Collin Klein, Avery Johnson, Linkon Cure and basketball transfers: K-State Q&A

The past four months have been incredibly hectic for Kansas State.

During that time, we have seen ...

• Chris Klieman unexpectedly retire as head football coach
• Collin Klein return to his alma mater as head football coach
• An army of incoming transfers join the football roster
• Men’s basketball coach Jerome Tang get fired for cause
• The Wildcats limp through a nightmare basketball season
• Casey Alexander arrive in Manhattan as the head coach in men’s basketball.

But now that all of that is our rearview mirror, things feel quiet. Maybe K-State and its fans can enjoy some normal times as spring football gets underway and Alexander looks to build his first roster at Bramlage Coliseum.

There are plenty of fun questions to cover on those topics. So let’s dive right in. Thanks, as always, for providing them.

It’s time for another K-State Q&A.

Collin Klein is a K-State legend in large part due to his toughness. Avery Johnson, despite his skillset, has prioritized not taking extra hits instead of getting extra yards that move the chains. Do you see CK7 toughening AJ2 up and having him run more by design? -@PHSVikingWilson.

I asked Collin Klein a similar question during an exclusive interview last month.

How many carries does he expect Avery Johnson to get as a senior next season?

Here is what he said:

“Whatever it’s going to take for the team to win. If you get too caught up in analyzing the specifics of that it can lead you astray or distract you from what is most important. He’s got to be the facilitator and distribute the football. He can’t do it all by himself. I want him to be aggressive and use his legs as a weapon when the time is right. I want him to be in attack mode in every aspect of his game. What will his exact carry number be at the end of the year? If he’s in attack mode, and we’re winning, it will be the right number.”

Here’s my take.

I do think Johnson will be more of a runner next season. Go back and look how often Klein asked him to use his legs in 2023 when they were together. Johnson averaged 6.5 rushes per game as a freshman. And that’s when he was mostly Will Howard’s backup. In the three games he saw extended playing time (against Texas Tech, TCU and NC State) he rushed for 234 yards and six touchdowns on 36 carries.

Granted, one of those games came with Conor Riley calling plays at the Pop-Tarts Bowl. But the point stands. Klein will want to use Johnson as a runner.

That doesn’t mean Klein will ask Johnson to run QB Power 20 times a game. Even though Klein did that back when he was the K-State quarterback, he wants Johnson to be a distributor on offense who can run when the opportunity is there.

Let’s just say, Klein will bring out the most of his legs next season.

Three football questions. What is K-State’s win total for Year 1 under Collin Klein? Who will be the breakout player of the spring? What are your exepctations for Linkon Cure? -@TheZentSmile via X.

FanDuel has K-State’s over/under win total set at 7.5 for next season.

At first glance, it seems like there is some value on the over with that bet. But it’s worth pointing out that K-State has gone under its preseason win total every year since 2022. Farmageddon seems to be the swing game every season. Instead of giving your money to a sportsbook for several months, you might be better off waiting to bet on that game.

My pick for breakout player of the spring is Josh Manning. Why? It would be a great story if he transferred in from Mizzou and became a star at wide receiver. The journalist in me wants it to happen.

My expectations for Linkon Cure are for him to take a nice step forward. Joining the football team last summer instead of last spring made it hard for Cure to live up to expectations in Year 1. Mix in injuries and a coaching staff that seemed reluctant to get him the ball, and it was a disappointing freshman season. But he is in excellent shape now, and Klein wants to get him more involved. He could be fun to watch.

How many players from Belmont will be future Wildcats? And will that number be higher than the number of current K-State players that are retained? -@ChadFullington via X.

I am expecting at least three or four Belmont transfers to follow Casey Alexander to K-State.

A quartet of Belmont players have already announced plans to enter the portal. They are: Tyler Lundblade, Sam Orme, Brigham Rogers and Drew Scharnowski.

Lundblade was the team’s best player last season, so the Wildcats will very much be interested in him. But other schools will also want him.

The other three were also important contributors for the Bruins last season. If they want to come to K-State, I imagine that Alexander will take them.

That is one perk that comes with hiring a head coach away from a different school. He can bring his team with him to his new job.

I am only expecting one or two current players to return to K-State next season. So there’s a good chance there are more former Belmont players than former K-State players on the roster next year.

Why haven’t any K-State basketball players announced plans to enter the transfer portal yet? Is there a chance more of them will stay than expected? I assumed we would have seen movement already. - Andrew B. via X.

