Warner Continuing to Love Life as a Wildcat
Mar 16, 2022 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
They want to know why he is standing here. Kansas State is in its first week of spring practice. Kade Warner enters the Vanier Family Football Complex to speak with reporters and wears a smile that radiates like when you see friends for the first time in a while. That's Kade. See, Kade did not need to be here. He could've finished his football career at Nebraska, where he was a team captain, and that, quite frankly, would be the expected path for most. Kade isn't like most. He came to K-State last season, caught some passes, and had a great game in the TaxAct Texas Bowl. It could've stopped there.
Except now he's standing here inside the football complex. And he is entering the second senior season of his college career. You know, the COVID rule. And he seriously just opened the meeting room door for his teammates, and he offers to help move a table after a news conference, and he's wearing that smile. It's like he is at home. It's like he's Baker Mayfield in those Progressive commercials. It's like when we leave, he's going to throw on some slippers, walk directly outside and fire up the grill.
In the end, Kade offers a perfectly good reason, maybe the best reason, for why he is here, standing inside the football complex in Manhattan, on a 40-degree afternoon in March, when he literally could be anywhere else in America.
"I want to play this game," he says, "as long as I can."
Kade likes to say that he was holding a football the moment he came "out of the womb." He was born on September 28, 1998. His father, Kurt, was a third-string quarterback for the St. Louis Rams in 1998. He had never completed a pass in a regular-season NFL game. That season, Kurt completed 4 of 11 passes for 39 yards. The following season, Kurt threw for 4,353 yards and 41 touchdowns and won Super Bowl XXXIV and remains the most recent player to win NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same year.
The Warner household was busy. Kurt and Brenda did a wonderful job raising Kade. They watched him grow into a very fine football player. A two-time all-state wide receiver, Kade earned 2016 Arizona Wide Receiver of the Year and 2017 District Player of the Year honors, and he finished his three-year career at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale with 2,892 receiving yards and 35 touchdowns.
Three months after Kade graduated from Desert Mountain, Kurt was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The movie about Kurt's football life, "American Underdog," was released 20 days before Kurt and Brenda sat in the stands and watched Kade play brilliantly in the Texas Bowl. Kade had three catches for 42 yards in the Wildcats' 42-20 win over LSU at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. In the second quarter, Kade caught a pass from Skylar Thompson on a short crossing route with no defender in front of him and turned up field for a 25-yard catch and run. The TV camera panned to Kurt and Brenda. They were smiling so big.
"To have a role model like my dad," Kade says, "is something I never take for granted. My mom doesn't care about my stats or what route I run. All she asks me is, 'Did you do your best?' That's resonated throughout my entire football career."
Kade announced on Twitter on April 5, 2021, that he was transferring from Nebraska to K-State. Kade originally joined Nebraska as a walk-on in 2017, earned a scholarship, and was named team captain in 2020. He played in every game that season and had five catches for 40 yards. He finished his Nebraska career with 30 catches for 236 yards. Nebraska never won more than five games in his career. The Huskers won three games in 2020.
Two-and-a-half hours south, Chris Klieman was coming off a bowl appearance and entering his second season as head coach at K-State. Kurt was a quarterback for Northern Iowa from 1989 to 1993 and he was a teammate of Klieman's. When Kade entered the transfer portal, he received interest from several schools. That was different. He had never had schools after him before. But all along, K-State stood above the rest. Every K-State coach phoned Kade. Klieman promised Kurt that he would take care of his son.
It was a whole different vibe at K-State. And Kade liked it.
He caught passes in eight different games, including two at Texas Tech, two against TCU, three at Kansas, and three in the bowl game. He finished with 14 catches for 166 yards. He still seeks the first touchdown of his college career.
Which brings us to the smile Kade wears as he stands inside Vanier. He loves the new aggressive offense under first-year offensive coordinator Collin Klein. He loves that fact that former Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez, who set 16 school records, decided to join him at K-State. They spend between one and two hours per day watching videotape together. They discuss plays and concepts. Martinez still recovers from surgery to his throwing shoulder and will miss the spring. Kade tells him to text him. He'll catch tennis balls from Martinez until he can throw a football again. That's Kade.
Ask about Kade's impact upon this team and Klieman delivers his answer before you can finish the question.
