
A Bought-In Team Investing Themselves at a High Rate
Apr 23, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Two days. That's all that remains for Kansas State's first spring football practice season of the Collin Klein era. It's been a mini-marathon, 15-workout season that officially began on March 26 and will conclude on Saturday. There's still so much to do — "We have a long way to go to be the football team we want to be this fall," Klein says — before the season opener against Nicholls on September 5 at a sold-out Bill Snyder Family Stadium, but each meeting at the Vanier Family Football Complex and each practice script and each block and each tackle inside the Shamrock Indoor Practice Facility screams consistency and improvement along with a brand of energy that although impressive still needs improvement in the eyes of Klein, the 36-year-old first-year head coach, who once wore blood on both elbows like a badge of honor for the Wildcats, and who now labors, directs and manages in a polo shirt and sun visor, watching the players go to work on the football field.
"Every single thing that we do is 1,000 miles-per-hour with everything you have, and when you think you don't have any more in you, you have a lot more in there, and you keep tapping into that, and training that level of throttle on each and every one of us, as staff and as players," Klein says. "They've bought into that, and there's an exponential growth effect to that, too. When a couple other people start doing it, it adds on with others, and it adds on with other, and that's what creates that feeling that they have."
Klein was hired by K-State exactly 136 days ago. He'll coach his first game in 139 days. At the midway point of his hiring and his first game, Klein is asked to name his greatest accomplishments since the 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist arrived in Manhattan, hired a coaching staff, hired a support staff, and made hundreds of phone calls to prospective players across the country, telling them to jump on board. K-State has 34 returning letterwinners – its fewest since 2005 – but it secured the services of 27 transfers who have combined to play in 484 games. In all, K-State welcomed 43 new players this spring, and that number will grow to 53 new players when 10 more high school players arrive in June.
"Something I'm really proud of is our players," Klein says in his news conference on Wednesday. "They've attacked this thing right from the beginning. They bought in and are investing themselves at a higher and higher clip as we continue to move through this thing. I'm really excited about that.
"One-hundred and thirty-six days is a long time. There's a lot of water that's gone under the bridge, and we have a long way to go to be the football team we want to be this fall, so it's about what we have to get done today to become the best, fundamentally sound, disciplined football team we can be today. And then we'll do it again tomorrow."
In essence, this all kind of began inside the weight room under the watchful eye of director of strength and conditioning Jeremy Jacobs and his staff. Over the course of winter conditioning, all-time K-State position records fell — Klein as a player once held the K-State quarterback squat record — and players gravitated toward the hard pushing-over-the-limit work, and internal and external competition.
And now? Over the course of spring practice, the laborious sessions and trips to the weight room, the players have apparently become — even stronger?
Yes, the players over the course of spring practice have become even stronger.
"We've worked them very, very hard, and Coach Jacobs did a great job preparing them," Klein says. "We had guys on their jump test, which we do on a pretty regular basis, jump some of the highest numbers they have at the end of spring camp and hit playing speeds in practice that are the best they have or that we've experienced with them in spring camp.
"If you're doing that while still demanding a very, very high workload, you're doing it right, and they're taking care of themselves. When you come into a spring camp and have worked that hard in the weight room, it gives you that foundation."
If there's a foundation on the field, perhaps it begins with quarterback Avery Johnson, who enters his senior season tied for No. 1 all-time in K-State history with 48 touchdown passes, fifth with 6,974 yards in total offense, sixth with 5,576 passing yards and fourth in rushing among quarterbacks with 1,378 yards.
Johnson has a relatively new wide receiver group with senior Josh Manning (Missouri), junior college transfer Derrick Salley Jr. (Hutchinson Community College), and sophomore Izaiah Williams (Texas A&M). K-State returns senior Jaron Tibbs, who transferred from Purdue prior to last season, and several others.
"There was a jump probably three practices ago — practice nine or 10 — where the continuity with the wide receivers, there was a click at times there, where the level of anticipation and trust was building to know where they're going to be and put the ball knowing where they'll be, and Avery was more decisive and confident in what's happening around him," Klein says. "He has always been very studious, so there hasn't been a learning curve of him not knowing it. I think with where we want to go and how we want to play, the continuity and trust and timing of everything does take time. We did take a little bit of a step here the last couple days.
