A Fresh Outlook
Apr 10, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Linkon Cure wasn't here this time a year ago. Today, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound sophomore tight end stands smiling, slightly messy hair from the seventh day of Kansas State football spring practice, his mustache trimmed and pulled back while revealing a wide smile, with a grill of white teeth matching the Nike t-shirt he wears over a Catapult tank-top in the Vanier Family Football Complex.
This time a year ago, Cure was wrapping up a legendary track and field career at Goodland High School, winning the Class 3A state championship in 110-meter hurdles with a new meet record of 14.36 seconds at Wichita State University's Cessna Stadium. The highest-rated high school signee in the history of K-State football and top-rated tight end in the Class of 2025, Cure felt it was important to close out his athletic career on top while making every day at his close-knit high school count before journeying 300 miles west to Manhattan to join the Wildcats.
"Those days seem so long ago," Cure says. "The days are long, but the weeks go by really fast."
These days appear to be going by just fine. Yet it was a little more than four months ago — four months ago? — that everything moved lightning fast. K-State coach Chris Klieman announced his retirement after seven successful seasons and seemingly everybody, including Cure, was wondering what would happen next.
"I saw the rumors on Twitter," Cure says. "I didn't know what to believe."
Then, sitting in his apartment, Cure's phone lit up with a familiar name and phone number.
"I instantly smiled," Cure says. "I picked up the phone and said, 'You have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice.'"
Over the phone, Cure and new K-State head coach Collin Klein chuckled.
"He said, 'It's great to hear your voice, too,'" Cure says.
Linkon Cure wasn't here this time a year ago. Today, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound sophomore tight end stands smiling, slightly messy hair from the seventh day of Kansas State football spring practice, his mustache trimmed and pulled back while revealing a wide smile, with a grill of white teeth matching the Nike t-shirt he wears over a Catapult tank-top in the Vanier Family Football Complex.
This time a year ago, Cure was wrapping up a legendary track and field career at Goodland High School, winning the Class 3A state championship in 110-meter hurdles with a new meet record of 14.36 seconds at Wichita State University's Cessna Stadium. The highest-rated high school signee in the history of K-State football and top-rated tight end in the Class of 2025, Cure felt it was important to close out his athletic career on top while making every day at his close-knit high school count before journeying 300 miles west to Manhattan to join the Wildcats.
"Those days seem so long ago," Cure says. "The days are long, but the weeks go by really fast."
These days appear to be going by just fine. Yet it was a little more than four months ago — four months ago? — that everything moved lightning fast. K-State coach Chris Klieman announced his retirement after seven successful seasons and seemingly everybody, including Cure, was wondering what would happen next.
"I saw the rumors on Twitter," Cure says. "I didn't know what to believe."
Then, sitting in his apartment, Cure's phone lit up with a familiar name and phone number.
"I instantly smiled," Cure says. "I picked up the phone and said, 'You have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice.'"
Over the phone, Cure and new K-State head coach Collin Klein chuckled.
"He said, 'It's great to hear your voice, too,'" Cure says.
It had been a bit since Cure and Klein had spoken. It was Klein, K-State's offensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023, who recruited Cure the hardest of anybody as the superstar tight end contemplated his college destination. Cure and Klein spoke "about every day," Cure says, "and they were the long phone calls, and they weren't always about football."
When Klein left K-State to become offensive coordinator at Texas A&M in 2024 and 2025, Cure opted to stay in his home state, but he still had plenty of love for one of his childhood college football heroes.
A photograph of Cure and Klein at a football camp in Oakley, Kansas, paints a portrait of total admiration. Cure was in the first grade and Klein was volunteering in the summertime to teach children the game football as one of the finest quarterbacks in K-State history finished out his career as a 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist.
"It was a fun camp," Cure says. "Coach Klein was one of my favorite players then. I got to catch some balls from him and got that picture. It was a good day, for sure."
This spring, Cure is stacking good days upon good days. Klein, during his initial spring football news conference, said that Cure had the highest mass gain and most fat loss.
"For an athlete to put that together is very impressive with him already being an elite athlete," Klein said." So, credit his work ethic."
