The first of “voluntary” summer conditioning workouts began at 6 a.m. today for the Kansas University football team. The wise players showed up at 5:55. “Hawk Time” stipulates that if you’re not five minutes early, you might as well be five minutes late.

Pity the poor newcomer who views these sessions as optional and doesn’t think he will hurt his chances of gaining playing time by sleeping in after staying up late playing Grand Theft Auto.

Kansas hasn’t gone from perennial Big 12 doormat to 12-1 Orange Bowl champion under reigning national coach of the year Mark Mangino because players participated when the spirit moved them during long, hot, sweaty summer days.

A program doesn’t get hammered by national powers in recruiting, the way KU did when so many of last season’s key players entered college, and then blow past those same schools by treating the summer as anything less than the most important of all football seasons.

Strength and conditioning coach Chris Dawson and his staff run the sessions. Medical personnel are on hand, an NCAA requirement. Dawson keeps Mangino abreast of all developments.

Mangino, Dawson and returning players already have established a culture that makes it clear that every day not spent getting better is a day spent getting worse. Slackers fall behind.

Good idea for newcomers: Treat Dawson with the same respect as if he were the head coach because for now he essentially is.

Bad idea for newcomers: Rationalize missing workouts or giving less than maximum effort by saying, “Once we start playing football, I’ll show them what I’ve got, and they’ll have no choice but to play me.”

Wrong.

Summer is the time coaches learn how badly the athletes want to become football players. First impressions have a way of sticking. From a newcomer’s vantage point, the beauty of summer conditioning is that the strength coaches don’t care about where a player is now in terms of strength. They care only about what kind of football player the athletes want to become and how much effort they are willing to put forth.

Summer isn’t easy for college football players. Typically, they run in the morning, then go to class, then work out with weights in the afternoon. Two nights a week, they’ll do some sort of skill work, including seven-on-seven drills. They are limited to 10 workout sessions a week. The newcomers determined to follow Aqib Talib, Anthony Collins, Derek Fine and Marcus Henry into the draft one day will make all 10 sessions every week. In doing so, they’ll gain the respect of veteran teammates and earn an important role in a winning program.

Shortcuts don’t work in football, and Mangino’s players know not to take them. NFL teams take note. They know if they get a Mangino-coached athlete, they’re getting someone who shows up on time, works hard and has teammates’ backs. As much as anything, that’s why KU had four players selected in the draft. For each one, including a defensive back named Aqib Talib who arrived on campus scrawny, it started in the summer.