LAWRENCE — With Kansas football’s spring practices for 2024 approaching, comes an opportunity for the Jayhawks to gauge where they’re at.

Here are a few takeaways from what Matt Gildersleeve, the team’s director of sports performance, had to say this week as the team looks to build on back-to-back bowl appearances — and a bowl victory — for the first time in more than a decade:

Here’s how Matt Gildersleeve looks to treat Kansas’ transfers

First and foremost, the first thing Matt Gildersleeve said he ever tells a transfer is the same thing, “Whether God puts you in my life for six months, three years or six years, I’m going to coach you the exact same way.” So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the second someone steps on campus he views the standard for that person as the same as anyone else. He even added that they’ll hold one-on-one meetings to discuss the team’s culture and more, so the newcomer understands what the standard is and what the expectations are.

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“When Austin (Booker) came here in January, he was an extremely poor mover,” said Gildersleeve, speaking about a potential early round NFL draft pick this year. “Like, just his body, he was not a good mover. And I was — I talked to him about that. We need to get his hip flexors moving. We need to teach him how to get in different positions. And he worked extremely hard at it, and by the time fall came around he was a totally different athlete.”

Booker didn’t play much at Minnesota before he transferred to Kansas ahead of the 2023 season. With the Jayhawks, he transformed into an All-Big 12 Conference talent. He led his team in sacks and tackles for loss before embarking on his professional career.

Here is Matt Gildersleeve’s plan for Shane Bumgardner

Among the transfers Kansas brought in with its 2024 signing class, Shane Bumgardner has one of the clearest paths to playing time. Bumgardner, who’s making the jump from Division II Tiffin to Division I, could be the center to replace Mike Novitsky — considering Bumgardner was named the top center for that level of competition this past season. And from Gildersleeve’s perspective, what they are doing boils down to taking advantage of the resources Bumgardner may not have had at his previous stop so he can do what it takes to perform at this level.

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“Shane has come in and he has fit in extremely smooth because he is a great worker,” Gildersleeve said. “But his athletic, strength, physical deficiencies — he’s also cutting those down at a pretty high rate right now because of what I said at the start, is just the resources from recovery to the sport science things we have that we can identify different deficiencies and begin to correct those things. He’s made a lot of progress in a very short time.”

Matt Gildersleeve aims to use the insight of new assistant coaches

There have been multiple changes to the coaching staff Lance Leipold, Kansas’ head coach, will use as the Jayhawks look to take a step forward in 2024. Among those changes have been Jeff Grimes’ hire as assistant head coach/offensive coordinator and D.K. McDonald’s hire as co-defensive coordinator/cornerbacks coach. And from Gildersleeve’s perspective, all thoughts are welcome.

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As Gildersleeve has pointed out, alignment is important for Leipold. Gildersleeve described Kansas as a, “We, us, our program,” not a, “Me, my, I program.” Although Gildersleeve is ultimately responsible for the execution and implementation of the team’s strength and conditioning program, it’s not as if he doesn’t want to know what Grimes or McDonald thinks about what they are doing so they can be better.

“Collectively, it’s we, us, our, right?” Gildersleeve said. “It’s alignment within that. But we’re all just trying to find ways to make every part of this program better.”

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: What's on Matt Gildersleeve's mind before KU football's spring ball?