The Move to Manhattan
May 29, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
The shiny black SUV with Johnson County plates backs into a non-descript stall on the edge of the road near the Jardine Apartments at 8:02 a.m. on Thursday, as Kansas State football staff pours Dunkin Donuts coffee under a purple tent on the lawn, and defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt and offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson and director of player personnel and high school relations Taylor Braet roll blue carts filled with linens and clothes and washing detergents and books down the maze of sidewalk leading to each four-bedroom apartment.
A few of the incoming K-State freshmen football players and their families arrived moments ago and are now shaking hands with K-State assistant coaches and support staff and unloading suitcases and filling carts and surveying the surroundings – their new home – deep in the middle of blocks lined with red-brick apartments for K-State students.
From the black SUV that just parked emerges a tall young man with a mop of brown hair, wearing a dark gray T-shirt bearing a white old-school Willie front and center. The young man's name? Lawson McGraw, who has journeyed down the familiar Interstate-70 West countless times before, who has known the Coach Bill Snyder Highway since birth, and who still gets chills when the car descends down that small valley and into the heart of the Little Apple. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound tight end from Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, Kansas, is noted as one of the most athletic talents in the country in the Class of 2026, having played safety and punter, then outside linebacker and punter and tight end.
It isn't but five seconds before Lawson is approached by a smiling K-State staff member, and then another one, and while the conversations are short, the warmth of a hospitable greeting remains in his grin, as the 18-year-old, who about 16 hours before was fishing at Hillsdale State Park with two childhood friends, and who an hour ago ate Nani McGraw's famous eggs and sausage inside her Manhattan home, is now entering a whole new world — the small fish in a pond that he'll now call home.
"I tried to pack as light as I could," Lawson says. "Just recovery stuff like my mat, my roller, and basic stuff like my computer for school, and my Xbox and golf clubs."
From the driver's seat emerges a man who grew up miles away from this spot, who remembers all-too well his first steps into Haymaker Hall that day in the summer of 1997, when he carried only a duffel bag and the hope of someday earning a K-State football scholarship. The Jon McGraw story remains one of the most riveting walk-on success stories and in-state Kansas success stories in the history of K-State football — how the walk-on quarterback from Riley County High School went from quarterback to wide receiver and finally to safety, and then went on to become a 2002 NFL second round draftee, then a 10-year NFL veteran, and also a team captain with the Kansas City Chiefs. In 2011, McGraw's final year in the NFL, the Chiefs awarded him with the Ed Block Courage Award by a vote of his teammates for being a role model, an inspiration, and for his high degree of sportsmanship and courage.
Today, Jon is a 47-year-old co-founder of Vision Pursue, which in its 10-year history has flourished with McGraw preaching performance psychology and health psychology — all the mental levers you can pull to be at your best no matter the context that you're operating in like corporate teams, NFL, NBA and college teams — with the end game being the ability to prime your brain and body for peak performance. A few examples of his clientele: The Washington Commanders, Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, Boston Celtics, and Duke and Marquette men's basketball teams.
For Jon, this trip down memory lane in the heart of K-State Nation is about his son, and his chance, and his development, and being a part of the K-State football family forever.
"This morning, for both Lawson and I, we were like, 'Let's go! Let's' get this going!'" Jon says. "Yesterday was about feeling all the feels and enjoying that last time at home, at least in this chapter of life. This morning, at my mom and dad's house, I was like, 'Put me in, Coach!' I'm ready for some football."
Nearby, Gretchen Graber, Lawson's mother, opens the rear driver's side door from her own black SUV and Lawson pulls out the largest flatscreen TV seen over the course of the morning.
"Big 'ol TV," Jon says. "Yeah, I think Lawson got voted to have the community TV."
Is it a 65-inch TV? A 75-inch TV?
"I don't know what it is," Lawson says, smiling as he lifts the TV. "It's from my mom's living room, and she just put it in the car."
Jon carries a lime green container encased in black bars.
"This is the secret thing right here," Jon says, presenting the container, which looks more like a 1990s boom box. "This is the recovery machine."
Lawson says, "It's a recovery mat. You lay on it, and it shocks you. But it's the real deal. It's pretty sweet."
How often do you use the recovery mat?
"As much as humanly possible," Jon interjects.
Lawson stops near the purple tent on the lawn.
"These are your keys."
"Thanks."
"How are you doing?"
"Good, how are you?"
"Welcome, good to see you."
"You too."
"Doing all right?"
