The first practice leading up to the 2017 Kansas football season came indoors Monday, when head coach David Beaty’s Jayhawks began their spring at KU’s Anschutz Pavilion.

The first of 15 sessions over the course of March and April marked the first time junior quarterback Peyton Bender (No. 7) and new offensive coordinator Doug Meacham were involved with a Jayhawks practice.

— Players featured in today’s practice video include: Bender, QB No. 18 Tyriek Starks, QB No. 9 Carter Stanley, WR No. 2 Daylon Charlot, WR No. 3 Chase Harrell, WR No. 11 Steven Sims Jr., and offensive linemen No. 72 Charles Baldwin, No. 73 Larry Hughes, No. 69 Mesa Ribordy, No. 65 Jayson Rhodes and No. 78 Hakeem Adeniji.

What stood out

Media don’t get to see much of KU’s football practices, but in the time allotted Monday, I spent all 20 minutes or so watching the offensive players — primarily their interactions with Meacham.

The former co-coordinator of TCU’s offense is intense during practice and knows what he wants to see. When a player or two didn’t live up to Meacham’s expectations he let them know about it, unconcerned that this was the team’s first practice together and some might consider that a reasonable excuse for not getting through everything flawlessly.

We only saw KU go through very basic drills, but Bender, Stanley and Starks all put good zip on their throws as they worked with what projects as a talented receiving group.

I only saw a little bit of the offensive line work, but one can’t help noticing the O-line seems to look a little more like a Big 12 unit each year — meaning the players responsible for protecting the QB appear collectively larger than their predecessors.

From left to right, here are the current listed measurements (KU hasn’t officially updated them for 2017 as of yet) for what figures to be assistant Zach Yenser’s top five:

• LT Hakeem Adeniji: 6-4, 265 sophomore

• LG Jayson Rhodes: 6-4, 307 senior

• C Mesa Ribordy: 6-4, 290 sophomore

• RG Larry Hughes: 6-7, 311 junior

• RT Charles Baldwin: 6-5, 305 junior