The Kansas University football team went through its third day of spring practices on Tuesday — the first of the spring in full pads — and, although we weren’t able to watch any of the action, we did get our first chance to talk with a few of the players about how the spring has gone before they hit the practice field.

Here’s the latest installment of the slightly modified “What caught my ear,” blog, with a focus on the rumblings from the first few days of spring drills.

• Ben Heeney has been an animal this spring. As you might expect, the senior linebacker has been flying all over the field and making plays like we have become accustomed to seeing, but he’s also upped his game in pass coverage and actually had two interceptions during one early-spring practice. That kind of thing can be contagious and it sounds like the entire defense is following Heeney’s lead.

• Wide receivers Rodriguez Coleman and Nick Harwell already have made a significant impact in KU’s passing game, both in terms of getting open and making catches and becoming big-play threats.

• Based on talks with the players and coaches, if I had to pick one word to describe KU’s new offense it would be “simple.” Now that’s not simple in that it will be easy for defenses to scheme against or figure out. That’s simple in that the players grasp it, understand it and can execute it. What’s more, it sounds like they like it a lot.

• Speaking of the new offense, senior quarterback Jake Heaps said it’s basically a no-huddle system and that, even though the Jayhawks did some no-huddle at times last year, it was usually something they put in that week or for a specific opponent. Making the no-huddle approach the foundation of their offensive system makes it easier to learn and grasp and Heaps said the goal, particularly of the upperclassmen, is to get to the point where they know what the calls are going to be on the field before they even look over to the sideline to confirm it.

• In that same vein, Keon Stowers said the biggest difference between spring this season and spring the past couple of seasons was maturity and leadership. Now that so many key players are veterans, the question of right and wrong or responsibility is not as big of an issue. That’s on the field and off the field. As Stowers put it, “It’s almost like we’re the coaches,” and because of that the veterans have taken some of the burden of having to watch every sprint or every on-time arrival at every meeting off of KU’s coaches.

• I talked with Brandon Bourbon about his opportunity at running back and the senior who opened the spring No. 1 on the depth chart said the entire stable of running backs believes that their opportunity is a little more legitimate and real now that James Sims is gone. Sims led the Jayhawks in rushing during each of his four seasons and was the workhorse rock in the Kansas backfield. Bourbon, who is coming off of his most healthy and productive season in 2013, said the group Sims left behind has a list of lofty goals but added that the only way for the Jayhawks to enjoy continued success from their running backs was for each player to remain selfish internally while striving for the best results for the team externally. Sounded like a much more eloquent way of putting the cliché about competition bringing out the best in everyone.

• I asked several offensive players in the room about new offensive coordinator John Reagan and what they saw as his primary strengths. Here were a few of the words I heard in response: 1. Coach Reagan is very engaging. He’s so into everything he does that if you’re not into it right there with him, he’s going to pull you into it and make you a part of it. 2. Coach Reagan has a way of communicating the ins and outs of the new offense that’s easy to understand. He’s fun to work with and he knows what he’s doing. 3. Coach Reagan is very meticulous in the way he goes about coaching. He takes his time during installation days to make sure that we’re getting it and is willing to sit down with us and go over every aspect of every play in meetings if that’s what it takes for us to get on the same page.

• The Jayhawks will go through their fourth of 15 spring practices on Thursday before taking 9 days off for spring break. KU’s next practice after Thursday is slated for March 23.