Dante Barnett’s leadership outweighs sub-par senior season for K-State

By his own admission, Kansas State safety Dante Barnett wasn’t at his best in this senior season.

He missed too many tackles and let too many receivers beat him deep. Consequently, his defensive statistics slumped and he missed out on all-conference honors.

As a breakout junior, he made 77 tackles, three interceptions and 11 pass breakups. As a fifth-year senior, he has made 61 tackles, one interception and three pass breakups.

“I don’t think I played as well as I should have been playing,” Barnett said this week. “Overall, we still got the wins, but in my performance, especially toward the end of the season, I don’t think I was playing as well as I was capable.”

One might think that would leave Barnett eager for redemption in his final game at the Texas Bowl. But after missing all but one half of one game last year due to injury, he returned to K-State with a single goal: helping his teammates. That is where his focus remains.

It killed him to watch K-State’s secondary surrender big plays from the sideline. He wanted to put a stop to that, so in that sense it’s been a productive year.

K-State’s secondary is better than it was a year ago. The Wildcats went from giving up 285.5 passing yardsand finishing the 2015 season with five interceptions to 269.6 passing yards and 15 interceptions in 2016.

“We were way better,” Barnett said. “The numbers speak for themselves. We only had a few turnovers, and one interception in the secondary last year. Now, everyone in our secondary has at least one interception. That shows you the improvement that our group has made during the offseason and then this season.”

There were many reasons for the uptick, but Barnett’s leadership was unmistakable.

K-State coaches thought so highly of Barnett that they named him co-MVP of the defense with the team’s best all-around player Jordan Willis, who won Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.

“That is probably the key element for our defense, his ability to give guidance and direction to young guys,” K-State coach Bill Snyder said of Barnett. “He is kind of that young coach on the field. He can make calls and knows the right calls to make. He can make changes. All of our players, young or otherwise, on the defensive side of the ball really trust him to guide them the right way.

“We consider that to be quality leadership.”

Barnett was “a little” surprised to earn the honor.

He knows he didn’t play as well as Willis, but he is proud he found other ways to be valuable.

He could have tried to turn pro or played elsewhere as a graduate transfer, but his desire to return and lead K-State’s defense was too strong.

He is pleased with the way things turned out, but he has work left to do.

“Your bowl game always lays the foundation for next year,” Barnett said. “I want to go out the right way and set the team up for even more success next season.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2016 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Dante Barnett’s leadership outweighs sub-par senior season for K-State."