Opportunities to Make an Impression

By: D. Scott Fritchen

It's been 68 days since Kansas State hoisted the Pop-Tarts Trophy following its 28-19 win over NC State at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

K-State head coach Chris Klieman can still feel the effects of that victory around the Vanier Family Football Complex.

"It's always good to springboard into your next season with a big bowl win," Klieman said in a pre-spring news conference on Monday. "We saw it happen after the Texas Bowl, winning that game and leading us into a Big 12 Championship. I don't know if that'll happen, but I can see the energy from our guys. You win that last game, and we did it when a lot of people doubted us because we'd lost so many guys, didn't have a full complement of coaches, and didn't have a full complement of a roster, but those kids weren't going to be denied, and we beat a really good football team in North Carolina State."

K-State returns 49 letterwinners, including 15 starters and 11 players that earned 2023 All-Big 12 recognition on a team that finished 9-4 overall and 6-3 in the Big 12 and won six of its final eight games. The Wildcats finished 18^thin the final AP Top 25 ranking and are projected to begin the 2024 season ranked in the Top 25 as well.

The 49 returning letterwinners are the Wildcats' second most since 2003. Of the 49 returning letterwinners, 17 are on offense, 31 on defense and one is a specialist. The 31 returning letterwinners on defense are the most on that side of the ball since at least 2003.

K-State has eight players who are returning to use an extra year of eligibility and are seniors again in 2024 as the NCAA froze eligibility clocks during the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those playing a second senior season for the Wildcats are transfer wide receiver Dante Cephas, cornerback Keenan Garber, wide receiver Jadon Jackson, linebacker Austin Moore, defensive end Brendan Mott, offensive lineman Taylor Poitier, defensive tackle Uso Seumalo, and transfer quarterback Kellen Simoncic.

As of Monday, K-State had made one offseason addition to its coaching staff, as Matt Wells jumped on board as co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach/associate head coach for the Wildcats. Wells will help coordinate the offense alongside offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Conor Riley.

The journey toward 2024 officially gets underway when the first of 15 spring practices begins on Tuesday. The Wildcats will also practice Thursday this week before observing spring break. When the team returns, it'll hold spring practices on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The final practice will be April 13.

"We're ready to start spring ball," Klieman said. "We had a really good winter with Coach Tru (Trumain Carroll) and his staff putting on a lot of muscle mass and guys getting stronger. I'm excited about a lot of our younger players who are going to get a great opportunity this spring to go out and see how much they've improved from the fall and from bowl prep.

"It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were in bowl prep at the end of December, but it's upon us."

As for the initial goals for this week?

"One is getting all the new guys, whether they're transfers or mid-year guys, to understand how we do things and how we practice, and get Coach Wells up to speed on how we practice being the new full-time coach, and just getting back into football mode," Klieman said. "We've been in so much conditioning and weight training mode that we're just trying to learn how to practice again and familiarize ourselves with our base offense and defense."

Here are five things we learned from Klieman's initial spring news conference on Monday:

The quarterback room has a plethora of new faces

K-State has four quarterbacks on its spring roster, headed by electrifying and dynamic dual-threat passer Avery Johnson, who's been projected as a super sophomore quarterback in the FBS next fall. However, none of the other three quarterbacks have thrown a pass in a K-State uniform. Sophomore Jacob Knuth played behind Johnson in the bowl game but didn't take a snap in 2023. He redshirted the 2022 season at Minnesota after earning South Dakota 2021 Gatorade Player of the Year honors. Blake Barnett was the top-rated overall player in the state of Colorado for the Class of 2024 and threw for more than 7,500 yards and rushed for more than 3,400 yards and 156 total touchdowns in his career. Kellen Simoncic is a sixth-year senior who had more than 3,100 passing yards and 32 total touchdown passes in 17 career games with 12 starts at Washburn.

"We're going to give all our young players an opportunity to compete," Klieman said. "I'm excited for Jacob Knuth, who's now been in the program. It was good for Jacob to take all those reps as the backup to Avery in the bowl game. I think it was his chance to really learn what we're doing offensively. Now he needs to take that next step.

"Avery needs to take that next step and continue to build on what he did in the bowl prep. I'm excited for all those guys with Coach Wells in the room. He's somebody that's established and a real professional guy who understands all the details of being a quarterback. Him mixing with Coach Riley, we're going to do some different things offensively, but I'm excited for those guys to make that next step."

As for exactly how Johnson can take the next step?

"It's just continuing to slow the game down for him from a mental side of things," Klieman said. "Physically, everybody sees and knows the tremendous talent he has and the tremendous gifts he has throwing the football and the ability to run the football. Now it's just continuing to slow the game down for him mentally. It's the pre-snap pictures. It's making sure on the snap that the pre-snap picture has stayed or if it has changed what it has changed to, and that's a repetition thing. I was excited because he got so many reps in bowl prep that you saw him start off really well in the bowl game. We sputtered a little bit offensively, there was no panic, and all the sudden we turned it back on and he continued to improve as the game went on. He didn't make too much of it. He stayed under control and let the game come to him and threw it away when he had to throw it away.

"I'm excited that that one game of 65-70 snaps is going to make him so much better as we get into spring and fall because he's had that. He played glimpses – played a half here, played a series in different games — but having that full game where he knew that he was the guy, obviously he's a really confident guy anyway, but it's slowed down for him and it's going to continue to slow down. I think he and Coach Wells, from a personality standpoint, are really, really similar. He's met with him a ton on his own, just coming up and building that relationship, which has been cool to see. Those two are in sync right now."

