Every day walking to and from classes I have the honor of passing Memorial Stadium. Yes, I do say honor because as a fan, it is exhilarating just to walk by and remember games from last year and to imagine the games to come. On my walks, I’ve noticed each day there have been new additions: more tents on the hill, more seat cushions added to reserved seats and parking barriers lying off to the side waiting for the first game Saturday night.

As the stadium is preparing for the first game, there is one lingering question: is the team prepared? With new coaches, and a new roster, fans anxiously await their chance to see the team in action. In a press conference Tuesday, coach Turner Gill said the team was ready.

“I do know our team is going to be competitive, they are going to be physical and we are going to play fast,” Gill said. “Those are the things that we demanded of our football team as we went on through pre-season camp and as we go on to game week at this point now.”

This is comforting to hear from our new head coach and after meeting him last week for an interview I found him incredibly trustworthy. The facts still stand that we have new coaches and a new roster to which athletes have been added, lost and shuffled around between positions. I am no football coach, so I am inclined to trust their decisions on who should play with Kansas on their jersey, but like many other fans I feel an urgency to see that first victory on the schedule.

The fan base was left hurting after close losses or really bad losses last season, and a horrific offseason, but some of those wounds can be assuaged with a simple victory to show our team is new and ready to take on anything. I went to Fan Appreciation Day to watch the football team’s open practice and it was great to be back in the stands watching the Jayhawks play and a part of me hopes that this weekend does go as smoothly as a practice.

I have watched my brother play baseball for years and one of the other kids on his team has this wonderful rambunctious grandmother who shouts things like, “Just play catch.” Honestly, that is all I am looking for this first game. Nothing fancy unless we are up a couple touchdowns or it works in a perfect SportsCenter Top 10 way. Of course I will criticize plays where they should have run up the giant hole in the middle or not done a handoff when the running back is stopped before the line of scrimmage, but that just comes with the game, and hopefully there are not too many of those to criticize.

This campus thrives when our athletes are successful — when students can celebrate all weekend and pick up a Kansan on Monday just to remember how awesome Saturday was.

I wish the fans and the team a smooth first game with many great plays, chimes of the Campanile and a good waving of the wheat after the victory.

— Edited by Michael Bednar