Despite the rapid pace at which construction at the new David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium is going, the seniors on this Kansas football team know they’ll never get a chance to play in it.
That’s what made Monday’s unveiling of the newly renovated Anderson Family Football Complex all the sweeter for KU’s upperclassmen.
Head coach Lance Leipold long has said it was important to him for the Jayhawks who helped make that new stadium possible to at least get a taste of the shiny new toys that the program will have in its future. And he reiterated that again on Tuesday after the opening day of preseason camp.
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate our guys,” Leipold said Tuesday. “Because they've been inconvenienced and it’s been tough. They were anxious to see it. It’s like a Christmas day type of thing.”
Brand new spaces for the guys in Anderson Family Football Complex 🔥📈
— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) July 30, 2024
They earned it. Rock Chalk. pic.twitter.com/iO10V6f9Wc
Each Jayhawk had his own reaction and favorite first glance of the upgrades to the facility, which cost millions and were cobbled together at breakneck speeds. And many of them were different.
But the general feeling that all of them had in common covered three areas — pride, appreciation and excitement.
“Oh, I love it,” defensive end Jereme Robinson said on Tuesday afternoon. “It looks real nice. Everything’s binding together now. It used to be like it was a different vibe everywhere you go, but everything’s gelled together now. I think it’s the colors and the way they have the logos everywhere, the branding.”
When the doors first opened and the players went barreling down the stairs to their new digs, Robinson said the locker room was the first place he wanted to visit.
“We missed it, man. We missed it,” he said. “It looks so nice and it’s on a different level now.”
Quarterback Jalon Daniels had a similar reaction when he made his way down the staircase, phone in hand, recording the whole experience for his own digital scrapbook.
“It was crazy,” Daniels said. “As soon as you walk through the doors, it looks totally different than how it was before. It definitely looks very futuristic.”
Daniels noted the use of glass, massage chairs and sauna and also said the consistent KU branding of logos and color scheme stood out to him.
This place is niiiiiiiice 👀
— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) July 30, 2024
Anderson Family Football Complex reveal coming soon! pic.twitter.com/ZNgUIKcfzq
For lifelong Lawrence resident and KU running back Devin Neal, the experience took on an even greater meaning.
For years, Neal saw the old stadium at the base of Campanile hill and thought even that was as cool as it got. Now, though, he not only sees what’s being built but also knows that he had a huge part in making it possible, and both facts blow his mind every time he thinks about them.
He says every new glimpse of the stadium and now the renovated football facility gives him a strong sense of pride and overwhelming feeling of, “Wow, I did that.”
“That’s exactly how I feel,” Neal told R1S1 Sports. “Just understanding the amount of work that I and the team have put in for this to happen for future generations. If we don’t do what we’ve done, we don’t get this – probably ever, honestly. So, just knowing that and (looking at) the steps in between, from 2-10 to 6-7 to 9-4, it’s just really cool to build on that and I’m just super-glad that coach Leipold has allowed us to experience some of the newness and niceness of the new stuff, too.”
Seeing it all come to life and experiencing it for the first time was more impactful than Neal could’ve imagined. He said he went to the area of the facility with the massage chairs and sauna first — “that was dope,” he added — and quickly discovered that the Jayhawks would be more comfortable than ever in their new surroundings.
Neal said the fact that they’re moving into the new-and-improved Anderson Complex after a spring and summer’s worth of dressing on the east side of the stadium, eating and lifting in the indoor facility and making things work that weren’t meant to work only adds to the excitement.
“It’s just crazy where we’re at,” he said. “You see the renderings and you see the plans, but to experience it firsthand, you can just see how excited the guys are.
“Not that the transition to be in the indoor the whole spring was hard, but guys didn’t really like it. And now everyone’s super-excited to have this because fall camp’s a grind. Now we have a nice, little comfy home and we’re just enjoying it.”
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