"But there's more out there and with his expectations of himself, and for all of us, there's more in us."
Asked which position group has most jumped off the page in the spring, Klein replies, "One of the first ones is our wideouts."
"It's a pretty new group with a couple new faces in there," Klein says. "Their fundamental development in going against our defense, you saw the ability to create separation and release off the line of scrimmage and some fundamental skills that really developed over the course of the spring. On top of that is just continuity with the quarterbacks over the last four weeks. They jump out in that way."
One new wide receiver, Manning, is a 6-foot-3, 211-pound transfer who steadily emerged as a contributor at Missouri with 42 catches for 510 yards and three touchdowns over his three seasons with the Tigers. It included a career-high five catches for 63 yards as Missouri stormed back to beat Auburn, 23-17, in double-overtime to silence the crowd of 88,043 at Jordan-Hare Stadium last October. Manning and Johnson took their K-State official recruiting visits together, remained friends, and although Manning chose to stick with his home state Tigers, he was welcomed with open arms this offseason when he decided to transfer to K-State.
"It's been really fun to watch his progression," Klein says. "Our defense doesn't give you anything easy out there on the edge and on the perimeter. His ability to create separation and release off the line of scrimmage have improved. He's got very, very good long speed and being able to translate that in and out or routes has gotten better. I appreciate the heck out of him. I haven't seen the count the last couple days, but he's in the top 5 in total reps in the spring, so he's worked really hard and has gotten better."
The running back room has become better over the spring as well. Last season while overseeing a highly-successful offense as coordinator at Texas A&M, Klein's offense produced five different running backs that amassed at least 200 yards during the season and each averaged at least 4.70 yards per carry, and four of them scored at least four touchdowns. Klein, during his initial K-State spring football news conference, said that "it's probably as good as an offense to play running back as there is in the country."
K-State has at least two running backs apparently already primed to make major impacts in the fall.
Junior Joe Jackson ranks seventh all-time in K-State history with 5.37 yards per rushing attempt and has 1,139 rushing yards in his 24-game career. That includes his K-State record-setting 293-yard rushing performance at Utah last November en route to All-Big 12 Third Team honors.
"Joe Jackson is a great leader and he has a ton of energy, extremely positive, backs it up with his work ethic, and when you have someone who's been in the room like that before, and add good pieces and good people to that, it syncs up really quickly, and that's what's happened in that room," Klein says.
Jackson synced up with 6-foot-1, 225-pound Jay Harris, the 22-year-old former Division II First Team All-American running back from Northwest Missouri State, and a senior transfer who shined for Oregon in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Peach Bowl yet thirsted to make more of a consistent impact on a team.
"Jay Harris has been outstanding," Klein says. "We have to try to slow him down in every walkthrough because that guy just goes hard every single snap. He's been tremendous and adds a great skillset."
Klein also raves about 6-foot-5, 245-pound sophomore tight end Linkon Cure, who a year ago at this time was still a senior at Goodland High School, then arrived as the No. 1-rated tight end in the country and the highest-rated high school player to ever sign at K-State, and who now is one of the fittest and toughest players at K-State with an elite skillset as well.
"Linkon, I mean, he's already an elite-level athlete, but watching him and how he's grown into his body and how his body has grown into handling the load on a day-in and day-out basis is a real thing, and he's taken that head on," Klein says. "He hasn't missed a snap all spring and credit that toughness to how he prepares himself.
"That's showing up in Linkon's game from a consistency standpoint of how hard he already goes but feeling good and being healthy and having his feet underneath him and the plays that he's been able to make and is feeling confident making is growing by the day. I've been impressed, too, with his blocking ability. Everyone knows he has incredible ball skills, but his ability to strike and stay on contact has impressed me for sure."
Asked who's most caught his eye in the spring, Klein replies, "There's been a good handful, and I could probably go through every position and name a couple names, but the linebackers and how they've played collectively as a unit has been really impressive."
"We have a lot of competition there with Rex Van Wyhe and Gabe Powers and Darien Whitaker Jr. and Mekhi Mason," Klein continues. "Those guys are going at it every day and flying around every day. That's a little bit of a snapshot of what we're trying to do at every position. It's about getting every single one of those guys better and every one of those guys competing with each other. As they grow and mature as a player, they understand it's all for the betterment of the team in its entirety, not just for my playing time or this outcome, but this makes us all better. That's happening in a lot of positions, but the linebackers have stood out that way."
