This Week in K-State Recruiting: Fun photos cap weekend visits for Wildcats prospects
For more than a year, Kansas State football coaches did everything they could to duplicate the experience of a campus visit for recruits without hosting a single one of them in Manhattan.
Chris Klieman and his assistants provided virtual tours of campus, they showed recruits around the football facilities while speaking on Zoom and they sent prospects info about anything else they thought might make a good impression.
That strategy worked well enough to secure commitments from nearly two dozen players in the 2021 recruiting cycle as they adjusted to the coronavirus pandemic, but something was noticeably missing from their approach — fun photos with the young players they were hoping to sign.
The days of dressing up a quarterback prospect in a K-State uniform and having him pose in front of a purple Jeep were put on hold. So were the days of linebackers holding up stuffed wildcats and offensive linemen wearing gigantic chains as if they were necklaces.
But those fun pictures made their triumphant return to social media over the weekend.
That was excellent news for the common fan, as there is no more exciting part of an official recruiting visit than the pictures a prospect shares on the Internet when it’s over.
Terian Williams, a three-star safety from Johns Creek, Georgia, commemorated his visit by wearing a No. 9 K-State jersey and leaned against the purple Jeep that K-State recruiting coordinator Taylor Braet drives around town.
Tabry Shettron, a 6-foot-4 tight end from Edmond, Oklahoma, covered the entire spectrum of photos. He shared four pictures that showed him posing with the purple Jeep, wearing a gigantic chain, standing with his parents and wearing a white visor with a K-State helmet that featured the school’s old school mascot.
Grant Page, a three-star receiver from Boulder, Colorado, shared a fun photo that showed him sitting him in K-State’s barbershop chair, which is located within the team’s locker room.
That was also a spot of choice for Eudora pledge Silas Etter. The three-star receiver shared a photo of himself in the same seat, along with two more that showed him posing with some of his high school teammates and Braet.
The main goal of any official visit for a college football recruit is to gain first-hand knowledge about the school he is touring. Ideally, the visit goes well enough for the recruit to sign and play there. There’s no telling if K-State’s first campus visits of June went well enough to earn commitments from any of the prospects listed above (none of them have yet committed), but it seemed like they enjoyed their time on campus.
The photos they shared on social media made that clear.
New offers worth tracking
K-State football coaches were busy offering scholarships to nearly 20 recruits last week.
Of those new targets, one seemed to stand out — Asher Weiner, a 6-foot-4 quarterback in the recruiting class of 2024.
It’s clear that the Wildcats are impressed by his arm, given that they offered him this early in the recruiting process. But they have good reason to like him. He already held an offer from Arkansas, and he is the younger brother of K-State freshman offensive lineman Austin Weiner.
One of K-State’s top quarterback targets in the class of 2023 also picked up an impressive scholarship offer from another school over the weekend.
Maize quarterback Avery Johnson announced that he picked up an offer from Florida State while he participated in a Tallahassee camp on Saturday.
That brings his scholarship tally up to: Arkansas, Florida State, Iowa State, Kansas, K-State, Mississippi, TCU and Washington State.
Johnson kicked off last week by taking an unofficial visit to K-State and said he was impressed by Manhattan.
“It went great,” he said via text message. “I got to meet the coaches face to face and see who they really were. They taught me a lot about the school, and I had a lot of fun.”
K-State adds to recruiting support staff
The Wildcats beefed up their football support staff last week by adding two new analysts and two new quality control coaches.
All four are expected to help K-State in creative off-field roles, including recruiting.
That is one area in which the Wildcats have been undermanned in recent years. As other teams have assembled small armies of support workers that analyze opponent’s film and contact recruits, K-State football has gone with a small staff.
Brian Lepak will serve as K-State’s senior offensive quality control coach and assistant director of recruiting. Will Burnham replaces Stanton Weber as the team’s special teams quality control coach. Tyler Foster will work as an offensive analyst and David Orloff will work as a defensive analyst.
It will be interesting to see how much of an impact they can make in addition to the traditional coaching staff. One thing is for sure: Extra help is never a bad thing.