The transfer portal doesn’t open until April 7, and it stays open until April 20.

NIL payments are distributed monthly. The longer K-State basketball players remain on the team, the longer they can keep collecting pay checks. I assume most of them will wait until their money arrives in April, and then they will bounce.

The same thing happened last season. If you remember, K-State didn’t lose the majority of its transfers until late. But once they got paid for a final time they mostly all entered the portal.

Timing is everything when it comes to basketball players announcing their transfer plans.

K-State is coming off a 20-loss season in which it flirted with last place in the Big 12 standings. Very few members of that team will return. But it could take them a few more weeks to exit.

Why has it been so difficult lately for men’s basketball to maintain any consistency? The past few coaches were able to put together a successful year or two followed by the inevitable road to mediocrity or worse. Granted KSU doesn’t have the basketball pedigree like KU, but similar schools like Texas Tech seem to maintain winning seasons and be in the mix for conference championships and the tournament. Is this due to bad luck or bad decisions? - TP L. via e-mail.

All roads lead back to recruiting.

K-State’s average starting position at Bart Torvik was No. 46 nationally during four years with Jerome Tang. During the final eight years of the Bruce Weber era, that number was No. 57.

It is hard for any coach to win consistently with rosters that are expected to be mediocre. Weber was able to win at a high level when he convinced the bulk of Frank Martin’s team to play for him when he first arrived in Manhattan. Things also went well for him when Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade were upperclassmen. But the Wildcats mostly lost otherwise.

Tang won when he had Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson in the same backcourt. But things started to go South immediately without them.

Torvik wasn’t logging every team’s starting point during the Frank Martin era, but his squads were always expected to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Back then, Martin had a recruiting strategy and he executed it well. His team’s had a margin for error.

Tang and Weber were both all over the place when they targeted new players. When everything fell into place, they had good seasons. When certain prospects didn’t work out, they lost. Their margins for error were small.

Simply put, Casey Alexander needs to attract better talent to Bramlage Coliseum. Or, at least, talent that can play well together.

There is nothing stopping him from doing so. K-State will supply him with enough resources to recruit a talented roster. But it will be up to him and his staff to do it. The right coach can win in Manhattan. But it’s not a good enough job to carry a bad coach to the postseason on a consistent basis.

Two basketball questions. Who will Casey Alexander hire as assistant coaches? How many women’s players will stay? -@TheZentSmile via X.

If you worked with Casey Alexander at Belmont, there is a very high chance you will also be on his staff at K-State.

Kerron Johnson and Sean Rutigliano will both be on Alexander’s inagural K-State coaching staff.

Both of them used to work for Alexander at Belmont. Johnson is a young assistant who seems to be a future star in the business. Rutigliano was a head coach at Division III Colby last season.

Two other Belmont assistants will join Alexander in Manhattan. They are JJ Butler and Luke Smith.

Furthermore, Bryce Haase will take over as director of analytics and Lee Scott will be the team’s new strength and conditioning coach. They also previously worked for Alexander at Belmont.

I’m sure Alexander will bring in a few names from outside his Belmont tree. But I’m not sure who they will be just yet.

For the women’s basketball team, all I can say is that Jeff Mittie is motivated to retain as much of the team’s young core as possible. Some players are certain to enter the portal, but I’m not expecting a mass exodus.

Why did it take the Big 12 so long to put down a traditional wood floor instead of that headache causing, ugly grey thing at the conference tournament? - William H. via e-mail.

Brett Yormark thought playing basketball on a speical LED court was cool. So much so, that he was reluctant to replace it.

Think of it this way: if you went out and spent $250 on a new pair of sneakers, you would probably be hesitant to stuff them in the back of your closet after wearing them one time. It would probably take a plethora of critics telling you that the sneakers were no good before you went back to your old shoes.

Now, hopefully your eye for fashion is good enough to avoid that type of blunder.

But it took more than a week for Yormark to realize the LED court was an ill-advised idea.

Personally, I thought the LED floor had promise. But the Big 12 didn’t do a good enough job utilizing all of its features. It was just a slippery, boring court. The Big 12 made the right move when it switched back to wood for the final rounds.

This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Collin Klein, Avery Johnson, Linkon Cure and basketball transfers: K-State Q&A."

Kellis Robinett

The Wichita Eagle

Kellis Robinett covers Kansas State athletics for The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star. A winner of more than a dozen national writing awards, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.