Kansas State University

It has been a busy time for Chris Klieman and Kansas State football. Heading into his seventh season as K-State head coach, Klieman in the last week attended AFCA Board of Trustees meetings in Arizona, met with his current players, stayed in touch with assistant coaches on the road as they line up 2026 official recruiting visits, signed two players out of the transfer portal, and generally “cleaned some things up” as the Wildcats embark upon final exams and prepare for unsupervised captain-led practices this summer.

 

Asked what he learned about his team during its 10 spring practices, Klieman indicated that one thing remains consistent: Avery Johnson.

 

“It’s the maturity of Avery and the growth of Avery,” Klieman said. “You could tell there’s so much more comfort level. Last year at this time, he’d played in one game, and we were trying to keep progressing him. Now you can tell he’s got another 12 or 13 games under his belt. The confidence he has and the leadership he has, it’s made our whole offense a lot more confident and a lot more efficient.

 

“Even though we didn’t have a full complement of spring practices, I felt really good on that side of the ball because of the growth of Avery.”

 

The hunt for Johnson’s backup remains ongoing heading toward fall camp — an apparent competition between junior Jacob Knuth, redshirt freshman Blake Barnett, freshman Dillon Duff and redshirt freshman Hudson Hutcheson.
 
“That was probably the biggest thing that I knew we would not probably get done in the spring was naming the No. 2 because we weren’t in double reps,” Klieman said.
 
“Last year in spring double reps Knuth got 300 or 400 reps and this year it was maybe 150, and Avery had like 600 down to 250,” Klieman said. “Those numbers were triple or at least double the previous spring. Blake didn’t participate the previous spring because of injury. Avery took a lot of reps because we want that chemistry with the wide receivers who just came aboard, and then it was probably split between Blake, Dillon and Jacob, and then Hudson probably got the fewest amount of reps. This is going to remain ongoing as we find out who the No. 2 is. I was really pleased with all of them.
 
“I really like the growth of Knuth. He’s had the best spring he’s had. Blake finally getting in and being healthy showed great improvement. What I really like about Dillon Duff is nothing is too big for him. He was drinking through a firehose trying to learn the offense and maybe he’d screw something up with the cadence or motion, and it never overwhelmed him. He’d go and execute a play, and he had that moxie of just making player with the few snaps that he had. All three of those guys have a chance to be really, really good. I don’t know how it’ll shake out, but it’ll be fun to have an entire fall camp where we can do double reps and get a couple guys on each field and get some of those rep counts up. The experience factor of getting under center is going to help.”
 
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-3 Johnson has apparently grown on and off the field. in April, he said that he increased his weight from 188 to 200 pounds since K-State beat Rutgers 44-41 in the Rate Bowl on December 26. In March, Johnson ran 23.00 miles per hour, making him the fourth-fastest player on the team.
 

The offseason decision by Klieman and Trumain Carroll, director of strength and conditioning, to augment spring practice with additional weeks of strength and conditioning, seemingly paid hefty dividends.
 
Four players timed over 23 miles per hour, six players timed over 22 miles per hour, 33 players timed over 21 miles per hour, 27 players back squatted over 500 pounds, 35 players cleaned over 300 pounds, and 60 players bench pressed over 300 pounds.
 
K-State reported that players gained a combined 700 pounds of muscle between January and April.
 
Klieman, in his news conference to wrap up spring practice, called the decision to add three weeks of strength and conditioning “maybe the best thing we’ve done here in a long time.”
 
Klieman largely offered a wait-and-see approach while outlining the Wildcats’ challenges during eight padded practice sessions, going as far to mention that the team paused its customary “double-reps,” — which allows every player to participate in some form at the same time — due to an influx of soft-tissue injuries. He indicated that K-State finished spring practice with two running backs, four tight ends and six linebackers practicing.
 
“We just didn’t have the bodies to do double reps,” Klieman said. “We were piecing the practice together and giving the running backs breaks and just stopping practice and doing special teams and giving those guys a break because we were down due to some soft-tissue injuries.”
 
