SE: Vaughn Quickly Becoming One of Nation’s Top Playmakers
Nov 12, 2021 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Things can happen fast. Just ask Kansas. On the opening play of the second half of Kansas State's 35-10 win over its in-state rival, sophomore running back Deuce Vaughn took a handoff, sped around the edge of the Jayhawks' defense, and darted 80 yards into the end zone at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence. But that the 5-foot-6, 172-pound Vaughn recorded the longest rush of his career was only a part of the story.
The remarkable part was that the Wildcats ran the exact same play on the previous snap, only to have it negated by a false-start penalty.
"We felt like if we can go out and execute, we have a good chance to make it a successful play, whether or not (defenses) recognize the look," Vaughn says. "It's all 10 guys who sustain blocks. It makes it really easy."
Truth is, for as much as Vaughn is quick to acknowledge his teammates, the native of Round Rock, Texas, is easily becoming one of the most versatile and productive playmakers in the Football Bowl Subdivision. While his contagious wide grin fills TVs across the Midwest and his feats continue to mount with each passing week during the 2021 college football season, equally impressive is the humility with which the 2021 Preseason All-American operates.
"It's my support system behind me," Vaughn says. "The guys in the locker room, everybody in this building from coaches to the people the help on a day-to-day basis, help me be the person that I'm trying to be. You can't put into words the impact those people have on every single one of us as a team.
"I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now without them."
As K-State, 6-3 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12 Conference, prepares to meet West Virginia, 4-5 and 2-4, in Saturday's 11 a.m. kickoff at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, Vaughn finds himself in a unique spot.
For starters, he's currently the only player in the FBS with 800 rushing yards and 400 receiving yards this season. His 44 touches that have gone for 10 or more yards ranks No. 1 among all players from Power 5 conferences. He ranks second nationally in averaging 132.0 all-purpose yards in his career. He reached 2,000 all-purpose yards in 17 games — faster than Tyler Lockett (18 games) and Darren Sproles (19 games). He also currently ranks fifth in the nation with 15 total touchdowns.
"Nothing that Deuce Vaughn does surprises me and probably shouldn't surprise anybody who's around the kid as much as we are on a daily basis because he just checks every box," K-State head coach Chris Klieman says. "It's fun to be around him and to have our young players see what hard work does and what preparation does and what taking care of your body does to lead to success."
Things can happen fast. Just ask Kansas. On the opening play of the second half of Kansas State's 35-10 win over its in-state rival, sophomore running back Deuce Vaughn took a handoff, sped around the edge of the Jayhawks' defense, and darted 80 yards into the end zone at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence. But that the 5-foot-6, 172-pound Vaughn recorded the longest rush of his career was only a part of the story.
The remarkable part was that the Wildcats ran the exact same play on the previous snap, only to have it negated by a false-start penalty.
"We felt like if we can go out and execute, we have a good chance to make it a successful play, whether or not (defenses) recognize the look," Vaughn says. "It's all 10 guys who sustain blocks. It makes it really easy."
Truth is, for as much as Vaughn is quick to acknowledge his teammates, the native of Round Rock, Texas, is easily becoming one of the most versatile and productive playmakers in the Football Bowl Subdivision. While his contagious wide grin fills TVs across the Midwest and his feats continue to mount with each passing week during the 2021 college football season, equally impressive is the humility with which the 2021 Preseason All-American operates.
"It's my support system behind me," Vaughn says. "The guys in the locker room, everybody in this building from coaches to the people the help on a day-to-day basis, help me be the person that I'm trying to be. You can't put into words the impact those people have on every single one of us as a team.
"I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now without them."
As K-State, 6-3 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12 Conference, prepares to meet West Virginia, 4-5 and 2-4, in Saturday's 11 a.m. kickoff at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, Vaughn finds himself in a unique spot.
For starters, he's currently the only player in the FBS with 800 rushing yards and 400 receiving yards this season. His 44 touches that have gone for 10 or more yards ranks No. 1 among all players from Power 5 conferences. He ranks second nationally in averaging 132.0 all-purpose yards in his career. He reached 2,000 all-purpose yards in 17 games — faster than Tyler Lockett (18 games) and Darren Sproles (19 games). He also currently ranks fifth in the nation with 15 total touchdowns.