"Huge," Klieman says.
"I've been as impressed with him as I have been with anybody on the football team," Klieman continues. "Kade doesn't have a bad day. Kade loves life, and Kade is impactful. He's the spark right now."
Linebacker Daniel Green noticed Kade immediately.
"He was a leader," Green says, "from Day 1."
He's also the third-leading wide receiver for the Wildcats. There's Phillip Brooks (43 catches for 543 yards and two touchdowns), Malik Knowles (29 catches for 441 yards and four touchdowns), and Kade, who came on strong during the second half of last season. He has a new wide receivers coach in Thad Ward. Ward really likes Kade. That began the first time Kade occupied the couch in Ward's office. At times, Kade is like an extra coach on the field. One day, he is discussing alignments with RJ Garcia, another day he's helping Ty Bowman read coverages.
"He points out things to me that I don't notice," Brooks says. "He has that Warner blood in his veins. He definitely brings a lot to the table as far as strategy and technique and understanding of why we're doing what we're doing."
He texts with his father virtually every day to discuss various concepts and routes as well.
"I want to impact this team as best I can," Kade says. "I want to help us win games."
It's exactly what Klieman witnesses daily. Yes, Kade wants balls thrown his way. Yes, Kade would like to turn heads in his final season and capture the attention of scouts and showcase his talents at the NFL Combine or at K-State's NFL Pro Day. Yes, Kade would like nothing more than to be the second Warner to make an NFL roster. But there's more to him than all that. And that's perhaps what impresses Klieman most of all.
"We talk about one of our core goals of being selfless," Klieman says. "Kade wants to win. Yeah, he wants balls thrown to him and those things, but he wants to win, and he wants to have an impact on guys. That's fun to see as a coach when you have a guy that is all in and wants what's best for everybody on the team."
There aren't too many paths that quite align with Kade's quest. And there's no telling what Kade might do next fall. But we know why he is standing here in Vanier speaking with us before he embarks upon the second senior season of his college football career. It's because he wants to play football for as long as he can. He wants to show the world what he can do. And he wants to impact lives. That's Kade.
It could make for a whale of a movie someday.
They want to know why he is standing here. Kansas State is in its first week of spring practice. Kade Warner enters the Vanier Family Football Complex to speak with reporters and wears a smile that radiates like when you see friends for the first time in a while. That's Kade. See, Kade did not need to be here. He could've finished his football career at Nebraska, where he was a team captain, and that, quite frankly, would be the expected path for most. Kade isn't like most. He came to K-State last season, caught some passes, and had a great game in the TaxAct Texas Bowl. It could've stopped there.
Except now he's standing here inside the football complex. And he is entering the second senior season of his college career. You know, the COVID rule. And he seriously just opened the meeting room door for his teammates, and he offers to help move a table after a news conference, and he's wearing that smile. It's like he is at home. It's like he's Baker Mayfield in those Progressive commercials. It's like when we leave, he's going to throw on some slippers, walk directly outside and fire up the grill.
In the end, Kade offers a perfectly good reason, maybe the best reason, for why he is here, standing inside the football complex in Manhattan, on a 40-degree afternoon in March, when he literally could be anywhere else in America.
"I want to play this game," he says, "as long as I can."
Kade likes to say that he was holding a football the moment he came "out of the womb." He was born on September 28, 1998. His father, Kurt, was a third-string quarterback for the St. Louis Rams in 1998. He had never completed a pass in a regular-season NFL game. That season, Kurt completed 4 of 11 passes for 39 yards. The following season, Kurt threw for 4,353 yards and 41 touchdowns and won Super Bowl XXXIV and remains the most recent player to win NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same year.
The Warner household was busy. Kurt and Brenda did a wonderful job raising Kade. They watched him grow into a very fine football player. A two-time all-state wide receiver, Kade earned 2016 Arizona Wide Receiver of the Year and 2017 District Player of the Year honors, and he finished his three-year career at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale with 2,892 receiving yards and 35 touchdowns.
