Kansas State adds Division II LB Ralph Ortiz
Kansas State continues to add players from the transfer portal to the 2025 roster. Division II University of West Florida linebacker Ralph Ortiz has committed to K-State. In fact, KSO has confirmed he’s enrolled, on campus and has begun taking classes.
The decision for Ortiz was prolonged because he never actually made an announcement. A few of the new Wildcats didn’t. Linebacker Gabe Powers, an Ohio State transfer, also never publicly acknowledged picking Kansas State.
Ortiz made his intentions known to the staff soon after an official visit to K-State. It took place December 21. He was one of many transfer portal prospects to visit Manhattan.
Kansas State linebackers coach Steve Stanard deserves credit for the Wildcats’ newest transfer addition. He did a lot of the heavy lifting to land Ortiz and the scouting. He also has a room going through a bit of a turnover and landed Powers from the transfer portal as well.
In his two seasons at West Florida, Ortiz was a very productive player.
As a redshirt freshman in 2023, Ortiz totaled 37 tackles, including 6.5 tackles for a loss, one sack, three interceptions and seven pass deflections. For his efforts in 2023, he was named the Gulf South Conference Defensive Freshman of the Year. He was also named Defensive Freshman of the Week three times in 2023.
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This season for the Argonauts, Ortiz tallied 42 tackles, including nine for a loss. He also added 3.5 sacks, one forced fumble and an interception. He was named First Team All-Gulf South Conference due to his outstanding performance.
K-State is no stranger to adding transfers from all levels of football before. Of course there is a strong junior college tradition with the Wildcats, but in the Chris Klieman era, there have been many FCS level transfers to make their way to The Little Apple.
Ortiz becomes the first Division II transfer of the Klieman era for Kansas State. They’ll hope he and Powers are more productive than the NCAA transfer linebackers of the past, such as Branden Jennings, Will Honas, Eric Munoz, Alec Marenco and Shawn Robinson.
