K-State bags elite Kansas talent

Snugly seated between his parents at midcourt of a stuffy Max Jones Fieldhouse on July 1st, the time had finally arrived for Goodland tight end Linkon Cure to make his long-awaited decision.

“My story will continue at Kansas State University,” the prized prospect uttered into a microphone streaming nationally across CBS Sports’ 247Sports network. 

Reaching for a lavender hat, the new commitment signified a historic moment for the Wildcats in modern recruiting, causing an eruption from a crowd full of family and local supporters. In many ways though, it was simply more of the same for K-State – that is, with a Chris Klieman spin on it. 

Keeping local players home has long been a staple for a program erected from figurative Flint Hills dust by Bill Snyder. In five seasons since taking over for the college football legend, Klieman has more than continued that tradition. Just as Snyder struck gold with the likes of Terence Newman (Salina Central), Darren Sproles (Olathe North) and Jordy Nelson (Riley County), Klieman and company have guided Cooper Beebe (Piper), Wyatt Hubert (Shawnee Heights) and Ekow Boye-Doe (Lawrence) to the NFL. And there is a wealth of even more local talent rising through the current and future rosters, much of which carries equal to higher expectations all because Klieman’s counterparts have been able to win a section of the state typically reserved for outsiders.

No one would dare challenge Snyder’s history in terms of evaluating and coaching up the overlooked, undervalued prospects in Kansas. Over 27 years, he and his collection of coaches proved time and time again they could wring out ability from players perceived to be dry in potential. Despite a smaller sample size, Klieman’s regime has not only retained that blueprint but upscaled it through also keeping some of the Sunflower State’s most sought after national targets at home.

Dating back to 247Sports’ inception during the 2011 recruiting cycle, K-State repeatedly failed to reel in the biggest fish within state borders. Forget players like Braden Smith (Olathe South/Auburn), Amani Bledsoe (Lawrence/Oklahoma) and Isaiah Simmons (Olathe North/Clemson) who barely answered the phone when the Wildcats would call, K-State struggled to find commitment avenues with even the interested All-America types such as Jordan Phillips (Circle/Oklahoma), DeAndre Goolsby (Derby/Florida), and Breece Hall (Wichita Northwest/Iowa State) to name just a few. 

Between 2011 and 2019, the last class to have Snyder’s fingerprints, K-State regularly maintained dominance among the Top 10-15 players in Kansas, averaging at least three commitments per year. However, of the 28 total landed by Snyder assistants during that span, only one, Tanner Wood (Conway Springs) in 2013, was considered the state’s best. Even more, after Wood, who was ranked No. 351 nationally, the next best local prize Snyder secured via 247Sports Composite rating was Keenan Garber (Free State) – who enters his super senior season for the Wildcats this fall – at No. 589 overall in 2019.

Enter Kleiman, a decorated FCS head coach without any sort of track record battling for top recruits, and fans rightfully fretted – albeit prematurely. In a matter of six recruiting cycles, the narrative has quickly changed in Manhattan and across the Big 12 landscape.

Upon Klieman accepting athletic director Gene Taylor’s offer in December 2018, K-State hadn’t had a Top247 recruit at the junior college level in six years worth of recruiting, seven if you focus solely on prep ranks. With Cure’s pledge this summer, Klieman now has seven to his name alone, all of whom were rated higher than Wood’s rating of 87. Comb through 247Sports’ database of the school’s Top 50 highest-rated signees of all-time and you’ll find 34% have been claimed post-Snyder. What’s more is that 14 of those 17 players in the Top 50 were claimed by Klieman’s staff within the past three recruiting calendars (2023-2025), including overall No. 1 Cure, No. 10 Avery Johnson, and No. 16 Gus Hawkins. Their common bond? Homegrown Kansans.

Like those before him in Manhattan, Klieman and K-State continue to own their home turf. Whereas Kansas Jayhawks fans are celebrating the 2025 commitment of Olathe South’s Juju Marks, just the program’s third Top 10 Kansan to stay home in the Lance Leipold era, K-State nation is in the midst of another sizable haul. Already with four of the Top 12 Kansans in 2025 locked up (Cure, Blue Valley Northwest’s Brock Heath, Blue Valley’s Maguire Richman and Louisburg’s Ashton Moore), the Wildcats are close to securing 33% (at least five of the Top 15) of the state’s best for the fifth time in six years. And these aren’t just any Kansans but arguably the richest crop of Sunflowers ever seen on the gridiron. 

In 2023, K-State fended off a late run from Oklahoma and offers from Tennessee and USC for Olathe South defensive end Jordan Allen. For the prized quarterback Johnson, out of Maize, the Wildcats beat out Oregon and a then Kalen DeBoer-led Washington squad. Lyndon’s giant tackle Kaedin Massey attracted heavy attention from Nebraska and Oklahoma but wound up selecting K-State. Even a prospect such as Heath, rated No. 8 among Kansans in the current recruiting cycle, required Klieman and company to outduel 14 other offers from major players at the game’s highest level, most notably Iowa.

“You have to build relationships. That’s the number one thing,” Klieman said in an interview with K-State athletics days after his hire. “Make sure the young man and the family trust you that you’re going to challenge the heck out of that student-athlete, but you’re also going to be able to love them up, too. We always tell people: It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be worth it.”

With an incredibly strong culture well established within the Vanier Complex and a promising NIL collective maturing by the day – one that just so happens to be spearheaded by a pair of fellow Kansas-bred, Wildcat alums in Abilene’s Curry Sexton and Junction City’s Ryan Henington – high-caliber targets like Johnson, Cure and even former Derby star Dylan Edwards, at one point or another deemed out of range or too big for the underdog purple and white, have triggered a trend of believers. Believers in Klieman, K-State and a lifelong, local legacy.

“Throughout this process I have not forgotten who I am and where I come from,” Cure said. “I love, and am so proud to be able to say that I am from, out in the middle of nowhere Goodland, Kansas. Staying home obviously means a lot to the state and I want to bring back that pride in our state.”

Following Signing Day 2024, CBS Sports author David Cobb wrote that the revamped Big 12 appeared “different than the rest of big-time college football and that could prove to be an asset, even if it means signing day is a big sleepy”. Cobb may be right in saying a league built mostly around “coaching, culture and continuity” will never glow in recruiting the way the SEC can, but perhaps Klieman is proving through an extra dose of area talent that the Little Apple isn’t a campus to ignore. The foundation of Kansas State’s roster will always be built around Kansans, but there looks to be a lot more power behind the Powercat these days.

Ryan Wallace is the recruiting editor for 247Sports affiliate GoPowercat.com and co-host of the Verbal Commitment podcast on the KC Sports Network.