"Nothing that Deuce Vaughn does surprises me and probably shouldn't surprise anybody who's around the kid as much as we are on a daily basis because he just checks every box," K-State head coach Chris Klieman says. "It's fun to be around him and to have our young players see what hard work does and what preparation does and what taking care of your body does to lead to success."
There's more. Vaughn has 866 rushing yards on 154 carries (5.6 yards per attempt) and 12 touchdowns. He also has 421 receiving yards on 38 receptions and three scores. That means Vaughn is just 134 rushing yards and 79 receiving yards from hitting 1,000 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards in a season. He would become just the fourth player in Big 12 history to reach 1,000-500 in a season, joining Oklahoma's Joe Mixon (2016), Oklahoma's DeMarco Murray (2010), and Nebraska's Marlon Lucky (2007).
He would also become just the third player in the nation to achieve the feat in the last five years. Memphis' Kenneth Gainwell (1,459 rushing, 610 receiving in 2019) and Penn State's Saquon Barkley (1,271 rushing, 632 receiving) are currently the only players to do so since 2017. Both are now playing on Sundays.
"It's a little surprising that it's happened so quickly, but I think everyone around here felt that would happen," says Cedar Ridge (Texas) High School head coach Sam Robinson, Vaughn's high school coach. "You see he's the 'fastest to this' and the 'fastest to that' at K-State. I really think, shoot, he could break a lot of records.
"I could see him holding a lot of K-State records before it's said and done."
Two framed photos rest on the desk in Chris Vaughn's home office. In one, Chris is holding Deuce in his arms after Arkansas beat No. 18 LSU 21-20 on November 29, 2002, in Little Rock, giving the Razorbacks their sixth-straight victory in a successful 9-5 campaign. Deuce is wearing a "Vaughn" Arkansas jersey. In the other photo, father and son are doing the Landshark sign together at an Ole Miss football event prior to a Cotton Bowl.
In all, Chris estimates that Deuce accompanied him into the locker room 30 times while he served as an assistant coach at Arkansas (2000-2007), Ole Miss (2008-11), Memphis (2012-13) and Texas (2014-15). Deuce heard locker room speeches from Houston Nutt, Charlie Strong and Justin Fuente. He also watched players such as Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and Dexter McCluster in practice.
"Deuce has a lot of the same intangibles those guys have," says Chris Vaughn, a Dallas Cowboys scout since 2017. "Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and Dexter McCluster, those guys loved to practice, big smile, came to work every day, and were smart players. Their teammates loved them. Teammate gravitated to them. I've heard the same about Deuce. The work ethic, the personality, big smile, outgoing, jovial — that's how those guys were too, and then they turned on the switch when it was time to play. He has a lot of the same intangibles."
Deuce with former Arkansas Razorback and Dallas Cowboy running back Felix Jones, who played for Chris Vaughn at Arkansas
South Florida was the first FBS school to offer Vaughn a scholarship. Missouri, Arkansas and Air Force followed. However, things changed when Deuce checked his direct messages one day in late January 2019. That's when he read a note from new K-State running backs coach Brian Anderson, whom Chris Vaughn had known for nearly 20 years.
"When I was coaching at Arkansas, Brian was coaching at Coffeyville Junior College and one of our best players had played for Brian there," Vaughn says. "Coffeyville is only an hour and a half away from Fayetteville. When BA was the coach and he wanted to get away, he came to Fayetteville. Here I am, 22 or 23, and we were both young coaches, so he'd come to town, and we'd hang out. We always kept in contact, as coaches do, over the years. I'd seen him at conventions. I'd see him on the road, and I always had his phone number."
Deuce Vaughn said that Anderson informed him that he had passed along his highlight footage to new K-State head coach Chris Klieman, whose record-setting offense at North Dakota State expertly utilized a myriad of running back, reaping outstanding results. Things took an exciting twist on February 26, 2019.
"Coach Anderson text me, 'Coach Klieman is going to give you a call in 10 minutes,'" Deuce recalls. "I was like, 'Oh my goodness, this is the head man at Kansas State giving me a call.' He called and offered me. That had never happened. No head coach had ever called me and offered me. To hear it from Coach Klieman, I knew Kansas State wanted the best for me."
