Kansas head coach Lance Leipold and the Jayhawks take the field for kickoff against Baylor on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021 at Memorial Stadium. (Photo by Nick Krug/Special to the Journal-World)

As the Kansas football program enters the final week of preparation for the start of spring practices, the Jayhawks have done a little looking ahead, as well.

Spring drills are slated to begin Feb. 28. The offseason session of 15 practices will end on April 7, with the newly named Spring Showcase at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

Looking well beyond that, though, the program recently announced a few key dates for the 2023 season and also revealed the identity of a nonconference opponent as far out as 2028.

Kansas has scheduled a home game against Lindenwood for Sept. 2, 2028.

The Jayhawks will face Lindenwood in the season opener for the 2024 season, as well. That game was announced last September and it is on schedule to be the first FBS game in Lindenwood history.

Lindenwood is a university based in St. Charles, Missouri, and its football program recently made the jump to Division I.

The Lions spent the 2022 season as a provisional member of the D-I ranks and will begin full-time competition at college football’s highest level this fall at the FCS level in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Prior to the jump, Lindenwood was a Division II school from 2011 to 2021, and before that the Lions were an NAIA school.

Two of the most notable Lindenwood football alums include former NFL running back DeDe Dorsey, who played with the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI, as well as the Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions from 2006-10, and former KU head coach David Beaty, who was a receiver at Lindenwood from 1990-93.

Believe it or not, 2028 is not the farthest game on KU’s football schedule. Kansas also already has nonconference matches scheduled for 2029 (at Virginia and vs. Nevada), 2030 (vs. Virginia and at Fresno State), 2031 (vs. Fresno State and at Missouri) and 2032 (vs. Missouri and vs. Hawaii).

That Hawaii game in Lawrence is part of a recently announced home-and-home series with the Rainbows, which will begin with KU traveling to paradise to open the 2028 season.

Also on the slate in 2028 with Hawaii and Lindenwood is a home game against Washington State and a road trip to Louisiana Tech.

The renewal of KU’s series with Missouri will actually begin in 2025, with the Jayhawks traveling to Columbia for the first football game between the two schools since 2012. Missouri will come to Lawrence the following year. That series was announced in 2020, and KU basketball, of course, already has jumped back into battle with the Tigers.

Bill Self’s squad drubbed Mizzou last season at Allen Fieldhouse and in Columbia earlier this season.

In other future KU football news this week, the Jayhawks announced the following four dates of featured weekends for the 2023 season:

• Sept. 23 vs. BYU is Family Day

• Oct. 28 vs. Oklahoma is Homecoming

• Nov. 11 vs. Texas Tech will be Salute to Service Day

• Nov. 18 vs. Kansas State is Senior Day