The Alpha of the Room
Aug 12, 2025 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
He's wearing a beige Nike t-shirt and a smile as he gently swings a set of upper arms the size of bowling balls back and forth while standing inside the team theater room at the Vanier Family Football Complex. Another morning training camp session is finished — another small mile-marker along the path to play No. 21 Iowa State in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland, on August 23.
"I want to go already," Damian Ilalio says. "I'm ready to play."
That time will come. It will arrive quickly. The training camp practices are flying by. So often, Ilalio, the 6-foot-2, 300-pound fifth-year senior defensive tackle, will catch himself pausing to explain a move, tweak a technique, demonstrate a small footwork adjustment to one of the younger guys — redshirt freshman Holden Bass, sophomore Asher Tomaszewski and junior Patrick Tackie. But, yeah, before Ilalio knows it, the shrill of a coach's whistle or a foghorn blast echoes throughout the Shamrock Practice Facility, signifying the end of another practice period, then another one, and another, until the coaches and players finally huddle up at midfield once time has fully expired on another edition of practice for the Kansas State football team, which is ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll, making the Wildcats the second-highest ranked team in the Big 12 Conference (Arizona is No. 11) and a higher-ranked team than No. 22 Iowa State, which hasn't lost to the Wildcats since 2022.
"I haven't beaten Iowa State in two years," Ilalio says. "I really want to go down there and beat them. I attack every game the same. Some of them are really important, though. I wouldn't say one game defines the entire season, but I'm not paying attention to the entire season until I get through this game."
A few things about Ilalio: He had 34 tackles, including 4.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks over 461 defensive snaps last season. He made the most tackles by a K-State defensive tackle since Will Geary had 44 in 2017, and he had the most tackles for loss and sacks by a defensive tackle since Eli Huggins had 6.0 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks in 2021. He had a career-high six tackles at West Virginia and had four tackles against Kansas, including one tackle in the end zone for a safety. He became the first player since Felix Anudike-Uzomah to tackle a player in the end zone. These exploits came after Ilalio started three games and saw 192 defensive snaps in 2023 while serving as backup to Uso Seumalo.
One question following the 2024 season was whether Ilalio would return.
Ilalio provided his answer on January 30 when he posted on Twitter: "See you all in Ireland."
Ilalio remains on the grind, building toward helping the Wildcats enjoy a memorable game against the Cyclones — a process that began in the winter and flowed through the spring and now into training camp.
"For me as an older guy, camp gets easier every year," Ilalio says. "It's not tedious for me. I enjoy waking up early and going in. I mean, I feel great. I probably feel the best I've felt in any camp at this point. Every day, I wake up and I'm excited to be here."
K-State defensive tackles coach Mike Tuiasosopo, who embarks upon his seventh season with the Wildcats, and previously coached the likes of Trey Dishon, Jordan Mittie, Drew Wiley, Timmy Horne, Robert Hentz and Eli Huggins, is excited for Ilalio as well.
"Damian is the Alpha pushing everybody," Tuiasosopo says. "His leadership is priceless, unbelievable. In our room, we've had those kinds of guys be leaders, all the way back to Trey Dishon and Eli Huggins, and Damian falls right in place in terms of being a leader and bringing guys along. It's just amazing.
"I don't know what we'd do without Damian's leadership right now."
Ilalio credits his abilities as a leader to the players he has followed over the years.
"I feel like it was my responsibility as a young guy when Eli and Dee Hentz and Timmy Horne were here — they expected me to be there, and I feel like I owed it to them to get to that point," Ilalio says. "It might've been a little easier for me to get there rather than other people. I feel like I was very confident. I knew what to do. I study a lot. I had a good setup for it. I just try to make them proud every day.
"Even now, I think about what Eli would do if I was having trouble explaining something to a younger guy. I think about how he would've worked through it and some things he would've done. Obviously, I use my own experience now that I'm super old, apparently."
Ilalio laughs at his own expense. He is just 22 years old. But from redshirting the 2021 season to making a heroic play in the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game to contributing as a backup in 2023 to developing into a starter in 2024, he has seen some things and has done some things and his experiences, like those of Huggins and the others before him, nurture an interior line that could be a stalwart of a powerful K-State defense.
