‘Isn’t that awful?’: Kansas State loses up-and-coming defender for season with injury
The stage was set for Beau Palmer to play an important role in Kansas State’s 48-0 victory over Oklahoma State last week.
K-State football coach Chris Klieman told the 6-foot-2 sophomore from Overland Park that he was going to see action at linebacker against the Cowboys. With injuries adding up on defense, the Wildcats needed him to be ready to contribute in a bigger way than he previously had as a college football player.
Palmer was ready for the opportunity ... until fate intervened.
Instead of seeing action for a dozen or so plays in the Wildcats’ most dominant victory of the season, he watched from the sideline with a brace on his right knee. Palmer suffered a torn ACL earlier in the week during practice and was ruled out for the season at the most inopportune of times.
“Isn’t that awful?” Klieman said. “I was just so sick for the kid. I saw him the next day. He came to practice and I gave him a hug.”
Palmer had been slowly working his way up the depth chart before his injury. The reserve linebacker who played his high school ball at Blue Valley made two tackles in early games against South Dakota and Missouri and he did enough to make the team’s travel roster for road games.
When starting linebacker Daniel Green was injured against TCU two weeks ago, K-State coaches sent Palmer onto the field for some meaningful action in that game behind senior Nick Allen.
“Beau had been getting better and better,” defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman said. “He is on the same track that Nick Allen was on. He is probably ahead of that and more game ready than where he was two years ago. We have a lot of faith in Beau. He is physical and all the reps he was getting are going to do nothing but help him.”
Palmer’s duties were going to grow significantly last week against Oklahoma State. But it wasn’t to be.
That will have to wait until next season.
“It makes you so sad, because he worked his tail off for this moment,” Klieman said. “He knew he was going to get a chance to play. Then he has a freak injury like that. But Beau will bounce back. I don’t know when his surgery is, but it will be pretty soon because he didn’t have a lot of swelling. He will bounce back.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 11:06 AM with the headline "‘Isn’t that awful?’: Kansas State loses up-and-coming defender for season with injury."