K-State freshmen Jax Dineen, Joshua Youngblood reflect on ‘insane’ first college game

The night before they took the field together for the first time as Kansas State football teammates, Jax Dineen and Joshua Youngblood shared some motivational words.

“Most guys don’t get this opportunity,” Youngblood remembers saying, “so let’s make the most of it and go out there and do something special.”

It seems they both took that message to heart. Playing immediately is the dream of every freshman, and they lived it during K-State’s 49-14 victory over Nicholls.

Dineen, a fullback from Lawrence, held his own as a blocker and managed to catch one pass for nine yards. Youngblood, a receiver from Tampa, Florida, was held without a catch, but he was on the field for as many snaps as most seniors. They both did enough good things for coach Chris Klieman to say they will continue seeing significant action moving forward. They no longer seem like redshirt candidates.

That’s a confidence builder for them and a new approach for the Wildcats. Former K-State football coach Bill Snyder was hesitant to play freshmen right away. That has changed under Klieman. It was actually a mild surprise that more freshmen didn’t play.

Still, it was a great learning experience for the two that did. For example: Dineen and Youngblood never suited up in front of big crowds in high school. It took them a few minutes to adjust to a sellout crowd of 51,189, even if it didn’t look that way based on their performance.

“That was insane,” Dineen said. “I have always thought I would play big-time football, but when I walked out there I was like, wow, this is different. Power-five football is different. Just all the fans being there, it was crazy.”

Dineen quickly acclimated to the environment. He had to. K-State coaches inserted him into the lineup on the fifth play and asked him to run a short route up field. He rotated in and out from there. Klieman said he needs to become “a dominant blocker” and improve on his technique, but it’s clear the 5-foot-10, 242-pounder is ready for a consistent role in the offense.

His teammates call him “a bowling ball of muscle.”

“It’s fun to watch him play,” defensive end Kyle Ball said. “Jax is a big dude and he is very athletic for his size. He comes down hard when he blocks you and no one really wants to mess with him.”

One thing that helped Dineen on Saturday: All the time he spent watching his older brother, Joe, play linebacker at Kansas the past four years. He knew what to expect.

Youngblood felt like more of a rookie out there, but he started to feel at home after the first snap.

“I was ready,” Youngblood said. “There weren’t really any nerves. I just made sure I knew where to line up and played 100 miles per hour.”

It was a bit surprising to see Youngblood used primarily as a blocker, given his size (5-foot-10) and speed, K-State quarterback didn’t target him in the passing game.

Klieman said he had “some productive plays out there” but Youngblood will likely touch the ball in future weeks. The Wildcats simply wanted to bring him along slowly in his first game.

“Youngblood is continuing to learn what we’re doing offensively,” Klieman said. “He has tremendous speed, tremendous athleticism. We’re just trying to design some things to make it a maybe a little bit simpler on him, because he doesn’t have the experience that Malik (Knowles) does and Wykeen (Gill) does and Dalton (Schoen) does or Landry (Weber) where he can play multiple positions ... We’ll continue to push the envelope with him as far as giving him more of the playbook.”