It's what Ilalio grew to envision many years ago, back when he moved from the state of Washington to Manhattan — his father was stationed at Fort Riley — and his love for football began his freshman year at Manhattan High School.
"Honestly, I wasn't very big into college football before I moved here, and then being in Manhattan – the best college town in the nation – I saw everybody's love for Kansas State, and that drew me to it," Ilalio says. "My love and passion for the sport started to grow. It became more personal when the town I was living in was so invested in the program."
A two-time league wrestling champion, Ilalio eventually turned heads on the football field with the Indians and posted 129 tackles, 35.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and five fumble recoveries during his junior and senior seasons.
"All the coaches at Manhattan come over to K-State constantly to exchange ideas and learn from the coaches over here," Ilalio says. "A lot of the things we did at Manhattan is very similar to what we do here at K-State. Coach (Joe) Schartz sets us up for excellence in the weight room and in practice. All the habits he builds, it's great to develop young men and football players to be the best they can be."
Ilalio's skillset and dedication to the craft paid off. He was regarded as the sixth-best prospect in the state of Kansas for the Class of 2021 by Rivals and was named to the Kansas Football Coaches Association Top-11 team as one of the top players in the state among all classes in 2020. He was also 2020 Kansas 6A Defensive Player of the Year and Sports in Kansas 6A Defensive Player of the Year.
Although Ilalio received scholarship offers from several Group of 5 schools, only one Power 4 school offered him.
Ilalio couldn't hide his excitement.
"Very proud and beyond excited to announce that I've been offered a scholarship from KSTATE to play football at the next level!!" Ilalio wrote on his Twitter account on July 23, 2020.
Ilalio committed five days later and signed his letter-of-intent on December 17.
"Signed, sealed and ready to work!!" he wrote.
Now Ilalio is a knowledgeable veteran on a K-State team full of promise that continues to prepare for its first opponent of the 2025 season — Iowa State — a Big 12 foe that Ilalio and his teammates know so well.
Soon, Ilalio and the Wildcats will get their chance to unleash their fury in Dublin.
"I'm totally focused on Iowa State," Ilalio says. "I want to beat them. I have some payback to give them."
He's wearing a beige Nike t-shirt and a smile as he gently swings a set of upper arms the size of bowling balls back and forth while standing inside the team theater room at the Vanier Family Football Complex. Another morning training camp session is finished — another small mile-marker along the path to play No. 21 Iowa State in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland, on August 23.
"I want to go already," Damian Ilalio says. "I'm ready to play."
That time will come. It will arrive quickly. The training camp practices are flying by. So often, Ilalio, the 6-foot-2, 300-pound fifth-year senior defensive tackle, will catch himself pausing to explain a move, tweak a technique, demonstrate a small footwork adjustment to one of the younger guys — redshirt freshman Holden Bass, sophomore Asher Tomaszewski and junior Patrick Tackie. But, yeah, before Ilalio knows it, the shrill of a coach's whistle or a foghorn blast echoes throughout the Shamrock Practice Facility, signifying the end of another practice period, then another one, and another, until the coaches and players finally huddle up at midfield once time has fully expired on another edition of practice for the Kansas State football team, which is ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll, making the Wildcats the second-highest ranked team in the Big 12 Conference (Arizona is No. 11) and a higher-ranked team than No. 22 Iowa State, which hasn't lost to the Wildcats since 2022.
"I haven't beaten Iowa State in two years," Ilalio says. "I really want to go down there and beat them. I attack every game the same. Some of them are really important, though. I wouldn't say one game defines the entire season, but I'm not paying attention to the entire season until I get through this game."
A few things about Ilalio: He had 34 tackles, including 4.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks over 461 defensive snaps last season. He made the most tackles by a K-State defensive tackle since Will Geary had 44 in 2017, and he had the most tackles for loss and sacks by a defensive tackle since Eli Huggins had 6.0 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks in 2021. He had a career-high six tackles at West Virginia and had four tackles against Kansas, including one tackle in the end zone for a safety. He became the first player since Felix Anudike-Uzomah to tackle a player in the end zone. These exploits came after Ilalio started three games and saw 192 defensive snaps in 2023 while serving as backup to Uso Seumalo.
One question following the 2024 season was whether Ilalio would return.
