One of the Stories You Love to Hear

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Today, Devin Vass wears a white long-sleeved t-shirt, a blonde beard, and a white headband, which pushes away blonde hair that flows to the bottom of his neck, allowing you to see his wide smile as he speaks. It's been two days since the 21-year-old junior from Bartow, Florida, made his first career start at right guard at Kansas State, and today he smiles.

He mainly smiles because he remembers the hurt.

"I woke up Sunday morning hurting bad," he says. "I was like, 'I haven't had this hurt in a while. It feels good to hurt like this.' It showed me I really poured it in on Saturday."

It's been a crazy long path for Vass to get to this day, standing in front of reporters inside the team theater room at the Vanier Family Football Complex, and there were some days that he wondered if this time would come, getting to start in a college football game, or even getting playing time, but here he is, this 6-foot-6, 308-pound up-and-comer, who played three snaps at Arizona, and then earned a starting position at Baylor, and now he is expected to start again, for a second straight game, against TCU on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Not bad for a guy who never sniffed the field until a couple weeks ago.

"The Devin Vasses of the world, those are the stories you love to hear at K-State," K-State head coach Chris Klieman says, "because maybe he was our 10^th lineman coming into fall camp, and how he's arguably playing as well as anybody up front."

So, you ask Vass about it, how it felt to get that first career start, and he pauses. For more than two years, he sat in those chairs inside the team theater room, and he sat in those chairs inside the offensive line room, and a thousand thoughts must've run through his mind at times. Sometimes, he also sat in Klieman's office — "wake-up calls," as Vass puts it.

"I've seen Devin Vass sit over there year after year and never get that chance and not coming and complaining and bellyaching, but saying, 'This is on me, this is not on you as coaches. This is on me. I've got to improve,'" Klieman says. "And he's done that. He's earned the right to play."

As for getting that chance to start, that humungous mile marker in this college football story? Vass begins to speak.

"It was, it was a dream come true," he says.

This is kind of how the dream began. Vass was nine years old. One day, he sat with his stepfather, who was an Adam Sandler fan. His stepfather popped in one of Sandler's movie hits — "The Waterboy." In the movie, Sandler's character, Bobby Boucher, was running around like a mad man tackling opposing players, knocking them out, and Vass was instantly hooked.

"I watched 'The Waterboy' with my stepdad, and that's how I learned to play the game," Vass says.

Vass played linebacker in pee-wee football, started as a defensive lineman at Lakeland High School, and moved to offensive line his senior season.

"You can always make a play on offense," Vass says. "It's just about putting somebody in the dirt. I used to never want to be an offensive lineman, and then I got to play it my senior year, and it was fun."

And it earned Vass a college football scholarship.

Viewed as the 69^th-best offensive tackle in the Class of 2023 by On3, Vass says he gained interest from Vanderbilt, Missouri and Georgia Tech, along with K-State. He visited Manhattan on October 29, 2022, fell in love with then-offensive coach Conor Riley, and Klieman, and became a Wildcat.

Vass redshirted his freshman season in 2023 and didn't see any playing time last season.

"I mean, it started out rough," Vass says. "I came here from Florida, a long way from home, and the first summer was rough because I came off an ankle injury, and conditioning was tough, and then went through challenges. Now I'm doing good."

Klieman is proud of Vass's commitment.

"It's not been an easy road for him," Klieman says. "He came here out of Florida an offensive lineman and probably had a struggle his first year adapting to college like a lot of kids do. He probably was in my office a few times, and he'd probably even tell you that. He stayed the course. It's a credit to Devin, a credit to his family. When you're that far away and things aren't going well, the easy thing is to pack up and leave, and go try it somewhere else, but that wasn't Devin.

"We had a good conversation at the end of the spring, he and I did, in how we needed to light a fire under him because he's been here long enough that he needs to contribute, and he took that to heart."

One of the big keys to Vass's emergence? Nutrition.

"In the spring, when I put on 17 or 25 pounds — it was 15 pounds of muscle — I'd wake up and eat two breakfast egg sandwiches, and then I'd have two protein shakes in the morning," Vass says. "During school I'd have snacks like chips, applesauce or fruit, and then have another protein shake, and then for lunch I'd have a cup of rice and a pound of ground beef, and then another protein shake. Those Core Power drinks got me through a lot. Then I'd carb up, because I had to have a lot of carbs, and then for dinner I'd have a pound ribeye. It was a lot.

"I try to get about 6,500 calories."

From watching "The Waterboy" back home in Florida when he was nine, to emerging as a standout offensive lineman at Lakeland High School, to leaving home to play at K-State, to being buried on the depth chart and visiting Klieman's office, to finally seeing action on the field, and then earning that first start, Vass has reason to smile today.

"It's a fun story to have to show kids that sit in this room and think, 'I'm never going to get a chance,'" Klieman says.

Today, Vass feels the hurt.

And it feels good.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Devin Vass

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