Intrigue surrounds the defensive line, particularly defensive tackle, where K-State signed juniors Kamari Burns (Cincinnati) and Austin Ramsey (Kentucky), and sophomore De'Arieun Hicks (Gardner-Webb). K-State also returns sophomore Holden Bass, a native of Seneca, Kansas, who saw brief action against Iowa State, Kansas and Texas Tech last season.
"Inside, there's three guys who are in the heat of that competition," Klein says. "It's going well. All three of them have gotten better. Exactly what snap counts and what that looks like moving forward, we have a lot time to figure that out. Burns has probably been the most consistent in that of those three just from a performance standpoint. We have probably more depth on the edge, and we've been really happy with some of those guys. You got four or five guys who've flashed at times and have done some really nice things, and that'll give us some flexibility. But every one of them have improved drastically, and part of that is how hard we've practiced when we've put on those shoulder pads and focus on winning at the line of scrimmage."
Klein remains curious about position battles within several groups.
"The competition in the middle of the secondary has been very heated and good," Klein says. "We have three or four guys who will play and will play significantly, but how that all pieces together, that'll be interesting to watch in how that continues into the fall. The wide receiver position has been very competitive. We have some talent in there. Figuring out and watching that progress to where people are at their best and where it suits our offense the best will be interesting to see how some of those pieces align.
"The offensive line is a little bit hard with the guys being out in the spring to see exactly what the competition will be in the fall, but from a development and a depth standpoint, I'm very, very excited we have some options."
Klein's fastest reply during his news conference arrives when asked which true freshman has impressed him the most in the spring.
"Oliver Miller," Klein says.
It wasn't too long ago that 6-foot-6, 290-pound Miller, the 41st-best offensive tackle in the nation, and sixth-best overall prospect in the state of Colorado in the Class of 2026, helped Cherry Creek High School to its sixth state championship title in seven years. Miller long knew about K-State. Former K-State offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Conor Riley offered him his first Power 4 scholarship offer to play for the Wildcats.
"His versatility — he's played inside, he's played right tackle, left tackle, and he should still be in high school," Klein says. "What he's putting on the field is incredibly exciting. He has incredibly high standards for himself. He isn't happy with where he is now, even as a young player, and having that type of drive and motor is impressive."
Miller, who carries an old-school soul that's bent on a firm handshake, hard work, honesty and loyalty, perhaps epitomizes the "old school" mantra that permeates K-State.
"As this game grows and technology grows and all the different ways you have to break it down — we didn't even have it five or 10 years ago — it resonates that it's really a pretty simple game that comes down to old-school fundamentals, old-school mental toughness, and your ability individually and collectively to be the most disciplined and physical team on the field," Klein says. "That's what 'old school' means."
"Old School" will be on display in 139 days in what will be a "Stripe Out" game — as K-State fans are asked to wear purple or white, depending upon their seat sections, to stripe out Bill Snyder Family Stadium for the season opener against Nicholls on September 5.
One T-shirt being sold for the game reads, "OLD SCHOOL." Another T-shirt reads, "K-STATE FAMILY."
"K-State Family is definitely a sold-out stadium doing the Wabash, for sure," Klein says, smiling. "K-State Family is special. When you think about the genuine relationships we build with each other and with everyone that we meet, that resonates to me. When it comes to blue-collar work ethic and toughness, that resonates to me. That competitive nature that you don't cross the family, either — that resonates to me what K-State is all about."
It was 136 days ago that Klein returned to K-State. Each day, the videoboards at Bill Snyder Family Stadium read: "MANHAPPINESS." Each day, it's about "FAMILY BUSINESS." And each day, it's going "OLD SCHOOL" and rolling up those sleeves.
There's more work to be done. Two spring practices left to go.
And then there's a whole summer to prepare before the 36-year-old in a sun visor and polo shirt leads the jog onto the lush football field — one of the finest players in K-State history back home, where it all began.
In 139 days, a new story begins.