Three months after Kade graduated from Desert Mountain, Kurt was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The movie about Kurt's football life, "American Underdog," was released 20 days before Kurt and Brenda sat in the stands and watched Kade play brilliantly in the Texas Bowl. Kade had three catches for 42 yards in the Wildcats' 42-20 win over LSU at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. In the second quarter, Kade caught a pass from Skylar Thompson on a short crossing route with no defender in front of him and turned up field for a 25-yard catch and run. The TV camera panned to Kurt and Brenda. They were smiling so big.
"To have a role model like my dad," Kade says, "is something I never take for granted. My mom doesn't care about my stats or what route I run. All she asks me is, 'Did you do your best?' That's resonated throughout my entire football career."
Kade announced on Twitter on April 5, 2021, that he was transferring from Nebraska to K-State. Kade originally joined Nebraska as a walk-on in 2017, earned a scholarship, and was named team captain in 2020. He played in every game that season and had five catches for 40 yards. He finished his Nebraska career with 30 catches for 236 yards. Nebraska never won more than five games in his career. The Huskers won three games in 2020.
Two-and-a-half hours south, Chris Klieman was coming off a bowl appearance and entering his second season as head coach at K-State. Kurt was a quarterback for Northern Iowa from 1989 to 1993 and he was a teammate of Klieman's. When Kade entered the transfer portal, he received interest from several schools. That was different. He had never had schools after him before. But all along, K-State stood above the rest. Every K-State coach phoned Kade. Klieman promised Kurt that he would take care of his son.
It was a whole different vibe at K-State. And Kade liked it.
He caught passes in eight different games, including two at Texas Tech, two against TCU, three at Kansas, and three in the bowl game. He finished with 14 catches for 166 yards. He still seeks the first touchdown of his college career.
Which brings us to the smile Kade wears as he stands inside Vanier. He loves the new aggressive offense under first-year offensive coordinator Collin Klein. He loves that fact that former Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez, who set 16 school records, decided to join him at K-State. They spend between one and two hours per day watching videotape together. They discuss plays and concepts. Martinez still recovers from surgery to his throwing shoulder and will miss the spring. Kade tells him to text him. He'll catch tennis balls from Martinez until he can throw a football again. That's Kade.
Ask about Kade's impact upon this team and Klieman delivers his answer before you can finish the question.
"Huge," Klieman says.
"I've been as impressed with him as I have been with anybody on the football team," Klieman continues. "Kade doesn't have a bad day. Kade loves life, and Kade is impactful. He's the spark right now."
Linebacker Daniel Green noticed Kade immediately.
"He was a leader," Green says, "from Day 1."
He's also the third-leading wide receiver for the Wildcats. There's Phillip Brooks (43 catches for 543 yards and two touchdowns), Malik Knowles (29 catches for 441 yards and four touchdowns), and Kade, who came on strong during the second half of last season. He has a new wide receivers coach in Thad Ward. Ward really likes Kade. That began the first time Kade occupied the couch in Ward's office. At times, Kade is like an extra coach on the field. One day, he is discussing alignments with RJ Garcia, another day he's helping Ty Bowman read coverages.
"He points out things to me that I don't notice," Brooks says. "He has that Warner blood in his veins. He definitely brings a lot to the table as far as strategy and technique and understanding of why we're doing what we're doing."
He texts with his father virtually every day to discuss various concepts and routes as well.
"I want to impact this team as best I can," Kade says. "I want to help us win games."
It's exactly what Klieman witnesses daily. Yes, Kade wants balls thrown his way. Yes, Kade would like to turn heads in his final season and capture the attention of scouts and showcase his talents at the NFL Combine or at K-State's NFL Pro Day. Yes, Kade would like nothing more than to be the second Warner to make an NFL roster. But there's more to him than all that. And that's perhaps what impresses Klieman most of all.
"We talk about one of our core goals of being selfless," Klieman says. "Kade wants to win. Yeah, he wants balls thrown to him and those things, but he wants to win, and he wants to have an impact on guys. That's fun to see as a coach when you have a guy that is all in and wants what's best for everybody on the team."
There aren't too many paths that quite align with Kade's quest. And there's no telling what Kade might do next fall. But we know why he is standing here in Vanier speaking with us before he embarks upon the second senior season of his college football career. It's because he wants to play football for as long as he can. He wants to show the world what he can do. And he wants to impact lives. That's Kade.
It could make for a whale of a movie someday.
Players Mentioned
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