Darien Whitaker, standing in his white practice jersey bearing a purple No. 6, and with a purple Powercat emblazoned upon the front of his gray hat, and sporting dark gray shorts and black football cleats following Kansas State practice on Monday morning, hits with violence and makes his presence felt, as evidenced by his impact as a 6-foot-3, 246-pound sophomore edge rusher who never stands still on the football field at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Kansas State is off to a flying start as it sails into its non-conference finale against Tulane. The Wildcats outscored their first two opponents 105-10 and rank 16th in the FBS in total offense and No. 2 nationally in total defense. In fact, they rank No. 1 in the FBS in 11 different statistical categories heading toward Saturday's 11:00 a.m. kickoff at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
It's January 27 and Josh Manning is gassed as he recalls his first weight and conditioning session under strength and conditioning coach Jeremy Jacobs and his first set of sprints and his first session of route running across the vast practice field at Kansas State. Yes, everything appears new at the football program of which he's very familiar, the school Manning almost joined in 2022 before the native of Lee's Summit, Missouri, chose to stay close to home and begin his college football career with the Tigers.
Kansas State opened the Collin Klein era with a 71-3 trouncing of Nicholls in its season opener last Saturday. One day later, Washington State suffered a 24-10 loss at No. 17 Washington in the debut of head coach Kirby Moore.
Newsletter
Love K-State?
Join the K-State newsletter to receive Sports Extra stories, updates, ticket information, special offers and more!