Two days. That's all that remains for Kansas State's first spring football practice season of the Collin Klein era. It's been a mini-marathon, 15-workout season that officially began on March 26 and will conclude on Saturday. There's still so much to do — "We have a long way to go to be the football team we want to be this fall," Klein says — before the season opener against Nicholls on September 5 at a sold-out Bill Snyder Family Stadium, but each meeting at the Vanier Family Football Complex and each practice script and each block and each tackle inside the Shamrock Indoor Practice Facility screams consistency and improvement along with a brand of energy that although impressive still needs improvement in the eyes of Klein, the 36-year-old first-year head coach, who once wore blood on both elbows like a badge of honor for the Wildcats, and who now labors, directs and manages in a polo shirt and sun visor, watching the players go to work on the football field.
"Every single thing that we do is 1,000 miles-per-hour with everything you have, and when you think you don't have any more in you, you have a lot more in there, and you keep tapping into that, and training that level of throttle on each and every one of us, as staff and as players," Klein says. "They've bought into that, and there's an exponential growth effect to that, too. When a couple other people start doing it, it adds on with others, and it adds on with other, and that's what creates that feeling that they have."
Klein was hired by K-State exactly 136 days ago. He'll coach his first game in 139 days. At the midway point of his hiring and his first game, Klein is asked to name his greatest accomplishments since the 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist arrived in Manhattan, hired a coaching staff, hired a support staff, and made hundreds of phone calls to prospective players across the country, telling them to jump on board. K-State has 34 returning letterwinners – its fewest since 2005 – but it secured the services of 27 transfers who have combined to play in 484 games. In all, K-State welcomed 43 new players this spring, and that number will grow to 53 new players when 10 more high school players arrive in June.
"Something I'm really proud of is our players," Klein says in his news conference on Wednesday. "They've attacked this thing right from the beginning. They bought in and are investing themselves at a higher and higher clip as we continue to move through this thing. I'm really excited about that.
"One-hundred and thirty-six days is a long time. There's a lot of water that's gone under the bridge, and we have a long way to go to be the football team we want to be this fall, so it's about what we have to get done today to become the best, fundamentally sound, disciplined football team we can be today. And then we'll do it again tomorrow."

In essence, this all kind of began inside the weight room under the watchful eye of director of strength and conditioning Jeremy Jacobs and his staff. Over the course of winter conditioning, all-time K-State position records fell — Klein as a player once held the K-State quarterback squat record — and players gravitated toward the hard pushing-over-the-limit work, and internal and external competition.
And now? Over the course of spring practice, the laborious sessions and trips to the weight room, the players have apparently become — even stronger?
Yes, the players over the course of spring practice have become even stronger.
"We've worked them very, very hard, and Coach Jacobs did a great job preparing them," Klein says. "We had guys on their jump test, which we do on a pretty regular basis, jump some of the highest numbers they have at the end of spring camp and hit playing speeds in practice that are the best they have or that we've experienced with them in spring camp.
"If you're doing that while still demanding a very, very high workload, you're doing it right, and they're taking care of themselves. When you come into a spring camp and have worked that hard in the weight room, it gives you that foundation."

If there's a foundation on the field, perhaps it begins with quarterback Avery Johnson, who enters his senior season tied for No. 1 all-time in K-State history with 48 touchdown passes, fifth with 6,974 yards in total offense, sixth with 5,576 passing yards and fourth in rushing among quarterbacks with 1,378 yards.
Johnson has a relatively new wide receiver group with senior Josh Manning (Missouri), junior college transfer Derrick Salley Jr. (Hutchinson Community College), and sophomore Izaiah Williams (Texas A&M). K-State returns senior Jaron Tibbs, who transferred from Purdue prior to last season, and several others.
"There was a jump probably three practices ago — practice nine or 10 — where the continuity with the wide receivers, there was a click at times there, where the level of anticipation and trust was building to know where they're going to be and put the ball knowing where they'll be, and Avery was more decisive and confident in what's happening around him," Klein says. "He has always been very studious, so there hasn't been a learning curve of him not knowing it. I think with where we want to go and how we want to play, the continuity and trust and timing of everything does take time. We did take a little bit of a step here the last couple days.
"But there's more out there and with his expectations of himself, and for all of us, there's more in us."

Asked which position group has most jumped off the page in the spring, Klein replies, "One of the first ones is our wideouts."