Klieman in his weekly news conference earlier this week recalled his early contact with the Vaughn family.
"You could see a kid on film that loved to play the game," Klieman says. "He was a guy who did everything right on and off the field. You could see he was a competitor, and that's what so impressed us right away was how he played the game. Then when you get on the phone with him and then he and his mother came up on the visit and you could see an energy in the young man and how his personality could be contagious with people, and it has been ever since he arrived on campus."
Ask K-State's Skylar Thompson what he first remembers about Vaughn, and the sixth-year starting quarterback's mind traces back to Anneberg Park, a popular recreational area with large youth soccer fields a few miles from Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Due to the COVID pandemic, players were unable to use any football facilities, so Thompson organized a pass-catching session with several players, including Vaughn.
"The first time I threw to him, I immediately texted Coach Anderson and said, 'This kid is going to be something special,'" Thompson says. "It was something about the way he communicated and approached just doing that and the way that he moved and caught the ball, you could tell it was natural for him. You knew he wasn't a guy that was going to let the success get to his head.
"He's very humble and approaches his work the same way every single day. When a guy with the talent that he has and what he's been doing to stay consistent in that aspect it's no surprise he's doing what he's doing right now."
"When I was coaching at Arkansas, Brian was coaching at Coffeyville Junior College and one of our best players had played for Brian there," Vaughn says. "Coffeyville is only an hour and a half away from Fayetteville. When BA was the coach and he wanted to get away, he came to Fayetteville. Here I am, 22 or 23, and we were both young coaches, so he'd come to town, and we'd hang out. We always kept in contact, as coaches do, over the years. I'd seen him at conventions. I'd see him on the road, and I always had his phone number."
Deuce Vaughn said that Anderson informed him that he had passed along his highlight footage to new K-State head coach Chris Klieman, whose record-setting offense at North Dakota State expertly utilized a myriad of running back, reaping outstanding results. Things took an exciting twist on February 26, 2019.
"Coach Anderson text me, 'Coach Klieman is going to give you a call in 10 minutes,'" Deuce recalls. "I was like, 'Oh my goodness, this is the head man at Kansas State giving me a call.' He called and offered me. That had never happened. No head coach had ever called me and offered me. To hear it from Coach Klieman, I knew Kansas State wanted the best for me."
Klieman in his weekly news conference earlier this week recalled his early contact with the Vaughn family.
"You could see a kid on film that loved to play the game," Klieman says. "He was a guy who did everything right on and off the field. You could see he was a competitor, and that's what so impressed us right away was how he played the game. Then when you get on the phone with him and then he and his mother came up on the visit and you could see an energy in the young man and how his personality could be contagious with people, and it has been ever since he arrived on campus."
Ask K-State's Skylar Thompson what he first remembers about Vaughn, and the sixth-year starting quarterback's mind traces back to Anneberg Park, a popular recreational area with large youth soccer fields a few miles from Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Due to the COVID pandemic, players were unable to use any football facilities, so Thompson organized a pass-catching session with several players, including Vaughn.
"The first time I threw to him, I immediately texted Coach Anderson and said, 'This kid is going to be something special,'" Thompson says. "It was something about the way he communicated and approached just doing that and the way that he moved and caught the ball, you could tell it was natural for him. You knew he wasn't a guy that was going to let the success get to his head.
"He's very humble and approaches his work the same way every single day. When a guy with the talent that he has and what he's been doing to stay consistent in that aspect it's no surprise he's doing what he's doing right now."
Perhaps the biggest surprise came on Vaughn's first carry on the Cedar Ridge High School varsity team during a 70-14 win over Anderson High School in the first round of the 6A Division II Texas High School Football Playoffs on November 11, 2016. His team comfortably ahead, head coach Sam Robinson allowed Vaughn, a freshman, to try his first crack at the varsity level.
Vaughn ran for a 70-yard touchdown on his first play.
"High school coaches always think they have the next Darren Sproles, or one of those one-in-a-million guys," Robinson says. "Deuce's dad was telling me how people always compare players to the greats because of size or measurables, and I listened to him and took in what he said, but the whole time he's talking to me, I'm thinking, 'Man, I think we might have the next Darren Sproles.'
"Maybe we did."
