Spring football practices have come to an end at Kansas State, which means it is time for Chris Klieman to have difficult conversations with certain players as he makes roster cuts for the first time as head coach of the Wildcats.
The expectation is that college football rosters will be capped at 105 next season, assuming the House vs. NCAA settlement is approved and the era of revenue sharing begins.
That is unfortunate news for a program like K-State, which has a long history of walk-on success. Even though the Wildcats have been limited to 85 scholarship players in the past, they have routinely invited dozens of extra student-athletes to help out in countless ways behind the scenes — with some of those unsung contributors developing into bonafide stars.
K-State entered the spring with close to 125 players on its roster. With that in mind, Klieman reluctantly said he would treat April practices as a tryout of sorts for players that were near the cut line. But he was dreading the day he would have to follow through with said cuts.
“I’m not in favor of this at all,” Klieman said earlier this month. “We have got a lot of kids that want to be in the program that are not going to be able to be in the program.”
Unfortunately, the time has come for the Wildcats to part ways with nearly two dozen players.
That process has not been easy.
“It’s a tragedy,” K-State defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman said on Wednesday. “It’s terrible. It’s awful that you have to explain that to them and the kids that really want to be here, because Kansas State is a want-to-be-here place. It’s not a stop along the way. It’s unique that way.
“To tell a kid that really wants to be a part of the development process that we’re doing here — not just physically but mentally and spiritually and emotionally, the whole deal — to tell him that he can’t be a part of it is awful. I think Coach Klieman has had some very difficult meetings in the last couple of days. He would tell you it’s probably the low point of his career to have to do that.”
Some of the departures are starting to become known, as those affected by the new roster limits have publicly announced that they have entered the transfer portal in search of a new home.
There is a chance some of them will be allowed to return to Manhattan. In a confusing turn of events, the judge overseeing the House vs. NCAA settlement said on Wednesday afternoon that she would not approve the settlement unless the policy for roster limits gets changed. She wants to “grandfather in” all current athletes and allow teams to gradually trim their rosters to 105.
It is unclear how the NCAA will respond to that request.
In any case, here is a look at all the K-State football players who have entered the portal this month. Some of them are scholarship players who left for other opportunities. Others were told they were cut.