The K-State defense apparently got creative at times.
 
“On defense, it was hard because of all the guys out with injuries,” Klieman said. “We tinkered with some things because we were down so many players at different spots.”
 
The bright spot for the defense in the spring appeared to be defensive back, and most glaringly a pair of sophomore cornerbacks in Zashon Rich and Donovan McIntosh.
 
“Awesome that we are able to use development there,” Klieman said. “Rich and McIntosh are guys that have been in the program a short period of time and trusted the process and what we were talking about and the growth they’ve had putting on really good weight and strength and speed, those are young players that have ascended to essentially toward the top of the depth chart that are ready to play now. I think we all saw that in the Rate Bowl that those two kids really have talent.
 
“Then you throw in Justice James that has been in the program a long time and will be a valuable piece back there, and then we add Jayden Rowe and Amarion Fortenberry to provide not necessarily depth but experience as well as competition, and we know we’re going to need five and six guys back there. Happy with McIntosh and Rich because they’ve really taken another step.”
 

The offensive position group that arguably grew the most in spring practice: Wide receiver. The list most notably includes top returner Jayce Brown and transfers Jaron Tibbs, Jerand Bradley and Caleb Medford.
 
“I know it helped getting Tibbs and JB and Medford in here,” Klieman said. “Those guys are really efficient wide receivers who’ve had a lot of playing time at other places that it didn’t take long to learn a system sometimes like a young player does. These are older guys that have played a lot of football. You can tell them something once and tell them about a concept, just with different terminology, and it clicked a lot faster for those guys.
 
“Then you throw Jayce Brown into the mix, and I think it really helped us there, finding some more people outside. We were down some running backs in the spring, so we worked a lot more on the passing game. We love our tight ends. They’re really good players. I think it’ll make is more dynamic and more versatile.”
 

The apparent rise of the wide receivers and continued growth of Johnson had to be pleasing to first-year offensive coordinator Matt Wells, who also serves as associate head coach and quarterbacks coach.
 
Asked to gauge the difference in a Wells-led offense to the Wildcats’ offense a year ago, Klieman replied, “In a very small sample size of practices, not a bunch.”
 
“I think that just comes from the development and growth of Avery as he continues to improve, and the fact that we’re bringing in some wideouts that have played an awful lot, that it probably looked more efficient,” Klieman added. “Granted, there were some mistakes and things that we need to clean up that were by no means where we want to be, but it looked more efficient and crisper.”
 
K-State appeared to get a lift with the recent signing of a pair of offensive linemen in 6-foot-5, 326-pound JB Nelson from Penn State and 6-foot-5, 315-pound Terrence Enos Jr. from Pittsburgh. Both players have one year of eligibility remaining and are the first two transfers to sign with K-State during the spring transfer window. Nelson played 776 offensive snaps at Penn State at either guard or tackle while Enos Jr. totaled 383 offensive snaps along the offensive line last season.
 
Klieman indicated that their additions could help foster the ability to have eight or nine offensive linemen ready to go in the fall.
 
“You’re always trying to improve your team,” Klieman said. “I thought with the offensive staff that if we could add some veteran guys to the offensive line, it’d be good. You lose veteran guys, and you want to replace them with the younger guys who are up and coming. Those guys are really good football players, but they just don’t have that game experience. We had the opportunity to land a couple guys.”
 

In this age of college athletics, the work is a 365-day grind. Klieman comes off one of the busier weeks of his time at K-State. Uncertainty wafts in the air across college football due to ongoing litigation that remains outside of Klieman’s control.
 
“We’re in May and nobody knows what their roster is going to be for the season,” Klieman said.
 
But Klieman retains a key cog in Johnson. The Wildcats are expected to be among the favorites to claim the Big 12 Conference title and should be ranked when they open the 2025 season against Iowa State in Dublin, Ireland.
 
For now, K-State forges ahead into an important summer.
 
Where might K-State be better than it was a year ago?
 
“The proof,” Klieman said, “will be in the fall.”