Football Completes Spring Practice No. 2; Cox Officially Granted Clock Extension
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Unlike Tuesday’s opening practice of the spring season, the Kansas football team completed its second two-hour spring session under ideal weather conditions on Thursday, working out with a sense of urgency on both the practice fields and inside Memorial Stadium.
The Jayhawks also received some good news as senior running back Taylor Cox was officially approved for a clock extension by the NCAA. With this approval, Cox is cleared to participate for the Jayhawks in the 2015 season. He missed all but two games for Kansas in 2013 after suffering a hamstring injury. Cox then missed the entire 2014 campaign after suffering a torn Achilles tendon during fall camp. The Mill Creek, Washington, native, has produced 508 yards on 97 carries during his 14 games as a Jayhawk.
“I know he was unbelievably excited when that news came through and so were we,” head coach David Beaty said. “We needed the depth and he’s a guy that’s a veteran dude and we’re happy he’s going to continue to be with us.”
The excitement of the upcoming season getting underway carried over into KU’s second practice of the spring. The tempo of the workout was increased and there was a renewed sense of urgency among both the coaching staff and the players to compete and steadily improve production while learning a new system – something Beaty is working to instill and increase each day during his tenure.
“Effort is a minimum expectation,” Beaty said. “We tell them we’re not going to spend a lot of time on effort because we expect that every day. That’s something that when you look across the world, that applies. It’s the guys that produce that are winners and we’re trying to find the production guys. That’s what we’re working on.”
The Jayhawks will return to the practice field on Saturday for their third scheduled practice of the spring season, this time adding pads for the first time in 2015.
Kansas will hold its annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 25. The game will be held in Memorial Stadium at 1 p.m.
The Spring Game will be televised live on the Jayhawk Television Network in the state of Kansas and the Kansas City metro area and nationally on ESPN3. Additionally, the game will be broadcast live across the state of Kansas on the Jayhawk Radio Network, with an audio stream also available at KUAthletics.com.
Per NCAA rules, KU will hold 15 practices during the spring season. As a safety precaution, in two of the practice sessions players will be limited to helmets only. Additionally, in a third session players are only allowed to dress out in helmets and shoulder pads, as they are required to go through an acclimatization period. The remaining 12 practice sessions players are able to wear full pads and participate in live contact drills for a portion of practice. The Jayhawks will spread out their spring practice dates over a five-week period spanning the last week of March and the month of April.
In addition to the spring game on Saturday, April 25, Kansas Athletics will host the fourth annual Train Like a Jayhawk Kid’s Clinic. More information on the Train Like a Jayhawk Kid’s Clinic and all of the events surrounding the annual spring game, including times, locations and parking information, will be provided at a later date.
KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.
