photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas interim head football coach Clint Bowen watches over the defense during practice on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas interim head football coach Clint Bowen watches over the defense during practice on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014.

In-season open practices are back at the Kansas University football complex and today was the first day for the media to go out and take a look at the way Clint Bowen runs things as the head coach.

To be fair, it’s not that much of a departure from the way Bowen ran things before. It’s just that now, Bowen is running the whole show and his impact on the entire team, and not just the defense, is evident.

His energy is contagious. His passion comes out in every drill. And, perhaps most importantly, his attention to detail and the demand that the players do it right or do it over has become the norm.

It’s rubbed off on all of the assistant coaches, as well.

Because we haven’t been able to attend in-season practices for a couple of years, and, because even when we did it was only for the first 20 minutes, it’s hard to say how different or similar this is to what came before. But that hardly matters. All that matters is that it is being done and the players seem to be responding.

It won’t mean much if the results on the field don’t change on game days. But it definitely can’t hurt.

Here’s a quick look at a few other things that caught my eye at Wednesday’s practice, where we were able to observe for more than 45 minutes and, as far as I’ve been told, will be able to every Wednesday for the rest of the season.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger walks toward practice with former KU great David Jaynes on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014.

• KU legend David Jaynes was in attendance to speak to the team before practice and he made no bones about what he thought should be expected out of a Kansas football team. Jaynes, a former KU quarterback and Kansas native who finished fourth in the 1973 Heisman Trophy voting, did not yell and scream and spit, but he was direct. He said practice should be harder than the games. He said he always asked that the KU DBs be right on his wide receivers during practices so he would have to be as accurate as possible. That way, when they reached Saturdays and the opposing DBs played a little off for fear of getting beat deep, the throws would be easier to make and the game would seem simple. The message was well received and Bowen, when he introduced Jaynes, made sure the team looked up to the to of the bowl at the north end of Memorial Stadium, where Jaynes name is plastered on the wall. Cool moment. I heard former KU lineman Keith Loneker spoke to the team at the end of Tuesday’s practice.

• One cool thing about the way practice began today (and I assume this is how it begins every day now) was how the team took the field. Instead of players strolling out to the turf one-by-one or a few at a time, they all congregated by the bronze Jayhawk outside of the locker room and took the field together. Any guesses as to who led the way? Yep. Bowen.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas interim head football coach Clint Bowen runs out to the practice with the team on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014.

• I mentioned that Bowen’s energy seems to have rubbed off on everyone and that includes the assistant coaches. I think the Jayhawks started doing some more physical work a couple of weeks ago, so that part was not terribly new. But the intensity of it and the urgency they operated with seemed a bit amped up. Even the assistants ran from station to station and drill to drill. No wasted time by anyone.

• One of the best soundbites of the practice came from Bowen during a linebacker drill. It was simple and to the point, directed at one player but was probably a subtle message sent to the entire team. “Quit being soft,” he barked.

• Here’s the thing about Bowen taking over and how he wants it all to go…. If you walked out to the field today to watch practice and did not know who the head coach was, you might not necessarily have picked Bowen first. That’s not to say he wasn’t in command or wasn’t the one running the show, but it does indicate that he’s not trying to tackle this thing alone. He’s letting his coaches coach, he trusts them to do their jobs and wants this to be a team run by the coaches, players, fans, alums, administrators and anybody else who cares about Kansas football. It seems to me that Bowen only cares about two things and two things only out there on the practice field: Does it or does it not affect KU’s chances of winning the next game? If it does, he’ll deal with it. If it doesn’t, he’s not too concerned about it and it can wait.

• As for a detail about the whole urgency and working harder thing, I think it’s important to note that it’s not just the guys who aren’t playing who have stepped it up. The front line guys have really led the way in this thing. Michael Reynolds, Ben Heeney, JaCorey Shepherd, Nick Harwell, guys like that have even turned their intensity up and doing so makes that the standard for practices now.