Ilalio provided his answer on January 30 when he posted on Twitter: "See you all in Ireland."
Ilalio remains on the grind, building toward helping the Wildcats enjoy a memorable game against the Cyclones — a process that began in the winter and flowed through the spring and now into training camp.
"For me as an older guy, camp gets easier every year," Ilalio says. "It's not tedious for me. I enjoy waking up early and going in. I mean, I feel great. I probably feel the best I've felt in any camp at this point. Every day, I wake up and I'm excited to be here."
K-State defensive tackles coach Mike Tuiasosopo, who embarks upon his seventh season with the Wildcats, and previously coached the likes of Trey Dishon, Jordan Mittie, Drew Wiley, Timmy Horne, Robert Hentz and Eli Huggins, is excited for Ilalio as well.
"Damian is the Alpha pushing everybody," Tuiasosopo says. "His leadership is priceless, unbelievable. In our room, we've had those kinds of guys be leaders, all the way back to Trey Dishon and Eli Huggins, and Damian falls right in place in terms of being a leader and bringing guys along. It's just amazing.
"I don't know what we'd do without Damian's leadership right now."
Ilalio credits his abilities as a leader to the players he has followed over the years.
"I feel like it was my responsibility as a young guy when Eli and Dee Hentz and Timmy Horne were here — they expected me to be there, and I feel like I owed it to them to get to that point," Ilalio says. "It might've been a little easier for me to get there rather than other people. I feel like I was very confident. I knew what to do. I study a lot. I had a good setup for it. I just try to make them proud every day.
"Even now, I think about what Eli would do if I was having trouble explaining something to a younger guy. I think about how he would've worked through it and some things he would've done. Obviously, I use my own experience now that I'm super old, apparently."
Ilalio laughs at his own expense. He is just 22 years old. But from redshirting the 2021 season to making a heroic play in the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game to contributing as a backup in 2023 to developing into a starter in 2024, he has seen some things and has done some things and his experiences, like those of Huggins and the others before him, nurture an interior line that could be a stalwart of a powerful K-State defense.
It's what Ilalio grew to envision many years ago, back when he moved from the state of Washington to Manhattan — his father was stationed at Fort Riley — and his love for football began his freshman year at Manhattan High School.
"Honestly, I wasn't very big into college football before I moved here, and then being in Manhattan – the best college town in the nation – I saw everybody's love for Kansas State, and that drew me to it," Ilalio says. "My love and passion for the sport started to grow. It became more personal when the town I was living in was so invested in the program."
A two-time league wrestling champion, Ilalio eventually turned heads on the football field with the Indians and posted 129 tackles, 35.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and five fumble recoveries during his junior and senior seasons.
"All the coaches at Manhattan come over to K-State constantly to exchange ideas and learn from the coaches over here," Ilalio says. "A lot of the things we did at Manhattan is very similar to what we do here at K-State. Coach (Joe) Schartz sets us up for excellence in the weight room and in practice. All the habits he builds, it's great to develop young men and football players to be the best they can be."
Ilalio's skillset and dedication to the craft paid off. He was regarded as the sixth-best prospect in the state of Kansas for the Class of 2021 by Rivals and was named to the Kansas Football Coaches Association Top-11 team as one of the top players in the state among all classes in 2020. He was also 2020 Kansas 6A Defensive Player of the Year and Sports in Kansas 6A Defensive Player of the Year.
Although Ilalio received scholarship offers from several Group of 5 schools, only one Power 4 school offered him.
Ilalio couldn't hide his excitement.
"Very proud and beyond excited to announce that I've been offered a scholarship from KSTATE to play football at the next level!!" Ilalio wrote on his Twitter account on July 23, 2020.
Ilalio committed five days later and signed his letter-of-intent on December 17.
"Signed, sealed and ready to work!!" he wrote.
Now Ilalio is a knowledgeable veteran on a K-State team full of promise that continues to prepare for its first opponent of the 2025 season — Iowa State — a Big 12 foe that Ilalio and his teammates know so well.
Soon, Ilalio and the Wildcats will get their chance to unleash their fury in Dublin.
"I'm totally focused on Iowa State," Ilalio says. "I want to beat them. I have some payback to give them."
Players Mentioned
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