No new plans

Kansas University’s football team has no plans to stray from the format it’s accustomed to in today’s spring game.

That generally will mean projected first-team players against second team, with a couple of exceptions if personnel conundrums demand it. Quarterbacks in the past have been ruled down by touch to prevent injury.

“It’ll be pretty much the same,” KU coach Mark Mangino said, “as what we’ve done in the past.”

Wrapping up

The spring game is the last of 15 practices that started about one month ago. It’s also the last team practice in pads until early August.

That alone makes it a big day in Mangino’s eyes.

“It’s an important day of practice,” Mangino said. “It’s great that the fans come in and watch and support the kids. We think that’s great. But it really is just another day of work.”

Fan information

With construction of the Anderson Family Football Complex underway on the west side of Memorial Stadium, fans attending the spring game are asked to park on the east side of the stadium and enter through the southeast entrance. Seating, as usual, will remain on the west side of the stadium.

Admission and parking for the game are free. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will receive a 2007 KU football T-shirt.

Strauss on board

Mike Strauss has been named associate media relations director at Kansas University. In his role, Strauss will handle the media operations for KU football in addition to publicizing KU’s 18 varsity sports.

Strauss comes to KU from Utah State University, where he spent 10 years as the assistant athletic director/media relations director. He also worked in media relations at Oklahoma State, where he handled publicity for the Cowboy basketball team from 1988 to 1996. In Stillwater, Strauss was part of the successful Heisman Trophy campaign of Barry Sanders and OSU’s 1995 trip to the Final Four.

A 1987 University of Colorado graduate, Strauss is married to the former Lisa Brossett and the couple has two sons, Bradley and Coulter.