"Yeah. Ready to get going. Excited."
"You'll go right down the hall on the first floor."
It's 20 steps from the front of the apartment down the yellow hallway with white trim to an awaiting white door, which is ajar as 6-foot-5, 270-pound freshman offensive lineman Bennett Fraser of Kirksville, Missouri — one of Lawson's three roommates — grapples with a box near his room on the left side of the apartment living room, while the McGraws carry some of Lawson's belongings into his bedroom on the opposite side.
"Hey, I'm Bennett Fraser," he says, extending his hand.
"Good to meet you. I'm Lawson McGraw."
The always excitable Braet enters the apartment and shouts, "This is like MTV Cribs! Sweet!"
Gretchen enters the apartment and pauses.
"There's tons of space in here," she says. "You even have purple on your carpet."
Moments later, Gretchen re-emerges inside the apartment with four white sacks with the black tops of tall tumblers poking from the top. She places the sacks upon the kitchen counter.
"I brought bags for all the roommates, a little gift for each of you," she says, handing one to Fraser. "This one is yours."
"Thank you," Fraser says.
Maddi Gage, K-State football director of player engagement, asks the players to follow her to the front of the door.
"Now, here's how you get into the door," she says. "Here's your code."
"Beep-beep-beep-beep!" goes the keypad.
"Awesome," Lawson says, as the door opens on first try.
Now standing outside in the hallway heading to the apartment, in the shadows, and as the first specs of rainfall hit the nearby sidewalks shortly after 9:00 a.m., Jon, wearing a distinctive purple K-State pullover, reflects on his son's path to the place and the football program that the McGraws have known all their lives.
"Lawson really loves the game of football more than I did," he says. "I didn't really love football. I enjoyed football, appreciated football and respected football, but Lawson really loves football. Lawson and I are pretty calm guys off the field, but we have a switch, and he has that switch that when he steps onto the field, he's got one purpose, one mission, and that's what it takes to play at this level."
A four-year starter at Blue Valley West, Lawson had 49 catches for 799 yards and 12 touchdowns over his final two seasons at tight end, and he had 98 tackles, 10.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one interception, four passes defended and nine forced fumbles over his final three seasons, while also competing in basketball and track.
"What you're going to see from Lawson is a really unique athlete that can do a lot of different things," Jon says. "He's going to be green and hasn't played a lot of tight end – played a little bit more his senior year – but for the most part has been an outside linebacker and edge rusher. That's unique where he can play multiple positions on both sides of the ball here and do really well. Tight end will be his natural position, but he'll be green this first year, but he's eager to learn the position and master his craft and bring some pretty unique athleticism to the position."
Jon chuckles in recalling his own beginning as a walk-on quarterback from Riley County High School that summer of 1997.
"I was quarterback at high school, but I don't even think Coach Snyder had me on the quarterback depth chart," Jon says. "It was Michael Bishop's first year at K-State. I ended up redshirting the 1997 season. I really wanted to play quarterback. I remember wide receivers coach Greg Peterson, who recruited me and gave me a chance to walk-on, he really wanted me at wide receiver, and I really wanted to play quarterback. Well, first summer workout I jumped in with the quarterbacks, and I was way behind the other guys throwing the ball. It certainly didn't look like Michael Bishop's throw.
"After that first summer workout, Coach Peterson said, 'I saw you throwing with the quarterbacks.' I said, 'Is that OK?' He said, 'No, you're with the receivers tomorrow.' At spring ball my freshman year, I stayed at receiver and that summer after my freshman year I told our defensive secondary coach, Mike Stoops, 'I think I could play safety.' There were fewer guys on the depth chart there, and I wanted a scholarship."
Jon's eyes grow glossy as he beams with pride over his son's opportunity. Jon fully understands that the college football game has changed over the course of the past three decades — and particularly in the last couple years.
"As a walk-on, there was an angst to prove myself," he says. "I couldn't get in the mix fast enough. I just wanted to prove myself to my teammates and coaches. There was this confidence that I knew I could do it, but until you actually realized it, there's an angst, a pit in your stomach. I definitely had that my first week and really the first couple years at K-State. I needed some time to develop. Unfortunately, in today's world, I wouldn't have made it. Programs have roster limits and just don't have the time to develop players like me, and I needed time like that. I was young for my class, a small high school, so I'm thankful Coach Snyder built a program to give a guy like me a chance. It's different today, but what's the same is that you have to make your world one thing for a while when you start out.
