K-State Announces Signings of 24 Student-Athletes for 2018

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder announced Wednesday the names of 24 student-athletes who plan on joining or have already joined the K-State football program as part of K-State's 2018 Signing Class.

Additionally, Snyder announced that junior tight end Blaise Gammon and senior defensive back Colby Moore have been put on scholarship.

This year's class includes 18 players from the high school ranks, five community-college transfers and one FBS transfer in former Michigan State wide receiver Hunter Rison. Of the signing class, eight – Rison, Wayne Jones, Aidan Mills, Kevion McGee, Darreyl Patterson, Luke Sowa, EJ Thomas and Samuel Wheeler – are currently enrolled at K-State and will participate in spring practices, which culminate with the Purple/White Spring Game on April 21. The eight players currently enrolled are the most since the 2013 class had nine players already on campus by signing day.

"As I've stated each year we cannot truly assess any class until the young men have been with us for two or three years," Snyder said. "I am just now able to truly assess our 2016 class as one of success with 12 presently in our two deep and two entering the NFL. This class, however, appears to meet the vast majority of our needs. I am pleased with the quality of character of this group as each of them appear to meet the value system of our program and have been well received by our returning players. There appears to be a collective commitment to becoming the best people, best students and best athletes they are capable of becoming.

"As always, we are grateful for and appreciate the high school, and community college coaches, staff and administration throughout the state of Kansas and the country for their assistance. I also greatly appreciate our President, Athletic Director, athletic department and support staff and faculty for their assistance in this effort."

K-State's Class of 2018 includes 12 players on defense and 11 on offense, while one is classified as an athlete. The class is comprised of six defensive backs, four offensive linemen, four wide receivers, three defensive tackles, two defensive ends, two quarterbacks, an athlete, a fullback and a linebacker.

The Wildcats put a firm hold on their home state yet again as five signees hail from the state of Kansas, tying with Texas for the most in the class. It marked the fourth-straight year K-State's class was led by signees from the state of Kansas. K-State continued its recent stretch of tapping into the state of Georgia with four student-athletes inking with the Wildcats, bringing the total to 14 over the last five years.

Signee List

NAME	POS	HT	WT	HOMETOWN (PREVIOUS SCHOOL)	SIGNED
Levi Archer	ATH	6-4	200	Goodland, Kan. (Goodland HS)	2/7 - 8:25 a.m.
Ekow Boye-Doe	DB	6-1	170	Lawrence, Kan. (Lawrence HS)	12/20 - 8:11 a.m.
Shane Cherry	OL	6-6	315	Grandview, Mo. (Grandview HS)	2/7 - 8:25 a.m.
Cartez Crook-Jones	DE	6-5	230	Grandview, Mo. (Grandview HS)	12/20 - 8:46 a.m.
Christian Duffie	OL	6-5	305	Humble, Texas (Summer Creek HS)	12/20 - 7:58 a.m.
John Holcombe II	QB	6-4	227	Humble, Texas (Summer Creek HS)	12/20 - 8:29 a.m.
Wayne Jones	DB	6-0	193	Owasso, Okla. (Owasso HS)	12/20 - 9:43 a.m.
Malik Knowles	WR	6-3	180	Mansfield, Texas (Lake Ridge HS)	2/7 - 9:15 a.m.
Jaquay Lane	WR	5-11	172	Loganville, Ga. (Grayson HS)	12/20 - 8:20 a.m.
Kaitori Leveston	OL	6-5	290	Waco, Texas (Midway HS)	12/20 - 10:38 a.m.
Kevion McGee	DB	5-10	185	Ardmore, Okla. (Northeastern Oklahoma A&M)	12/20 - 11:39 a.m.
Aidan Mills	OL	6-5	265	Newton, Kan. (Newton HS)	Grayshirt
Tyquilo Moore	DT	6-4	295	Lexington, S.C. (Butler CC)	2/7 - 9:35 a.m.
Derick Newton	DT	6-3	268	Douglas, Ga. (Coffee HS)	12/20 - 7:22 a.m.
Darreyl Patterson	DB	6-1	185	Lawton, Okla. (Northeastern Oklahoma A&M)	Early Enrollee
Jaylen Pickle	DT	6-5	260	Cimarron, Kan. (Cimarron HS)	12/20 - 7:25 a.m.
Hunter Rison	WR	5-11	200	Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan State)	Transfer
Lance Robinson	DB	5-11	178	New Orleans, La. (De La Salle HS)	12/20 - 12:17 p.m.
Luke Sowa	FB	6-3	245	Millstone Township, N.J. (Butler CC)	12/20 - 7:39 a.m.
EJ Thomas	DB	6-1	170	Atlanta, Ga. (Carver HS)	12/20 - 9:37 a.m.
Spencer Trussell	DE	6-4	225	Arlington, Texas (Martin HS)	12/20 - 8:16 a.m.
EJ Turner	WR	6-1	179	Cartersville, Ga. (Cartersville HS)	12/20 - 7:48 a.m.
Samuel Wheeler	QB	6-4	200	Lenexa, Kan. (St. James Academy)	Grayshirt
Rahsaan York	LB	6-0	210	Elk Grove, Calif. (American River College)	2/7 - 9:15 a.m.