Chris Vaughn had a surprise for his son while attending the 2020 NFL Combine. That's when Vaughn introduced himself to Sproles and told him about Deuce signing with K-State. Sproles stopped and FaceTimed with Deuce.
It was a brief meeting between the legend and the prodigy, linked together by their size, drive and K-State football, yet for now a world apart.
It was after a K-State practice on October 3 that the 5-foot-6, 190-pound Sproles met 5-foot-6, 172-pound sophomore running back Deuce Vaughn face-to-face for the first time. Sproles, who finished fifth in the voting for the 2003 Heisman Trophy, was in Manhattan for his induction into the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame.
"One-hundred percent, that was one of the coolest moments of my life," Vaughn says. "That's somebody I've idolized. To have a conversation with him and to pick his brain and ask him questions, just to see him and meet this person that I've been looking up to, and who is the blueprint for the greatest undersized running back to ever play this football game, it was ridiculous.
"It was fantastic."
Vaughn asked Sproles about his preparation, watching film, and how he took care of his body over a 15-year NFL career. He asked Sproles, who ended his NFL career sixth in history with 19,696 all-purpose yards, about his time at K-State and in the NFL.
"I picked his brain about anything I could think of," Vaughn says. "Whenever you get compared to a great player like that, it's something you definitely take to heart. You're like, 'Man, this is someone who has done it for a very, very long time at the highest level.' To be compared with him is humbling. It's no undo pressure. There's no pressure except playing the game that I love. I'm honored to be in the same conversation or sentence with him."
Asked if he believed his son could be so successful already in this early stage of his career, Chris Vaughn replies, "I have to be honest, no."
"In the years of coaching in major college football, especially at the skill positions, I've recruited and have coached and seen hundreds of skill guys come into college football, and it's a wide spectrum of success they have," Chris says. "I think it's opportunity, some luck, and timing. Those three things were big for Deuce. That might not have been the same had he gone to school 'X.' What he's done is prepare his butt off. Deuce knew coming in, 'I have a small window of opportunity and have to hit this right.'"
He's made the most of his opportunity and continues to grow in his knowledge of the big-picture schematics, which makes him a viable option on virtually any play even in the face of defenses that attempt to key on him. Vaughn has totaled 390 yards from scrimmage (271 rushing and 119 receiving) over the last two games. With 192 total plays this season (154 rushes and 38 catches), Vaughn is gaining at least 10 yards 22.9% of the time he touches the ball.
"The best thing about Deuce is he really understands the offense not just from a running back standpoint but from a wide receiver standpoint schematically. So, our ability to slide him out and put him in some of the no-back formations and for him to feel comfortable running routes has been great for us," offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham says. "He's good at running the fly sweep as well, so we can put him out there and hand it to him, but then also use him as a decoy and give the ability to get somebody else open on play action."
For now, the Deuce Vaughn train continues to roll, and everybody is jumping aboard.
"It's fun," Robinson says. "Everyone around this area are K-State fans now. It just seemed like the perfect fit. Deuce absolutely loves K-State and I think they love him back. It's special. It's a perfect fit and it's awesome to see."
Chris and Marquette Vaughn rarely go anywhere without somebody lauding the achievements of their son.
"You step back and say, 'Thank you,'" Chris says. "People say something about Deuce, and we deflect because we try to be humble, but it's exciting. We're enjoying the ride and being humble and objective at the same time."
For now, it appears Deuce could run over some rare marks in college football. Observers and fans alike will follow the countdown to 1,000 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards this season — feats that Deuce certainly couldn't envision that day when he played catch with Thompson for the first time at Anneberg Park in Manhattan.
"This has definitely surprised me," Deuce says. "Whenever I came to K-State, I was going to carve out any role I could find on this team. After fall camp, and talking to Coach Anderson and offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham, they gave me a role that was pretty significant. They said that they believed in me. That ultimately gave me confidence to go out there and just play football and play for these guys next to me.
"I can't take any credit for the accomplishment coming up, but it's surreal to think about, and a blessing, without a doubt."
Behind his humility and immense talent, there's no telling what Vaughn might achieve during the remainder of the season — and beyond. But as everyone has discovered, Vaughn is one of college football's most versatile and dangerous playmakers, and anything is possible when he has the ball in his hands.
Just ask Kansas. Things can happen fast.
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