How Joshua Youngblood ended up living with K-State coach Chris Klieman this spring
Chris Klieman has plenty of wild stories to tell about the abnormal coaching methods he has used since the coronavirus pandemic limited his time with Kansas State football players earlier this year, but one stands out from the rest ... by a wide margin.
It’s the story about how one of his players ended up living in his home for three weeks.
The player is one of K-State’s best — sophomore receiver Joshua Youngblood.
Here’s how it happened. At one point during April, he decided to undergo surgery on both of his legs to repair some issues that were causing him “chronic shin splints.” But finding a place for that surgery to take place was a challenge. At first, the Wildcats planned for him to undergo the surgery near his home in Tampa, Fla., but that didn’t work because the Sunshine State eliminated all elective surgeries.
So K-State flew Youngblood to Manhattan. But once he returned to the Little Apple, he was required to quarantine for two weeks. After that, he was good for surgery, but it was unclear where he would go afterward. The surgery was going to limit him to a wheelchair for several weeks, and quarantine requirements prevented his mother from flying to Kansas and caring for him.
Where would he stay during his initial recovery phase? That was a heck of a question. The answer required some creativity.
“We got a special petition from the NCAA and Youngblood stayed at my house for three weeks,” Klieman said Thursday during a Zoom call with the Manhattan Rotary Club. “We did it because it was what we had to do. It was the right thing to do. People don’t realize those are some of the sacrifices we are all making.”
The solution worked out well for everyone involved.
“He has never been fed so well in his life,” Klieman said. “My wife treated him better than my three children. My kids were saying, ‘Wow, we are having great meals these three weeks.’ Now Josh is telling everyone to have surgery so they can stay at Coach Klieman’s house.”
Youngblood is back to living with some of his K-State football teammates and doesn’t seem to have any lingering issues from the offseason surgery. Klieman is expecting him to build off his promising freshman season, in which he earned All-Big 12 honors as a kick returner.
Youngblood returned 13 kickoffs for 495 yards and three touchdowns last season. He also caught nine passes for 73 yards and rushed for 55 yards and a touchdown. As long as he is healthy, K-State will rely on him to make plays on offense and special teams next season.
“If you would have seen Josh this morning at the 6 o clock run you would have said, ‘That kid had double leg surgery and they put a couple of rods in each leg to stabalize some things because of chronic shin splints?’” Klieman said. “He was running full speed. He looked phenomenal. The best thing about it is he said, ‘I have no pain.’”
Expectations for the season
Klieman made a few other things clear during his half-hour discussion with the Manhattan Rotary Club.
One of the most eye-opening was that he isn’t sure if there will be a college football season in the fall.
“If you’d asked me a month ago, I’d have said, ‘I doubt we’d have a football season,’” Klieman said. “If you’d asked me three weeks after that, I’d say, ‘Yep, we’re definitely having a season.’ Two weeks ago, I said, ‘No.’ Last week, I said, ‘Yeah, probably.’ I’m leaning toward yes right now, but as we all saw with the Florida Marlins just recently, something can happen just like that.”
K-State has encountered its own problems on the COVID-19 front. The team had to suspend all team workouts during June because of an outbreak within the roster. A handful of players got together with friends off campus to play video games. A few more met up at a lake party. The next thing you knew, 15 K-State players had tested positive.
But when the Wildcats looked into contact tracing, they discovered that more than 70 players would need to self-isolate because of virus exposure, Klieman said..
Things have improved since then. K-State players and coaches learned from the experience. Klieman said there are currently only two players who are unable to participate in workouts because of the coronavirus.
He thinks K-State’s football facility is the safest place for them. The athletic department requires them to wear masks and performs temperature checks every day. Workouts are also broken up into small pods to prevent mass gatherings. That makes for a busy day, with some sort of activity taking place from everyday between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m.
His biggest worry is when players go home or have free time on the weekends. Some of that may be diminished on Aug. 7 when the Wildcats are tentatively scheduled to begin preseason camp.
“The challenges have been endless for us, but we do feel like we are moving in a positive direction and in a direction that will allow us to start practice next week,” Klieman said. “It will be interesting football in general this year will be very different.”
Crowds at K-State football games
New restrictions in Riley County limit the size of public gatherings to 2,000 people, and that’s only for events that have been approved by the county 14 days in advance.
If those restrictions stay in place, there won’t be many fans inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium this season. But Klieman thinks things could change between now and the season-opener.
“I would hope we could get 40% (capacity) in here,” Klieman said. “We can try to get 20,000 to 25,000 based on how time progresses. That is something our people are working on every day.”
Big 12 meeting
As soon as his meeting with the Manhattan Rotary Club ended, Klieman said he was hopping on another Zoom call with other Big 12 coaches to discuss scheduling possibilities for the upcoming season.
The Big 12 should decide on a format soon, after every other major conference has decided to switch to a league-only model.
Klieman seems open to most possibilities, as long as games are played in the fall.
“I’m not one to be for playing in the spring,” Klieman said. “I don’t think that would work. If it has to happen, then we’ll do that. But we’d like to play this season between September and about Christmas. We have about a three-week period where they could push some championship games back until the end of December. The challenge will be there.
“I’ve had nonstop Zoom meetings every day since about May 15 of potential protocols and what we’re looking to do. We have another one today that we’re getting closer to some of those answers.”