundamentals,” Lisher said. “You just want to make sure you’re doing things right with your bread-and-butter plays.”