With the Easter holiday on Sunday and the Kansas Relays filling Memorial Stadium next weekend, the schedule was tight for Kansas University’s spring football game.

So, with few other options, the Friday night lights will flip on tonight for the festive conclusion to KU’s spring season. The first snap is at 7 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.

“Practice is hard work, but the spring game is hard work that we actually look forward to because it’s fun,” running back Jon Cornish said. “It’s an accumulation of all the work that we’ve done here.”

Which, coach Mark Mangino says, is quite apparent. Mangino cited the development of wide receivers, the physicality of the offensive and defensive lines, and the growth of KU’s young linebackers as improvements that will be noticeable tonight.

“I’m very happy in a lot of areas of where we are after 14 practices,” Mangino said. “They’ve been productive. We have a lot of work to do in some areas, there’s no question about that. But I really feel good about where we are today from where we started out in the first practice. We’re light years ahead of where we were.”

There are several storylines accompanying tonight’s scrimmage, ranging from an up-for-grabs cornerback spot to the game-readiness of freshman quarterback Kerry Meier, by all assumptions the projected starter in 2006.

Today’s practice will be the best imitation of a game situation until Sept. 2, when the Jayhawks start the season against Northwestern State.

“It’s a fun day, but it’s still a work day,” Mangino said. “We have a lot of work to get finished up here in the spring before we head over to summer workouts and then the fall.”

Mangino said the first-team offense would stay together throughout the scrimmage. The defense, however, will mix and match depending on personnel.

After Friday, conditioning and individual workouts will be front-and-center until preseason camp starts in August. There’s also the Easter holiday this weekend – the main reason KU will be playing under the Friday night lights.

“We just didn’t have many options,” Mangino said. “We had to play the game Friday night, dealing with spring break and having a holiday weekend coming up and not having access to the stadium next weekend. We didn’t want to scrimmage Saturday night and then have our kids jump in cars and try to race home and get home for one day. : More than anything, that’s the reason why it’s Friday night.”