Signing Day Press Conference Quotes

K-State Head Coach Bill Snyder
Opening statement…
"I think it is a good group of young guys. I think it is a group of young guys that have a strong value system individually. In other words, they are good people. I think they, for the most part, fit our needs. We still have a couple available scholarships that we are processing right now. I think we have maybe six non-freshmen on the list. All of them are not eligible to open the season for us but several are. Obviously, when we take a community-college or a transfer student with the idea that they can step in and help us immediately and that is certainly our hope. How good a class? As I have said so many times, you kind of have to wait a couple of years to really define how strong the group is. I know last year I indicated that we had 16 or 17 young guys that were in that recruiting class that were in our two-deep. I looked through yesterday, we have 12 in the two-deep from last year's recruiting class and a couple of them have gone on to the NFL or will get into the NFL. It just takes some time to define where they are going to end up in the program and to what degree of success that they will have and consequently how good of a class it may or may not have been. Aside from that, depending on the position, a pretty athletic class. Guys that have pretty decent testing times – 40s, 5-10-5's, etc. Decent size for linemen. We put some emphasis on the offensive and defensive line and may still take another of either, if not both. We put some emphasis on wide receivers and secondary players (5 and 4, respectively). Now it is just a matter of how quickly they can step in and help."

On differing his strategy given the new early signing day…
"I cannot say that it really differed. I cannot tell you I have felt this way all along, but as I look back upon it now, it ended up being a positive thing for us because a vast majority of our signees were in that initial early signing. I think we just had five with scholarship papers this morning. There is a positive aspect to that. It allowed us to have a little more attention to 2018 recruiting, but by the same tokens that I reflect back upon it, I think it puts an awful lot of stress on coaches in regards to trying to manage the program during the course of the season and still do due diligence to the recruiting aspect of it. Based on that, I probably am not as much in favor of it. I did not know to begin with, but I think right now I liked it better the way it was. There are plusses and minuses on both sides collectively. I just happen to believe that when you have players that are on your campus that are in your program, they deserve all of your attention. That is kind of one-in-the-hand, so to speak. That period of time made it more and more difficult to make sure that that took place."

On being able to make official visits this spring…
"We will do that. We have some committed. As I think ahead it also concerns me a little bit because you get into your preference to have those centered around something that is football oriented. You like to have them at ballgames to take visits, but if it is an official visit then that is time that has to be spent. The same is true in the spring as it is in the early signing date. On the early signing date, a young guy comes in and he is going to be there for a weekend and you have to pay a great deal of attention to him, but at the same time you are trying to evaluate the previous game and prepare yourself for the next game. There are only 24 hours in a day and it becomes a hard process. We will do it, but I am not in favor of that kind of scheduling."

On the recent offensive coordinator change…
"Andre (Coleman) will do the organizational aspect of it and have a verbiage to make the calls in ballgames, but it will be a joint-venture between him and Collin (Klein) in the passing game and between him and Charlie Dickey in the running game. I am pleased with the direction that they are going right now. I have been able to spend less time with them, but they have taken upon themselves to really get invested in it. I think they are putting us ahead of where we might have been at this point in time a year ago. I am pleased with their capacity and capability to work together. There are no egos involved and it is just three guys that care about the same thing."

On the director of recruiting Taylor Braet…
"Taylor really does a nice job. He is a very gregarious young guy and gets along well with young people. There are some limitations on what he can and cannot do, but those things that he can do, as it relates to the social media aspect of it and the communication online or otherwise with young people that were interested in, he is very detailed, precise and works diligently at it. I appreciate what he does. He is a good communicator and keeps me well informed about everything so we have a constant dialogue. He is a good young guy."

On adjusting needs for every recruiting cycle…
"We adjust them periodically. It changes on a somewhat regular basis. What our needs were in the middle of the season were probably a little different than the end of the season. As we got into the recruiting aspect of it after the bowl game, needs tended to change. Part of it is through assessment and evaluation and part of it is through movement in your program with young guys moving on. There are lot of different things that enter into it."