Offensive line and linebacker are two areas of intrigue

Klieman knew this time was coming. All-American Cooper Beebe along with KT Leveston, Hayden Gillum and Christian Duffie are all gone along with their 144 combined starts. That leaves ample opportunity for players to step up. That includes right guard Hadley Panzer, who can play either guard position or center, and who figures to be a key piece and potential leader of the bunch after starting all 13 games a year ago.

Meanwhile middle linebacker remained a rollercoaster throughout the 2023 campaign. While weakside linebacker Austin Moore and strongside linebacker Desmond Purnell started in every game, four different players started at least twice at middle linebacker — Daniel Green, Austin Romaine, Jake Clifton and Beau Palmer.

"On the offensive line, I'm interested to see who's going to be that guy, that KT or Gilly or Beebes that were really boisterous leaders," Klieman said. "We have that potential to have some really good players there from a leadership standpoint, but we have a lot of young guys. Sam Hecht comes to mind, Andrew Leingang and John Pastore — we have some really good players who've been in the program for quite a while but haven't had the opportunity to play yet.

"With all the things that happened to us at linebacker losing so many guys, not all of them are back from injury, but there's some experience back there with Des and Austin, and then some of those other guys that were either injured that we're hoping to get some reps or learn what they're doing a little bit more like Asa Newsom. I'm excited that we have a good amount of depth at that position."

There will be life at the tight end position without Ben Sinnott

No doubt about it, nobody will fully replace the depth of talent that Ben Sinnott possessed during his All-Big 12 career — including his recent breakout effort at the NFL Combine. But there are willing tight ends eager to contribute in the fall. There are seven tight ends on the spring roster. Garrett Oakley, now a sophomore, had 11 catches for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Will Swanson, now a senior, had five catches for 66 yards and one touchdown.

"Will Swanson coming back was really important for us to have that experienced guy along with a lot of young, good players," Klieman said. "We saw glimpses of what Garrett Oakley could do in the bowl game. Oakley had a really good season but was banged up for the first half of the season, so maybe we didn't get to see his full potential. Seeing him put on the weight and seeing guys like Brayden Loftin put on the weight, I'm excited about some of those younger players. It's going to be a lot of guys contributing in the tight end room."

Senior Brendan Mott leads deep defensive end position into the spring

Brendan Mott was a terror last season. The 6-foot-5, 240-pounder started all 13 games and recorded 27 tackles, including 4.5 tackles for loss, one sack, two pass breakups and two forced fumbles en route to All-Big 12 Honorable Mention accolades. Khalid Duke is gone at the other defensive end position, opening the door for somebody to step into his role on the defense.

"Lots of competition," Klieman said. "We have Cody Stufflebean, who is coming off an offseason injury. We'll limit him a little bit this spring, and we'll limit Mott a little bit this spring. But whether it's Tobi Osunsanmi, who moved there full time, or Jordan Allen or Chiddi Obiazoror, Ryan Davis or Donovan Rieman, we have a lot of good, athletic guys there. We have some depth there, but those kids are inexperienced. They're just really explosive guys who are already in that 245-270 pound range, and that makes us a little bit bigger and more stout in there and gives us a lot more bodies. We don't only have edge guys but guys who can play inside as well."

K-State searches for that "next guy" at running back

DJ Giddens enters his junior season as one to watch in the Big 12. The 6-foot-1, 212-pound native of Junction City, Kansas, ran wild in 2023, rushing 223 times for 1,226 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, while catching 29 passes for 323 yards and three scores as well. The third-fastest player in school history to reach 1,000 career rushing yards (168 carries), Giddens ranks third in school history in rushing yards per carry (5.59) and 10^th in rushing yards per game (64.6).

The big question this spring: Who'll play behind Giddens in the backfield? There appear to be four capable bodies on the spring roster, including redshirt freshman Joe Jackson, true freshman DeVon Rice, junior La'James White and sophomore Evan Cantu.

White played in seven games and had three carries for 14 yards, and Jackson played in two games and had four carries for one yard.

"It's similar to the quarterback position — we know what we have at quarterback and running back, but now we have to find out who the next guy is," Klieman said. "We're excited about Joe. Joe is a talented player. White is really talented. We have a lot of guys there that are going to get an opportunity this spring because we probably won't give DJ a ton of reps, but we have to find out if there is a guy that catches the ball better, or is there a guy who's a little bit better on pass protection on third down, or is there a guy who can be in the backfield and out of the backfield.

"DJ was the surprise, a little bit for us, in the fact that he did it all. Running the ball, pass protection — we knew he was going to be really good, but DJ was so talented catching the ball out of the backfield. Are we going to have that total package by committee or do we have one or two guys who can do all three of those skills?"

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jordan Allen

Blake Barnett

Cooper Beebe

Evan Cantu

Dante Cephas

Jake Clifton

Ryan Davis

Christian Duffie

Khalid Duke

Keenan Garber

DJ Giddens

Hayden Gillum

Daniel Green

Sam Hecht

Jadon Jackson

Joe Jackson

Avery Johnson

Jacob Knuth

Andrew Leingang

KT Leveston

Brayden Loftin

Austin Moore

Brendan Mott

Asa Newsom

Garrett Oakley

Chiddi Obiazor

Tobi Osunsanmi

Beau Palmer

Hadley Panzer

John Pastore

Taylor Poitier

Desmond Purnell

DeVon Rice

Donovan Rieman

Austin Romaine

Uso Seumalo

Ben Sinnott

Cody Stufflebean

Will Swanson

La'James White

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