Collin Klein, who Buddy Wyatt had coached against while he served on defensive staffs at Texas A&M and Kansas, and who Wyatt saw mature into a coaching talent during Klein's five years on staff at K-State, sat in a chair in Wyatt's office in middle of December.
It wasn't hard to spot Dejon Ackerson Jr. at the National Signing Day ceremony at Putnam City (Okla.) High School on December 3. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound linebacker, known as one of the most technically sound yet vicious defensive players in the state — characteristics that put SEC's Oklahoma hot on his track and even prompted Big Ten's Michigan to visit late — didn't wear crimson and cream or blue and maize, but rather he bathed his wardrobe in royal purple to leave no doubt he was proud to bring his assets to Kansas State Wildcat and battle in the Big 12 Conference.
Stanton Weber says that when he announced to the members of the Toledo football team that he was returning home to Kansas State, the Rockets players applauded, and then a line of players stretched down the hallway as they patiently waited to bid farewell to their special teams coach.
He's lounging in a white, metal chair, dressed in purple, arms propped up on a circle table one morning in Manhattan. At times, 37-year-old Trey Scott, the newly-hired general manager for the Kansas State football program, believes this is all surreal, the journey from being a backup K-State quarterback from Shawnee, Kansas, to traveling the country, scouting for NFL teams, then handling contracts – so many contracts – and meeting some of the most influential individuals in the NFL, to where he is now, seated and waiting to take his photograph that'll appear in his hiring announcement later that day.
Newsletter
Love K-State?
Join the K-State newsletter to receive Sports Extra stories, updates, ticket information, special offers and more!