On bolstering the secondary with this class…
"It is important if it plays out the way we hope it plays out. I cannot accurately assess the class itself until we have the opportunity to have them in the program over a period of time. I would like to think we did because that was our hope, that it would assist us in the secondary. We have a lot of returning guys but depth is going to at least be a question. That does not mean we do not have it, it just kind of depends on how some young guys move through the system, how their out-of-season goes and how their spring practice goes. To be able to add a couple of young guys with community-college experience, you would like to think is going to be able to assist us, yet it still remains to be seen."

On the strategy closing out the class…
"When we got down to four scholarships, we were looking at defensive tackle, a secondary player, an offensive lineman, a wide receiver and a linebacker - that's five positions to fill with four scholarships. Obviously we couldn't totally negotiate that as we would like. Still, at this point in time it has worked out reasonably well. We had a de-commitment here recently that put us back in altering our thinking a little bit, but by in large, I think it works out well but you don't know until you head them out there and see if they can meet your expectations or not."

On adding a pair of former players to the staff in Zach Hanson and Eric Hickson, and their future impact on recruiting…
"That is important to me, that's one of the reasons we have so many ex-players in the program. They know the system, they understand the system, they wouldn't be here if they didn't buy into the system and weren't committed to it. It gives them the capacity to speak favorably about the process and the system, which is so important for young people to know and understand, and the value it brings to their lives, to people that haven't experienced it. It probably is a little different than other places, but they're people who have been ingrained in it throughout most of their adult life and have a passion for it, that certainly helps you in the recruiting aspect of it."

On having a handful of new players on campus for the spring semester...
"Having young people in for the second semester of the school year is vital for them. It gives them the opportunity to learn the system - the nuances of the system, the mechanics, the drillwork, the execution of schemes - all those things become viable for them. To get to be a teammate of the entirety of the program, they get to know each other and develop a trust within the ranks, so to speak. I think that's beneficial. It gets them well prepared for spring practice and that prepares them well for the summer, when they're doing the same thing without coaches on the field, so they don't have that constant uncertainty about what they're doing. All of that prepares them so well going into the proverbial two-a-day time, where you only have 29 days, 25 practices to get ready for the first ballgame. Coaches want to work fast and get everyone prepared. If you haven't gone through all we've just talked about, then so much of it goes in one ear and out the other. It's just going too fast for the learning process to take place, and consequently it sets them back and doesn't give them the opportunity to compete and get on the field right away when the season starts. It's a major benefit."

On feeling any momentum with the program since the bowl game...
"I'd like to think momentum is created by being enthused about trying to improve your capabilities in order to become the kind of young player that you'd like to be and become the kind of team you would like to be. I get concerned based on our experiences the last couple of years, of getting that, whatever that feeling is, whether its feelings of satisfaction or feelings of anticipation or expectation - I think going into last year it was very obvious we took a lot for granted and talked about some very high goals - and there's nothing wrong with high goals - but the dialogue was such that we've already arrived. Every year is different, it doesn't make any difference who you've got back or how many you've got back, the dynamics are different year in and year out, day in and day out. What we've got to learn to do is to handle each day as it comes, live the day, make ourselves better every day. I think we got into that feeling that we were good enough to do it and the process got slowed down because it was just a matter of waiting until the season started and then we were good enough now. We weren't good enough now and consequently we didn't make the kind of improvement that we should have made and consequently it was very costly to us."

On making adjustments going forward based on the early signing period…
"I don't know that change would be the right word, I think we have to figure out exactly how to be able to manage the two major, major priorities during that period of time. The reason I don't favor it is because it puts so much pressure on the coaches to appropriately manage preparation for a ballgame, evaluation for a ballgame, and at the same time get into the meat of recruiting because of how quickly the signing date comes. It doesn't mean there won't be changes, it's just how do we manage it as much as anything."

On Darren Sproles earning a Super Bowl Championship with Philadelphia…
"I'm awfully happy for Darren. Knowing Darren, it doesn't mean nearly as much to him as it would if he were on the field, being a part of it, but it still has its meaning and he helped them get there. He was part of it without any stretch of the imagination and I'm excited. Initially the dialogue was when he got injured that he wouldn't come back. He and I have had some conversations and he's shared that he does want to come back and wants to play, more power to him. He's not just a very, very, fine, fine player, but we all know what kind of young guy he is, just an excellent young person. I'm proud of him, very much so."

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