"It's a pretty new group with a couple new faces in there," Klein says. "Their fundamental development in going against our defense, you saw the ability to create separation and release off the line of scrimmage and some fundamental skills that really developed over the course of the spring. On top of that is just continuity with the quarterbacks over the last four weeks. They jump out in that way."
One new wide receiver, Manning, is a 6-foot-3, 211-pound transfer who steadily emerged as a contributor at Missouri with 42 catches for 510 yards and three touchdowns over his three seasons with the Tigers. It included a career-high five catches for 63 yards as Missouri stormed back to beat Auburn, 23-17, in double-overtime to silence the crowd of 88,043 at Jordan-Hare Stadium last October. Manning and Johnson took their K-State official recruiting visits together, remained friends, and although Manning chose to stick with his home state Tigers, he was welcomed with open arms this offseason when he decided to transfer to K-State.
"It's been really fun to watch his progression," Klein says. "Our defense doesn't give you anything easy out there on the edge and on the perimeter. His ability to create separation and release off the line of scrimmage have improved. He's got very, very good long speed and being able to translate that in and out or routes has gotten better. I appreciate the heck out of him. I haven't seen the count the last couple days, but he's in the top 5 in total reps in the spring, so he's worked really hard and has gotten better."
The running back room has become better over the spring as well. Last season while overseeing a highly-successful offense as coordinator at Texas A&M, Klein's offense produced five different running backs that amassed at least 200 yards during the season and each averaged at least 4.70 yards per carry, and four of them scored at least four touchdowns. Klein, during his initial K-State spring football news conference, said that "it's probably as good as an offense to play running back as there is in the country."

K-State has at least two running backs apparently already primed to make major impacts in the fall.
Junior Joe Jackson ranks seventh all-time in K-State history with 5.37 yards per rushing attempt and has 1,139 rushing yards in his 24-game career. That includes his K-State record-setting 293-yard rushing performance at Utah last November en route to All-Big 12 Third Team honors.
"Joe Jackson is a great leader and he has a ton of energy, extremely positive, backs it up with his work ethic, and when you have someone who's been in the room like that before, and add good pieces and good people to that, it syncs up really quickly, and that's what's happened in that room," Klein says.
Jackson synced up with 6-foot-1, 225-pound Jay Harris, the 22-year-old former Division II First Team All-American running back from Northwest Missouri State, and a senior transfer who shined for Oregon in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Peach Bowl yet thirsted to make more of a consistent impact on a team.
"Jay Harris has been outstanding," Klein says. "We have to try to slow him down in every walkthrough because that guy just goes hard every single snap. He's been tremendous and adds a great skillset."
Klein also raves about 6-foot-5, 245-pound sophomore tight end Linkon Cure, who a year ago at this time was still a senior at Goodland High School, then arrived as the No. 1-rated tight end in the country and the highest-rated high school player to ever sign at K-State, and who now is one of the fittest and toughest players at K-State with an elite skillset as well.
"Linkon, I mean, he's already an elite-level athlete, but watching him and how he's grown into his body and how his body has grown into handling the load on a day-in and day-out basis is a real thing, and he's taken that head on," Klein says. "He hasn't missed a snap all spring and credit that toughness to how he prepares himself.
"That's showing up in Linkon's game from a consistency standpoint of how hard he already goes but feeling good and being healthy and having his feet underneath him and the plays that he's been able to make and is feeling confident making is growing by the day. I've been impressed, too, with his blocking ability. Everyone knows he has incredible ball skills, but his ability to strike and stay on contact has impressed me for sure."

Asked who's most caught his eye in the spring, Klein replies, "There's been a good handful, and I could probably go through every position and name a couple names, but the linebackers and how they've played collectively as a unit has been really impressive."
"We have a lot of competition there with Rex Van Wyhe and Gabe Powers and Darien Whitaker Jr. and Mekhi Mason," Klein continues. "Those guys are going at it every day and flying around every day. That's a little bit of a snapshot of what we're trying to do at every position. It's about getting every single one of those guys better and every one of those guys competing with each other. As they grow and mature as a player, they understand it's all for the betterment of the team in its entirety, not just for my playing time or this outcome, but this makes us all better. That's happening in a lot of positions, but the linebackers have stood out that way."

