The KU defensive backs and linebackers work on pass break-ups against live offense during Day 5 of the 2015 spring practices on Thursday.

Thursday’s KU football practice included the first full-on scrimmage of the spring, which, according to the feedback gathered from social media, went pretty well.

We were only able to stay for the first 20 minutes of practice, so we did not get to see how the 11-on-11 action looked when things were run full speed and the hitting was live. That’s probably just as well. It’s far too early — and there are way too many players missing, either because of injury or because they have not enrolled yet — to make too many definitive calls on what this team looks like or how it plays.

That said, there were plenty of things that caught my eye prior to our departure and the beginning of the scrimmage.

Here’s a quick recap:

• Like the defense with the red pants the other day, the offense suited up for practice in gray pants on Thursday. Who knows why? And it’s clearly not that big of a deal. Could be as simple as if you’ve got ’em, you may as well use ’em. But I’ll definitely ask to see if there’s any more to it.

• Strength coach Je’Ney Jackson hit the field with a bull horn during the early portion of practice. Word is, he was tired of trying to yell over the music. Can’t blame him, either. Even with the bull horn, it was hard to hear him. But you can be sure that the players have no difficulty knowing exactly what he wants and expects, booming voice or not.

• Thursday’s practice took place entirely in Memorial Stadium, most likely because they were going to scrimmage and did not want to waste time moving from one field to the other. Most days, KU starts on the practice fields and then moves into the stadium for the final 30-45 minutes, when they run seven-on-seven drills and live 11-man offense. It’s during this part of practice when they keep track of how many plays they run in how many minutes. Earlier this week, OC Rob Likens said he did not keep track the same way head coach David Beaty does, so the only numbers we have to go on are still those 94 plays in 44 minutes and 92 plays in 42 minutes that we heard after the first two days of spring. By comparison in terms of tempo and urgency, it looks as if they’ve done about that same number during the days since. Likens said he would start to keep track more when fall camp rolls around but right now his entire focus is on fundamentals and installation.

• The KU defense was flying around like wild men during Thursday’s practice. It may have just been a coincidence and it may have just been for that drill, but the way KU’s DBs and Linebackers were practicing on Thursday leads me to believe that group has plans to be ultra-aggressive this fall. Several guys in both units recorded multiple pass break-ups and even when a receiver caught a ball, he was smacked immediately. This makes sense given the fact that the coaching staff, so far, has identified the D-Line as the strength of this KU defense. The faster the guys up front can get to the quarterback and force the ball out, the more aggressive the guys behind them can be without fear of getting burned or having to cover too long. Should be interesting to see how that holds up, but it’s quite clear that both Kenny Perry and Clint Bowen want this group to play physical, aggressive football.

• Speaking of this drill, there were quite a few wide receiver drops during the time we were out there. Now that’s not the end of the world and it was just one or two drills, but it just gives you an indication of how far that group has to go and how wide open that competition for playing time truly is. At this point, it looks as if the guys who can make plays on a consistent basis — regardless of age, size or experience — will be the guys who get on the field the fastest.