Kansan comes home to bolster K-State’s trio of transfer running backs in season opener
Growing up in Atchison, Kanssas, playing for Kansas State was such a distant dream, but Harry Trotter was still disappointed when it didn’t become reality — right away.
Trotter, a graduate of Maur Hill Academy, earned a couple of Division II offers out of high school but chose the junior-college route and went to Fort Scott. After a stop at Louisville, he scored the first touchdown of the Chris Klieman era on Saturday in K-State’s 49-14 victory over Nicholls.
Trotter took a stretch handoff to the right at the Nicholls’ 9-yard line. He delivered a handful of stiff arms as defenders slid off his shoulder pads. He plunged into the end zone and got up yelling.
“The only way to describe it is a blessing,” Trotter said. “It’s something I’ll remember forever.”
Trotter, a redshirt junior, wasn’t alone in the spoils Saturday night.
Three K-State running backs are looking to replace one this season. In 2018, Alex Barnes carried the ball 256 times for 1,355 yards, 12 touchdowns and a 5.3-yarrs-per-carry average.
The Wildcats’ second and third-leading rushers were quarterbacks.
Against Nicholls, three transfers, and a player who left the team and came back, made Barnes’ production look like an easy burden to carry. Graduate transfers James Gilbert and Jordon Brown along with Trotter and junior Tyler Burns combined for 280 yards and four touchdowns.
None of their paths to Manhattan were conventional, but they said Saturday’s game solidified they made the right choice.
Trotter went to Atchison’s Maur Hill Academy, where he ran for 2,940 yards and 36 touchdowns in his career. He earned all-state honors as a senior.
As a freshman at Fort Scott, he ran for 503 yards and eight scores on just 146 carries. That was good enough to earn an offer from Louisville. But at Louisville, he felt underused. Bill Snyder gave him an opportunity at K-State. Trotter had to sit out last season, but he is getting his chance back home now.
“To end up here is kind of surreal, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Trotter said. “I just always had to trust what I was capable of and believe in myself.”
He finished with 52 yards on 10 carries and the one touchdown.
Trotter’s run to the end zone on Saturday night led him across the country and back, as was the same for the other two K-State running backs.
Gilbert was the Wildcats’ leading rusher against Nicholls. He totaled 115 yards on 18 carries and scored on a 24-yard run up the middle, a run on which he bowled over receiver Landry Weber.
Gilbert comes to K-State from Ball State. As a Cardinal, he ran for 2,806 yards, which was good enough for seventh in school history. He then came to K-State. Gilbert said being a running back is about rhythm. With four clearly capable backs in the rotation, finding that rhythm could be tough, but he said the coaches meshed them perfectly.
“It paid off,” Gilbert said. “I’m seeing my name up there and thinking, ‘Dang, I got here in January and now I’m playing my first college football game in Bill Snyder Stadium.”
Gilbert is the most downhill runner of the three, and Brown might be the shiftiest and best receiver out of the backfield.
Brown played in 28 games with 13 starts at North Carolina. He capped his career with 1,005 rushing yards and eight scores. He added 46 catches for 342 yards.
He said Saturday wasn’t the full display of the running backs’ potential; it was just a glimpse.
“Going into the game, we didn’t know how exactly the rotation would be,” Brown said. “But as the game went on, we saw that anybody who touched the field was going to make a play. We all had our opportunities, and I think we all took advantage.”
Each of the 2019 K-State backs brings something different to the table, Klieman said, but their selflessness unites them. All of the backs said they were nervous coming into Saturday night; Klieman said he was, too.
With a victory under their belts, they have a launching point for a rotation in 2019.
“They’re all playing for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back,” Klieman said. “It was really important for those guys to see each other have success. The amount of touches is one thing, but it’s the quality of touches and the fact that we’re going to keep you fresh.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2019 at 11:27 PM with the headline "Kansan comes home to bolster K-State’s trio of transfer running backs in season opener."