photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas Football holds its first practice in the new David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium Friday, Aug. 1, 2025 in Lawrence.

Friday night’s practice presented the first chance for the Kansas football team to spend any significant time in the revamped David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, but it might not necessarily have felt that way for at least some of the Jayhawks.

The “EA Sports College Football” video game is “a little bit too correct” in its depiction of the yet-unopened venue, redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Marcus Calvin joked.

“A little bit too detailed right there,” Calvin said. “Everything but the wheat on the ground is in the game. That’s crazy.”

It might be more accurately stated that Friday night’s practice — and then Sunday morning’s, as KU didn’t take long to return to the brand-new playing surface — gave the Jayhawks their first visit to Kivisto Field in corporeal form.

They responded to the opportunity at hand, at least according to defensive tackles coach Jim Panagos, members of whose position group spoke to reporters on Sunday following the inaugural practices at the new Booth.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Panagos, who joined the KU staff prior to the 2022 season. “I told the players last night, so many people, so many people sacrificed for that stadium — former players, former coaches, alumni, donors — to build that stadium. So now we have to go protect this house by giving great effort.”

The reality of playing in the renovated stadium is settling in for the current Jayhawks. At this point, precious few played roles on the memorable 2022 and 2023 teams whose success helped drive momentum for the project, but one such veteran player, sixth-year senior defensive tackle Kenean Caldwell, said he’d “always dreamed of playing in a stadium built like this.”

“It was a great experience being out there, especially that scrimmage, being out there at nighttime, all the lights on, just so grateful for it,” added fifth-year senior D.J. Withers. “Glad we get to play in there.”

Younger players like Calvin still understand the significance of the moment, albeit from a different perspective (although he did join the team as a freshman in 2023, before the demolition of most of the original Booth).

“A lot of the older guys that honestly worked very hard for this to happen, you know what I’m saying, they probably have to see it in a different way,” he said. “I get to see it as in, like, I went into the old Booth and played in the old Booth, and now I get to come out here and get to play in the new Booth and stuff like that, so that’s great.”

The first opportunity to take the field for real is rapidly approaching, now less than three weeks away as KU prepares to host Fresno State in a week-zero matchup on Aug. 23.

They may have played on the turf already, but one thing the Jayhawks haven’t experienced is what the stadium will be like with a crowd.

“I can’t wait for the fans to come pack the Booth, see how loud it’s going to be here,” Withers said.