"I was singularly focused on football. There wasn't a lot else going on in my world. We work with a lot of sports teams with our consulting firm, and we tell guys, especially rookies and freshmen, there's a lot going on in your world and you come into this new world, and you have to edit your life so there's one focus. Then as you become established you can expand a little bit. If you want to be good at this level, your focus has to be on one thing."
Lawson appreciates his father's guidance. Why, it was just months ago that father and son ran hills together in northeast Kansas. Through the years, they also watched film together after games and practices and broke down opponent film. The eyes of a 10-year NFL veteran and father, and the wide eyes of a young man soaking it all in, again and again, striving to excel both physically and mentally to accelerate his game on the field.
"My dad has taught me to stay as level as possible and that I'm here for a reason and I get to be here and I need to earn it every day," Lawson says. "I have this unique opportunity where people know who I am, but I want to earn it and show that I deserve to be here. I can play some good football.
"I can have my own story."
The story will continue into the weekend, as Lawson and the other fellow freshmen will arrive at the Vanier Family Football Complex and greet and assist official visitors and their families.
Monday will be the first really big day for Lawson.
"Summer workouts begin on Monday," Lawson says. "I'm excited to show everyone what I can do."
That's when it gets real.
"You can always get better at everything," Lawson says. "I try to get 1% better every day. I feel I can do a lot of things. I'm really good at running routes and catching the ball. I have really good ball skills and I'm growing as a runner, and I bring power and strength. I'm excited to develop those even more here."
Thursday marks exactly 100 days until K-State opens the 2026 season with a 6:00 p.m. kickoff on September 5 against Nicholls at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. It'll be the first game of the Collin Klein era. It'll also be the evening that Lawson, who's loved K-State all his life, runs out of the tunnel and onto the same field where his father once roamed. A jog down the field, a magical moment for the McGraws.
"You say that and just thinking about it right now, it's making me emotional," Jon says. "I don't know what I'm going to feel, but it's going to be a lot, and I can't wait. I just can't imagine."
Lawson is eager for that occasion in 100 days.
"It's just a dream come true," he says. "I can't wait to run out there. I'm excited to go through my journey and see what comes next."
Thursday at 8:02 a.m. marked the beginning of a new and exciting adventure.
The shiny black SUV with Johnson County plates backs into a non-descript stall on the edge of the road near the Jardine Apartments at 8:02 a.m. on Thursday, as Kansas State football staff pours Dunkin Donuts coffee under a purple tent on the lawn, and defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt and offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson and director of player personnel and high school relations Taylor Braet roll blue carts filled with linens and clothes and washing detergents and books down the maze of sidewalk leading to each four-bedroom apartment.
A few of the incoming K-State freshmen football players and their families arrived moments ago and are now shaking hands with K-State assistant coaches and support staff and unloading suitcases and filling carts and surveying the surroundings – their new home – deep in the middle of blocks lined with red-brick apartments for K-State students.
From the black SUV that just parked emerges a tall young man with a mop of brown hair, wearing a dark gray T-shirt bearing a white old-school Willie front and center. The young man's name? Lawson McGraw, who has journeyed down the familiar Interstate-70 West countless times before, who has known the Coach Bill Snyder Highway since birth, and who still gets chills when the car descends down that small valley and into the heart of the Little Apple. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound tight end from Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, Kansas, is noted as one of the most athletic talents in the country in the Class of 2026, having played safety and punter, then outside linebacker and punter and tight end.
It isn't but five seconds before Lawson is approached by a smiling K-State staff member, and then another one, and while the conversations are short, the warmth of a hospitable greeting remains in his grin, as the 18-year-old, who about 16 hours before was fishing at Hillsdale State Park with two childhood friends, and who an hour ago ate Nani McGraw's famous eggs and sausage inside her Manhattan home, is now entering a whole new world — the small fish in a pond that he'll now call home.
"I tried to pack as light as I could," Lawson says. "Just recovery stuff like my mat, my roller, and basic stuff like my computer for school, and my Xbox and golf clubs."
From the driver's seat emerges a man who grew up miles away from this spot, who remembers all-too well his first steps into Haymaker Hall that day in the summer of 1997, when he carried only a duffel bag and the hope of someday earning a K-State football scholarship. The Jon McGraw story remains one of the most riveting walk-on success stories and in-state Kansas success stories in the history of K-State football — how the walk-on quarterback from Riley County High School went from quarterback to wide receiver and finally to safety, and then went on to become a 2002 NFL second round draftee, then a 10-year NFL veteran, and also a team captain with the Kansas City Chiefs. In 2011, McGraw's final year in the NFL, the Chiefs awarded him with the Ed Block Courage Award by a vote of his teammates for being a role model, an inspiration, and for his high degree of sportsmanship and courage.
