Showing up for work at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium early in the morning is nothing new for Trent Smiley.
The former KU tight end did that religiously during his playing days with the Jayhawks from 2010 to 2014.
Today, however, Smiley has traded in the sprints, crisp routes and endless blocking drills for an office in a construction trailer situated at the northeast corner of where The Booth sits, and, from there, he helps deliver the future of Kansas football.
No, he’s not a coach. He’s a senior project manager with JE Dunn Construction and he has been involved heavily in Phase 2 of the project on the east side of the stadium where KU’s Gateway District soon will exist.
While Smiley’s role is nothing new for him, he also said he has never been part of a job quite like this in his nine years with the company.
“I will acknowledge that at first this job felt like just another project to me,” Smiley told R1S1 Sports during a sit-down interview in his on-site office. “But the coolness factor, the luxury of it all, has never worn off. I owe this place a lot. This place means the world to me. And (KU AD) Travis (Goff) and I have had some conversations previously that this isn’t just another job. This means something to me. It means a lot.”
JE Dunn, in joint-venture with Clark Construction, working alongside Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, Sunflower Development Group, Multistudio and HNTB, has been given the opportunity to advance Phase 2 of KU’s Gateway District project, which includes finishing the rebuild of the football stadium and development of the other aspects surrounding The Booth, including a hotel, student housing and an underground parking garage with a public-facing podium and plaza on top.
Turner Construction, led by company president and KU alum Abrar Sheriff, completed Phase 1 to get The Booth open in time for the 2025 season. And the Phase 2 project team is now working to complete its scope of the development before the 2027 season, with a partial opening scheduled for Friday’s season opener between KU and Long Island at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
“The opportunity to come and finish the job and work on this Gateway District is pretty sweet,” Smiley said. “To get to be a part of something like this is phenomenal.”
At right and left, Trent Smiley is shown where he has spent most of his time on KU's Gateway District project, in the areas outside of the stadium's walls where the hotel, housing, parking and more will one day sit as shown in the rendering in the middle. [Contributed photos]
True to the team-first mentality he had during his playing days, Smiley repeatedly emphasized that he is just one person working on the project, likening the efforts of the entire project team to that of a football squad itself.
“This is a big operation,” he said. “And, just like a football team, it takes all kinds of different people put in the right situations and roles to be able to succeed. The men and women onsite who are actually building things every day are looking to their internal leaders, project leaders and the university to direct and guide them.”
So, carrying that football analogy all the way through, what’s that make his role in all of this?
“Always a tight end,” the guy who wore No. 85 for the Jayhawks joked of his former position. “But I’m probably an assistant coach at this point. Maybe like the run-game coordinator.”
When the bid for Phase 2 was awarded, Smiley was working on a different JE Dunn project in Kansas City. As good fortune would have it, though, an opening on the Gateway District project popped up and he was approached about the role.
Smiley said his connection to KU football’s past — ”That is well known around here,” he joked — certainly did not hurt his chances of being added to the team of nearly 200 workers who report to the jobsite daily to bring the vision to life.
But his decision to accept the job pretty much as soon as it was offered was as much about the present as anything else.
“My direct comment to the office leader who offered it to me was that my 4-year-old would be devastated if I said anything other than yes,’” Smiley said of his oldest son, Tafton, already a diehard KU fan like his younger brother, Vance, who is 2.
“When I told Tafton I was going to be working at the stadium, he thanked me,” Smiley said. “The literal words out of his mouth were, ‘Thank you, dad.’ This isn’t just another place for me. This is who I am. I grew up here.”
Born in nearby Shawnee, but having grown up in Frisco, Texas, Smiley chose to play tight end at KU over offers from Florida State, Wake Forest, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kentucky and others.
He’s been a proud part of the Jayhawk family ever since, and he said the opportunity to be involved in this type of transformational project just feels right.
He met his wife, Kelly, a former KU cheerleader, when they were both students living on Alabama Street, not far from the stadium. Most of the guys who stood next to him on his wedding day were former KU football teammates who also lined up with him on game days. And he still attends KU football games with his family on a regular basis.
Later this month, the Smileys are going to London for KU’s Week 3 game against Arizona State.
Smiley’s family now lives in nearby Olathe, keeping them closely connected to the Lawrence community and KU traditions that have long been part of their lives.
“Some of the guys were talking about going to their first KU game this fall because they worked on this project,” Smiley said. “We already go to every game.”
Even the drive to work brings with it an emotional swell that makes every workday feel like a blessing.
“When I show up every morning onsite, I am still just blown away that this is here,” he said of the new stadium. “When you come over the hill and pass the HERE apartment building, this stadium just erupts out of the ground.”
While Smiley divides his days between walking the jobsite and working at his desk in the construction trailer, he always makes sure that the people doing the hard labor on the project know that he appreciates every one of them. His role covers a wide range of responsibilities, including cost management, coordinating schedules, overseeing safety initiatives and leading internal teams.
And even though he spends most of his time onsite in a hard hat and safety vest working on the podium, plaza and parking garage outside of The Booth’s east stands, the scope of the football facility at the center of it all is never far from his mind or view.
“The stadium job is big enough to where everyone kind of gets looped into working on it,” he said. “Just to be out here is amazing.”
Goff, KU’s 6th-year AD who himself is a KU grad, wholeheartedly agrees.
Whether you’re talking about proud donors and KU alums footing a large chunk of the bill, an architect and KU graduate like John Wilkins putting his stamp all over the design, or a development leader like former KU linebacker Banks Floodman, with the Sunflower Development Group, the project has drawn support from many people with meaningful ties to the university.
That includes some of the skilled men and women who are boots on the ground and out there putting it all together. And that adds an extra element of special to the whole thing.
“Pride,” Goff told R1S1 Sports. “The fact that you know that they have that personal connection, that they don’t want to let their place down, really shows up. In small ways, over a series of moments of time, you just know they’re pouring every ounce they’ve got into it.”
"In small ways, over a series of moments of time, you just know they’re pouring every ounce they’ve got into it.”
— KU athletic director Travis Goff on the many KU alums working on the Gateway District project
During his workdays at the jobsite, Smiley said he has found himself noticing parts of the new stadium that remind him of the old one in some fun and memorable ways.
The overall look has changed enough that he typically doesn’t survey the landscape and see any areas that take him back to a big play, a tough moment or a spot where one of his KU coaches chewed out the team.
But hearing the same old buzz and seeing the familiar sights of football season has definitely tugged at his heart strings.
“I find myself mildly missing the nostalgia of the old days at times,” he admitted. “It was so familiar to all of us. You knew every inch of the place, and you know we ran up those steps enough times. I think it was 83 numbered steps to the top.”
He continued: “I think the thing that gets me is it still feels and sounds like football. They don’t get on buses and go to the indoor (facility) anymore. Training table’s right here now. And I think they’re horribly spoiled by all of that. But it’s awesome.”
So much so that Smiley said he might not believe it if he was not there every day to see it for himself.
As he reflected back to his graduation day in 2015, when he walked through the campanile bell tower, down the hill and into old Memorial Stadium, he said the idea of the Jayhawks' football facility and surrounding area looking the way it looks today is not something he could even have dreamt up.
“I never would’ve imagined this,” Smiley said. “It’s hard to put into words. I mean, you can see this thing from the highway. It is so cool and so nice and it really brings us into an era that we should be in. We are a premiere athletic program and KU should have a facility like this that illustrates that.”
“I think the stadium will kind of always be its featured star, but if you’re just coming to campus, dropping your kids off, visiting the school or whatever, this Gateway District is going to be really, really cool.”
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