Fans line up for autographs from the Jayhawks.

On Wednesday night, during the Kansas University football team’s annual fan appreciation day, 11-year-old Parker Hopkins got a lot of work done.

Every preseason, Hopkins, a Lawrence resident, gets a football. And every year, he sets out to collect on it the signature of every member of the Jayhawks’ football team by season’s end.

“I’ve got a ball from every Mangino year,” Hopkins said proudly, referring to seventh-year KU coach Mark Mangino. “I haven’t missed one.”

Although Hopkins hasn’t been able to snag every signature in a given year, last season he came dangerously close – “I was, like, seven away!” he says – and he seems to have built a solid foundation following Wednesday’s autograph session with players and coaches.

Hopkins, who would like you to know that he has missed only two KU home football games in the past six years (both of which were due to conflicting football games of his own), was one of hundreds of fans to take part in the school’s annual festivities.

For an hour, the Jayhawks signed autographs and posed for pictures in their final public appearance before the team’s home opener against Florida International on Aug. 30.

The evening provided many of the usual sights of a KU pep rally: lots of blue T-shirts; lots of cameras flashing; and, in what surely will become a fan appreciation day tradition, lots of Todd Reesing jerseys.

“Todd Reesing is my favorite,” explained 12-year-old David Allen, who took time from his busy evening of playing Nerf football on Kivisto Field to answer a reporter’s questions. “He just seems like he’d be a nice person. And he’s a great quarterback.”

Mangino and the team’s captains also thanked the crowd for their support, urging fans to turn out in big numbers this season – a prospect that doesn’t seem unlikely given the lengths some fans went to for a one-hour autograph session.

“I talked mom into it,” said Kevin Marozas, who made the three-hour drive from Beloit to attend the event with his 10-year-old son, Noah. “We just told her we wanted to come out here and do something different.”

Practice notes: Following the loss of kicker Stephen Hoge to a transfer – and the possible ineligibility of fellow kicker Jacob Branstetter – a (kind of) new face graced the Jayhawks’ practice fields Wednesday night during the open-practice portion of the Jayhawks’ workout.

Kyle Davis, who didn’t appear on the team’s summer roster despite being listed in the spring media guide, looked to be back with the team and was seen on the sideline alongside kicker Grady Fowler. Davis was previously listed as a punter, although he set a school record for field goals in a season while at Rockhurst (Mo.) High School.

Senior linebacker Mike Rivera, meanwhile, sat out of drills Wednesday, although he was in uniform on the sideline and later introduced as a captain to the 500 or so fans in attendance.