Cure says that he first reported to K-State prior to his freshman season at 225 pounds and with 11% body fat. Today, Cure weighs 245 pounds — and that's without adding any fat. The secret? Water and cherry juice along with a nutrient-dense diet and fierce weight room regimen. Previously not huge into working his legs, Cure, over the course of six weeks in winter conditioning, improved his squat by 30 pounds better than originally predicted.
"So, I squatted 435 pounds," he says. "All my other lifts are going really well, too."
On the field, Cure appears to be a well-oiled machine — far from last season's myriad of challenges when he injured his toe last summer, then injured his knee and missed all of fall camp and the start of the season, and never fully regained his footing. Last season, he played in nine games with a pair of starts and finished the season with six catches for 37 yards while playing a total of 137 offensive snaps.
"The knee injury in the fall is what did it for me," Cure says. "I had to sit out fall camp, watch guys take reps, thinking, 'That should be me.' There were so many 'could've beens.' That was definitely the hardest part. When I came back, I didn't feel like myself and didn't have a bigger role. I had to sit back and watch guys do things and learn from it. It also taught me the most about myself."
What did Cure learn about himself?
"I really had to work on my confidence, get back to my roots, and find out what really made me go," he says. "My confidence has increased a lot, and that's been really good for me."
Fresh outlook, fresh body, plenty to appreciate.
"From a body standpoint, this is probably the best I've felt in a really long time," Cure says. "Last season, something was always hurting, but I got a lot of stuff taken care of. So, from a body standpoint, I'm feeling great. My maturity level and leadership have improved so much. I feel like I've improved on many levels."
Klein, at the outset of spring practice, dove into the intricacies of what makes Cure tick in Klein's offense.
"He gives you a ton of position versatility for sure," Klein said. "He's a worker. He attacks everything he does. He's attacked some of the nuances and different things that we're doing. He'll play the tight end position predominantly more off the ball in nature collectively, but he gives you the flexibility to line him all over the field. I'm excited about how he's worked."
Meanwhile, Cure gushes over this new offense.
"Everything excites me," Cure says. "I know over the course of our practices, we've had a lot of explosive plays. That's what really excites me. Sure, things can go wrong, but the next second we're going 50 yards on a deep ball. I love the explosive plays for sure."
"From a body standpoint, this is probably the best I've felt in a really long time," Cure says. "Last season, something was always hurting, but I got a lot of stuff taken care of. So, from a body standpoint, I'm feeling great. My maturity level and leadership have improved so much. I feel like I've improved on many levels."
Klein, at the outset of spring practice, dove into the intricacies of what makes Cure tick in Klein's offense.
"He gives you a ton of position versatility for sure," Klein said. "He's a worker. He attacks everything he does. He's attacked some of the nuances and different things that we're doing. He'll play the tight end position predominantly more off the ball in nature collectively, but he gives you the flexibility to line him all over the field. I'm excited about how he's worked."
Meanwhile, Cure gushes over this new offense.
"Everything excites me," Cure says. "I know over the course of our practices, we've had a lot of explosive plays. That's what really excites me. Sure, things can go wrong, but the next second we're going 50 yards on a deep ball. I love the explosive plays for sure."
Asked to describe his exact role within the offense, Cure replies, "We haven't really gotten too deep into it yet. We're on practice seven today. We're still installing everything. We haven't done anything too special, but I have faith in Coach Klein to get me the ball, so I'm excited for it."
And Cure smiles. And there's that big grin across his face. So much can change in a year. In some ways, Cure's journey has just begun.
"I learned a lot about myself last year, and I can't really pinpoint one thing," he says. "It was probably one of the hardest times of my life. I found out a lot about myself. I really found out who I was. That's probably the biggest thing. Knowing all that now, and now having confidence in myself, I can do a lot more."
He knew that more than ever before one day in early December.
On the other end of the phone was a familiar voice and a tone that said plenty: Everything would be just fine.
And Cure smiles. And there's that big grin across his face. So much can change in a year. In some ways, Cure's journey has just begun.
"I learned a lot about myself last year, and I can't really pinpoint one thing," he says. "It was probably one of the hardest times of my life. I found out a lot about myself. I really found out who I was. That's probably the biggest thing. Knowing all that now, and now having confidence in myself, I can do a lot more."
He knew that more than ever before one day in early December.
On the other end of the phone was a familiar voice and a tone that said plenty: Everything would be just fine.
Players Mentioned
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