Five observations from Kansas State’s first open football practice of the preseason
The Kansas State football team invited fans to watch the final 45 minutes of a preseason practice on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
It was only the second time the Wildcats have played together all summer, and no one was wearing pads. So it might be a little too early to make any grand predictions about the depth chart. But there was still plenty of action.
Here are five noteworthy observations from the open practice:
Off-the-radar players shine
Two of the most impressive players on Saturday are the opposite of household names for K-State.
The top receiver of the afternoon was arguably Landry Weber, a former walk-on from Lenexa who has only caught seven passes for 117 yards during the entirety of his time with the Wildcats. But he looked like a playmaker while catching a few nifty passes from Skylar Thompson and Will Howard.
Weber played through injuries last season, which might explain why he had a mostly quiet year aside from special teams. Now that he’s healthy, the senior looks like he is ready to make a bigger impact as a slot receiver.
Aamaris Brown also looked strong in the passing game as a defender. It came as a surprise to some when Chris Klieman said the Wildcats were grooming Brown to start at nickelback at Big 12 media days last month, but that seems like a good strategy based on what he showed Saturday.
Brown broke up three passes during scrimmage action and nearly intercepted a pass thrown by Howard. Two of his other pass breakups came against No. 1 receiver Malik Knowles.
The nickel is a question mark for K-State this season, but Brown can ease concerns at that position if he continues to create this much havoc in practice.
Injury updates
K-State fans got an up-close look at a key defender who missed most of last season with an injury, but they will have to wait a little longer to see one of the team’s top receivers work his way back into action.
Let’s go with the good news first. T.J. Smith was a full participant at practice Saturday and handled lots of reps at safety with the second-string defense, alongside Cincere Mason. Smith looked fully healthy on the move and can reasonably be expected to split time with Russ Yeast at free safety this season.
The bad news: Chabastin Taylor was nowhere to be found. The senior receiver has been working to recover from a torn ACL he suffered in the final game of the 2020 season against Texas, and he apparently needs a little more time before he is ready to catch passes in a live setting.
K-State fans are hoping he is ready by Sept. 4, because he led all receivers on the team with 293 yards last season.
Transfer tracker
Here’s a breakdown of K-State’s eight new Division-I transfers and how they performed Saturday.
Julius Brents: The Iowa transfer is expected to start at corner and be a big-time playmaker for K-State’s secondary this season. But he was strictly an observer during the final 45 minutes of this practice. He was in uniform and appeared healthy. So there doesn’t appear to be any serious cause for concern.
Timmy Horne: K-State coaches have raved about the Charlotte transfer all offseason, but he spent most of his time with the second-string defense on this day, behind Eli Huggins and Tyrone Taleni.
Daniel Imatorbhebhe: K-State’s last tight end transfer (Briley Moore) had a big impact during his lone season with the Wildcats. Imatorbhebhe seems ready to do the same. The Illinois transfer caught a pair of nice passes across the middle on Saturday. Offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham appears eager to use him in many different ways.
Cincere Mason: The Kennesaw State transfer appears on track to serve as Jahron McPherson’s backup at strong safety.
Eric Munoz: The Utah State transfer figures to help K-State as a reserve linebacker. He was working mostly with the third-string defense on Saturday.
Reggie Stubblefield: Many have wondered where the Prairie View A&M transfer will play in K-State’s secondary. We may have the answer already. He was lining up at cornerback with the second string on Saturday.
Kade Warner: Everyone has high hopes for the Nebraska transfer at receiver, but he was quiet during the open portion of practice.
Russ Yeast: The Louisville transfer appears on track to start next to McPherson at safety.
Offensive-line rotations
Klieman won’t hesitate to play as many as 10 offensive linemen during a game. If that is once again the case this season, a top 10 already appears to be emerging.
Cooper Beebe, Josh Rivas, Noah Johnson, Ben Adler and Christian Duffie made up the starting unit on Saturday.
The next five were Taylor Poitier, Logan Long, Hayden Gillum, Kaitori Leveston and Carver Willis.
Those groups seem to have chemistry, as the offensive line outplayed its defensive counterpart much of the afternoon.
No problems with COVID-19
Unlike last season, the Wildcats don’t seem hampered by COVID-19 absences.
K-State athletics director Gene Taylor has said more than 85% of the team is vaccinated, which has made navigating COVID-19 a simpler task than it was last summer, even as cases are once again on the rise.
“I’m so excited to get to see everyone here today and not do it virtually like we did last year,” Klieman told the crowd in a closing statement. “Things are getting much better in that respect. We have all of our guys out here, and they have been at all of our meetings and all of our meals. We are doing a great job of keeping our distance, and we are doing really good things on the football field.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2021 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Five observations from Kansas State’s first open football practice of the preseason."