Today, Jon is a 47-year-old co-founder of Vision Pursue, which in its 10-year history has flourished with McGraw preaching performance psychology and health psychology — all the mental levers you can pull to be at your best no matter the context that you're operating in like corporate teams, NFL, NBA and college teams — with the end game being the ability to prime your brain and body for peak performance. A few examples of his clientele: The Washington Commanders, Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, Boston Celtics, and Duke and Marquette men's basketball teams.
For Jon, this trip down memory lane in the heart of K-State Nation is about his son, and his chance, and his development, and being a part of the K-State football family forever.
"This morning, for both Lawson and I, we were like, 'Let's go! Let's' get this going!'" Jon says. "Yesterday was about feeling all the feels and enjoying that last time at home, at least in this chapter of life. This morning, at my mom and dad's house, I was like, 'Put me in, Coach!' I'm ready for some football."
Nearby, Gretchen Graber, Lawson's mother, opens the rear driver's side door from her own black SUV and Lawson pulls out the largest flatscreen TV seen over the course of the morning.
"Big 'ol TV," Jon says. "Yeah, I think Lawson got voted to have the community TV."
Is it a 65-inch TV? A 75-inch TV?
"I don't know what it is," Lawson says, smiling as he lifts the TV. "It's from my mom's living room, and she just put it in the car."
Jon carries a lime green container encased in black bars.
"This is the secret thing right here," Jon says, presenting the container, which looks more like a 1990s boom box. "This is the recovery machine."
Lawson says, "It's a recovery mat. You lay on it, and it shocks you. But it's the real deal. It's pretty sweet."
How often do you use the recovery mat?
"As much as humanly possible," Jon interjects.
Lawson stops near the purple tent on the lawn.
"These are your keys."
"Thanks."
"How are you doing?"
"Good, how are you?"
"Welcome, good to see you."
"You too."
"Doing all right?"
"Yeah. Ready to get going. Excited."
"You'll go right down the hall on the first floor."
It's 20 steps from the front of the apartment down the yellow hallway with white trim to an awaiting white door, which is ajar as 6-foot-5, 270-pound freshman offensive lineman Bennett Fraser of Kirksville, Missouri — one of Lawson's three roommates — grapples with a box near his room on the left side of the apartment living room, while the McGraws carry some of Lawson's belongings into his bedroom on the opposite side.
"Hey, I'm Bennett Fraser," he says, extending his hand.
"Good to meet you. I'm Lawson McGraw."
The always excitable Braet enters the apartment and shouts, "This is like MTV Cribs! Sweet!"
Gretchen enters the apartment and pauses.
"There's tons of space in here," she says. "You even have purple on your carpet."
Moments later, Gretchen re-emerges inside the apartment with four white sacks with the black tops of tall tumblers poking from the top. She places the sacks upon the kitchen counter.
"I brought bags for all the roommates, a little gift for each of you," she says, handing one to Fraser. "This one is yours."
"Thank you," Fraser says.
Maddi Gage, K-State football director of player engagement, asks the players to follow her to the front of the door.
"Now, here's how you get into the door," she says. "Here's your code."
"Beep-beep-beep-beep!" goes the keypad.
"Awesome," Lawson says, as the door opens on first try.
Now standing outside in the hallway heading to the apartment, in the shadows, and as the first specs of rainfall hit the nearby sidewalks shortly after 9:00 a.m., Jon, wearing a distinctive purple K-State pullover, reflects on his son's path to the place and the football program that the McGraws have known all their lives.
"Lawson really loves the game of football more than I did," he says. "I didn't really love football. I enjoyed football, appreciated football and respected football, but Lawson really loves football. Lawson and I are pretty calm guys off the field, but we have a switch, and he has that switch that when he steps onto the field, he's got one purpose, one mission, and that's what it takes to play at this level."
A four-year starter at Blue Valley West, Lawson had 49 catches for 799 yards and 12 touchdowns over his final two seasons at tight end, and he had 98 tackles, 10.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one interception, four passes defended and nine forced fumbles over his final three seasons, while also competing in basketball and track.
