Rapid Recap: Kansas State starters coming into picture

Kansas State injury report

First and foremost, Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman was tasked with discussing the injuries to offensive lineman Christian Duffie, nose guard Uso Seumalo and linebacker Daniel Green. Duffie was an offseason ding, but Seumalo and Green suffered injuries during training camp.

Duffie is still expected to miss the first part of the season. Seumalo and Green still aren’t practicing. However, Klieman revealed that they were hopeful to have Green begin practicing late this week or at least by the start of game week.

In the case of Seumalo, his recovery is a bit further out. The hope is that he may be healthy enough to begin practicing next week, but it isn’t a certainty. K-State will know if he can play in the opener in about a week.

Starting wide receivers, safeties and linebackers

Discussions with Kansas State coaches and teammates have certainly revealed the winners of particular position battles during training camp. Klieman even uncovered even more of those when speaking to the media on Tuesday.

We knew that Keagan Johnson and Phillip Brooks were in line to start. They’ll be joined by RJ Garcia, who has had a monster camp according to his head coach. He, linebacker Desmond Purnell and K-State cornerback Jacob Parrish were all identified as the most impressive players in all of camp.

Speaking of Purnell, he has separated himself a great amount at the ‘Sam’ linebacker spot according to just about everyone in the building. Of course, he will be joined by Austin Moore and then Green when he returns to the field.

Safety-wise, nothing is a surprise. Generally, I believe that everyone was under the impression that the three starters were going to be Kobe Savage, Marques Sigle and VJ Payne. That was confirmed even further on Tuesday afternoon.

Jobs still up for grabs

While the starters are known in a lot of cases, building out the depth is still a process.

Klieman noted that he still letting battles wage in the second units at all of linebacker, safety and wide receiver in particular. Determining who will provide the depth for Kansas State this year is the final step, and that may include freshmen.

But it’s also just identifying some certainty and role for guys like Jake Clifton, Tobi Osunsanmi, Colby McCalister and Jadon Jackson for example.

True freshmen for K-State

Klieman was much more receptive to my question about freshmen than I thought he would be, while still stating that they were in the midst of figuring most of it out and coming to those conclusions. However, he was transparent and shared that there are as many as 10 true freshmen under consideration to play this year and right out of the gate.

Two that he was able to specifically name were K-State linebacker Asa Newsom and running back Joe Jackson. Specifically, the Kansas State boss noted that Jackson could make a splash on special teams, but it was the second time in a row that those two were mentioned.

So, I’d be surprised to not see them, perhaps as soon as week one.

Player ownership and empowerment

A moment that stood out to me was when Klieman discussed the amount of maturity on the team, as well as the amount of power that can be placed on the K-State players. They have such a clear understanding of the operation and culture.

It has become such a well-oiled operation that it can be sustained even when the authority figures aren’t around. The Kansas State head coach believes they could have a practice conducted, perfectly from start to finish, without the coaches even being on hand for it.

That is because of the amount of trust and faith he has in his team, but specifically Will Howard, Daniel Green and Seth Porter. So, it comes as no shock that those three were among the seven captains announced by the team.

Most growth

When I asked Klieman where they made the most strides in camp, he thought about that particular question the most without answering. After pondering it for 10-15 seconds, his answer was the depth that they had built along defensive lines.

K-State knows what they have in Uso Seumalo, Nate Matlack, Khalid Duke and Brendan Mott, but he felt like an incredible amount of growth was seen from the likes of Chiddi Obiazor, Cody Stufflebean, Jevon Banks and Damian Ilalio.

Kansas State cornerback update

After losing the likes of Ekow Boye-Doe and Julius Brents, it can be easy to be a little paranoid about how the cornerback position is going to shake out at Kansas State. We heard that sentiment at times even from assistants Joe Klanderman and Van Malone.

However, because of the recruiting efforts by the staff and the growth and player development, they still have three guys that they describe as starters. They couldn’t be more excited about the trio of Parrish, Keenan Garber and Will Lee.

Specifically, Lee continues to be compared to Brents.