LAWRENCE — Matt Gildersleeve took time Wednesday to explain the mentality of Kansas football’s offseason program, and he also outlined how Cold Stone Creamery is involved.

At the 25-yard lines inside KU’s indoor practice facility, which is also operating as the weight room, there are big screens on the wall. Gildersleeve, Kansas’ director of sports performance, is saying there’s a picture on each. And that picture, he’s noting, is of Cold Stone ice cream.

When someone orders ice cream from Cold Stone, which Gildersleeve is volunteering he only knows because he has a young child, they don’t order a small, medium or a large. They order a “Like It,” “Love it,” or “Gotta Have It.”

And in that, lies the reason for the picture.

Because the theme for offseason is if everyone comes back after the 2023 season and likes what they’re doing, that won’t be enough for the program in 2024. Even if they come back and love what they’re doing, that’s not enough either. What they need, is for everyone to approach their work like they can’t live without it.

RELATED: Report: Kansas football expected to hire Daryl Agpalsa as Jayhawks’ offensive line coach

RELATED: Kansas football’s Matt Gildersleeve highlights plan for Shane Bumgardner, more in 2024

“That’s the mindset mentality we have to have, and so we introduced that to them the first team meeting back, that picture of those three bowls of ice cream sitting next to each other, and they’ve been up in every single lift training session, We Will programs — which is kind of our winter conditioning,” Gildersleeve said. “When you walk in here, you see them up on the TV screens. Now you hear the guys breaking it down on, ‘Gotta Have It.’”

Although Gildersleeve acknowledged the team has accomplished a lot since Leipold’s rebuild began in 2021, including bowl appearances in 2022 and 2023 and a bowl win in 2023, the Jayhawks are also in a situation they haven’t been in before. They’re heading into 2024 with expectations that are at a level they’ve yet to meet, or exceed. It makes it all the more important to not let complacency derail what they’re trying to accomplish.

From Gildersleeve’s perspective, complacency is the number one culture killer. So he’s emphasized how important it is to not let that take hold, and the desire for guys to not become entitled because of what individual attention or accolades they might be receiving. For more than a month, he said they’ve talked about how the players have to earn everything and how nothing the 2023 Kansas team accomplished has anything to do with the current squad.

Part of being successful comes down to how the players act, and Gildersleeve said they’ve been tremendous. But part of that also comes down to the staff. Gildersleeve outlined how they’ve analyzed numerous ways to improve, even if they were already great at it, and recreated a number of things from a process standpoint to attempt to accomplish more significant results.

That’s led to a different schedule.

Although Kansas is in the midst of an eight-week offseason program, which Gildersleeve said is the longest he’s had since he started working with Leipold — they embarked on it while establishing time the players can have to themselves. Although Gildersleeve anticipates the players being sick of him by the time they get to spring ball, that dedication to physical and mental development comes with a plan to not monopolize the players’ time. He thinks they’re getting more out of their offseason than ever before, and anticipates that carrying over to spring ball.

“In my experiences working for coach Leipold, it is his absolute strong suit and he does it with everybody all the time,” Gildersleeve said. “He has this uncanny ability, even on the staff, not that anybody ever gets comfortable, but kind of right when you figure out, like, ‘OK, this is going pretty well. We’re doing some of these things.’ He’ll always find this interesting way to just shake things up and make you just rethink your processes.”

Some of the guys who’ve stood out to Gildersleeve so far have been running back Johnny Thompson Jr., wide receiver Keaton Kubecka and defensive lineman Marcus Calvin, all freshmen in 2023. Gildersleeve said they’re all showing an understanding of what it’ll take mentally to reach their goals. For Kubecka, that’s led to both gaining 10 pounds in the last six weeks and hitting a lifetime personal record of 21.49 miles per hour.

That trio might not be ready to be the leaders on the team, but there are players who are stepping into the voids left by the likes of Dominick Puni and Jason Bean. Gildersleeve highlighted tight end Trevor Kardell, defensive lineman Tommy Dunn Jr., offensive lineman Bryce Cabeldue, running back Devin Neal, wide receiver Luke Grimm and more. Even quarterback Cole Ballard, tight end DeShawn Hanika and linebackers Cornell Wheeler and Jayson Gilliom are in that group.

“It’s why we do all of those things,” Gildersleeve said. “It’s why we have a leadership curriculum. It’s why we teach these guys those things, so we can have this kind of smooth transition.”

RELATED: Kansas basketball coach Bill Self remembers Billy Tubbs, more after beating Oklahoma

RELATED: Kansas basketball's Bill Self keeps placing trust in how Dajuan Harris Jr. chooses to play

RELATED: Bill Self updates Kevin McCullar Jr.’s injury status after Kansas basketball’s win at OU

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: Matt Gildersleeve, Kansas football and offseason Cold Stone ice cream