Intrigue surrounds the defensive line, particularly defensive tackle, where K-State signed juniors Kamari Burns (Cincinnati) and Austin Ramsey (Kentucky), and sophomore De'Arieun Hicks (Gardner-Webb). K-State also returns sophomore Holden Bass, a native of Seneca, Kansas, who saw brief action against Iowa State, Kansas and Texas Tech last season.
"Inside, there's three guys who are in the heat of that competition," Klein says. "It's going well. All three of them have gotten better. Exactly what snap counts and what that looks like moving forward, we have a lot time to figure that out. Burns has probably been the most consistent in that of those three just from a performance standpoint. We have probably more depth on the edge, and we've been really happy with some of those guys. You got four or five guys who've flashed at times and have done some really nice things, and that'll give us some flexibility. But every one of them have improved drastically, and part of that is how hard we've practiced when we've put on those shoulder pads and focus on winning at the line of scrimmage."
Klein remains curious about position battles within several groups.
"The competition in the middle of the secondary has been very heated and good," Klein says. "We have three or four guys who will play and will play significantly, but how that all pieces together, that'll be interesting to watch in how that continues into the fall. The wide receiver position has been very competitive. We have some talent in there. Figuring out and watching that progress to where people are at their best and where it suits our offense the best will be interesting to see how some of those pieces align.
"The offensive line is a little bit hard with the guys being out in the spring to see exactly what the competition will be in the fall, but from a development and a depth standpoint, I'm very, very excited we have some options."
Klein's fastest reply during his news conference arrives when asked which true freshman has impressed him the most in the spring.
"Oliver Miller," Klein says.
It wasn't too long ago that 6-foot-6, 290-pound Miller, the 41st-best offensive tackle in the nation, and sixth-best overall prospect in the state of Colorado in the Class of 2026, helped Cherry Creek High School to its sixth state championship title in seven years. Miller long knew about K-State. Former K-State offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Conor Riley offered him his first Power 4 scholarship offer to play for the Wildcats.
"His versatility — he's played inside, he's played right tackle, left tackle, and he should still be in high school," Klein says. "What he's putting on the field is incredibly exciting. He has incredibly high standards for himself. He isn't happy with where he is now, even as a young player, and having that type of drive and motor is impressive."

Miller, who carries an old-school soul that's bent on a firm handshake, hard work, honesty and loyalty, perhaps epitomizes the "old school" mantra that permeates K-State.
"As this game grows and technology grows and all the different ways you have to break it down — we didn't even have it five or 10 years ago — it resonates that it's really a pretty simple game that comes down to old-school fundamentals, old-school mental toughness, and your ability individually and collectively to be the most disciplined and physical team on the field," Klein says. "That's what 'old school' means."
"Old School" will be on display in 139 days in what will be a "Stripe Out" game — as K-State fans are asked to wear purple or white, depending upon their seat sections, to stripe out Bill Snyder Family Stadium for the season opener against Nicholls on September 5.
One T-shirt being sold for the game reads, "OLD SCHOOL." Another T-shirt reads, "K-STATE FAMILY."
"K-State Family is definitely a sold-out stadium doing the Wabash, for sure," Klein says, smiling. "K-State Family is special. When you think about the genuine relationships we build with each other and with everyone that we meet, that resonates to me. When it comes to blue-collar work ethic and toughness, that resonates to me. That competitive nature that you don't cross the family, either — that resonates to me what K-State is all about."
It was 136 days ago that Klein returned to K-State. Each day, the videoboards at Bill Snyder Family Stadium read: "MANHAPPINESS." Each day, it's about "FAMILY BUSINESS." And each day, it's going "OLD SCHOOL" and rolling up those sleeves.
There's more work to be done. Two spring practices left to go.
And then there's a whole summer to prepare before the 36-year-old in a sun visor and polo shirt leads the jog onto the lush football field — one of the finest players in K-State history back home, where it all began.
In 139 days, a new story begins.
Players Mentioned
K-State Track & Field | Oregon Team Invitational Recap
Thursday, April 23
K-State Football | Collin Klein Press Conference - April 22, 2026
Wednesday, April 22
K-State Football | Sean Gleeson Press Conference - April 22, 2026
Wednesday, April 22
K-State Football | Jordan Peterson Press Conference - April 22, 2026
Wednesday, April 22




