"What you're going to see from Lawson is a really unique athlete that can do a lot of different things," Jon says. "He's going to be green and hasn't played a lot of tight end – played a little bit more his senior year – but for the most part has been an outside linebacker and edge rusher. That's unique where he can play multiple positions on both sides of the ball here and do really well. Tight end will be his natural position, but he'll be green this first year, but he's eager to learn the position and master his craft and bring some pretty unique athleticism to the position."
Jon chuckles in recalling his own beginning as a walk-on quarterback from Riley County High School that summer of 1997.
"I was quarterback at high school, but I don't even think Coach Snyder had me on the quarterback depth chart," Jon says. "It was Michael Bishop's first year at K-State. I ended up redshirting the 1997 season. I really wanted to play quarterback. I remember wide receivers coach Greg Peterson, who recruited me and gave me a chance to walk-on, he really wanted me at wide receiver, and I really wanted to play quarterback. Well, first summer workout I jumped in with the quarterbacks, and I was way behind the other guys throwing the ball. It certainly didn't look like Michael Bishop's throw.
"After that first summer workout, Coach Peterson said, 'I saw you throwing with the quarterbacks.' I said, 'Is that OK?' He said, 'No, you're with the receivers tomorrow.' At spring ball my freshman year, I stayed at receiver and that summer after my freshman year I told our defensive secondary coach, Mike Stoops, 'I think I could play safety.' There were fewer guys on the depth chart there, and I wanted a scholarship."
Jon's eyes grow glossy as he beams with pride over his son's opportunity. Jon fully understands that the college football game has changed over the course of the past three decades — and particularly in the last couple years.
"As a walk-on, there was an angst to prove myself," he says. "I couldn't get in the mix fast enough. I just wanted to prove myself to my teammates and coaches. There was this confidence that I knew I could do it, but until you actually realized it, there's an angst, a pit in your stomach. I definitely had that my first week and really the first couple years at K-State. I needed some time to develop. Unfortunately, in today's world, I wouldn't have made it. Programs have roster limits and just don't have the time to develop players like me, and I needed time like that. I was young for my class, a small high school, so I'm thankful Coach Snyder built a program to give a guy like me a chance. It's different today, but what's the same is that you have to make your world one thing for a while when you start out.
"I was singularly focused on football. There wasn't a lot else going on in my world. We work with a lot of sports teams with our consulting firm, and we tell guys, especially rookies and freshmen, there's a lot going on in your world and you come into this new world, and you have to edit your life so there's one focus. Then as you become established you can expand a little bit. If you want to be good at this level, your focus has to be on one thing."
Lawson appreciates his father's guidance. Why, it was just months ago that father and son ran hills together in northeast Kansas. Through the years, they also watched film together after games and practices and broke down opponent film. The eyes of a 10-year NFL veteran and father, and the wide eyes of a young man soaking it all in, again and again, striving to excel both physically and mentally to accelerate his game on the field.
"My dad has taught me to stay as level as possible and that I'm here for a reason and I get to be here and I need to earn it every day," Lawson says. "I have this unique opportunity where people know who I am, but I want to earn it and show that I deserve to be here. I can play some good football.
"I can have my own story."
The story will continue into the weekend, as Lawson and the other fellow freshmen will arrive at the Vanier Family Football Complex and greet and assist official visitors and their families.
Monday will be the first really big day for Lawson.
"Summer workouts begin on Monday," Lawson says. "I'm excited to show everyone what I can do."
That's when it gets real.
"You can always get better at everything," Lawson says. "I try to get 1% better every day. I feel I can do a lot of things. I'm really good at running routes and catching the ball. I have really good ball skills and I'm growing as a runner, and I bring power and strength. I'm excited to develop those even more here."
Thursday marks exactly 100 days until K-State opens the 2026 season with a 6:00 p.m. kickoff on September 5 against Nicholls at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. It'll be the first game of the Collin Klein era. It'll also be the evening that Lawson, who's loved K-State all his life, runs out of the tunnel and onto the same field where his father once roamed. A jog down the field, a magical moment for the McGraws.
"You say that and just thinking about it right now, it's making me emotional," Jon says. "I don't know what I'm going to feel, but it's going to be a lot, and I can't wait. I just can't imagine."
Lawson is eager for that occasion in 100 days.
"It's just a dream come true," he says. "I can't wait to run out there. I'm excited to go through my journey and see what comes next."
Thursday at 8:02 a.m. marked the beginning of a new and exciting adventure.
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