Can Chris Klieman take a roster full of Kansas kids and win the Big 12 conference? While this may have been unthinkable in the past, this season there are 21 players from Kansas on the two-deep depth chart for K-State. Heck, the starting backfield, Avery Johnson, Dylan Edwards, and DJ Giddens, are all from Kansas. Johnson will likely complete passes to tight end Will Anciaux and receiver Sterling Lockett, both also from Kansas, as the season progresses. And three starting offensive linemen are Kansas kids.

A stigma has always existed that the Kansas, Oklahoma, and Iowa schools have to recruit from Florida, Texas, California, etc. to compete in the Big 12, and recruiting Kansas kids alone won’t get it done. Well, Chris Klieman seems to be blowing that stigma out of the water. I don’t recall K-State ever having a football roster consisting of this many key contributors from the state of Kansas. Does the stigma no longer exist? I guess we will find out.

There are some very talented players on K-State’s roster from the Sunflower State. Here is the list of players from the state of Kansas from the two-deep depth chart alone:

Quarterback Avery Johnson (Maize High School).
Running back DJ Giddens (Junction City HS).
Running back Dylan Edwards (Derby HS).
Running back La’James White (St. James).
Linebacker Desmond Purnell. (Hayden HS).
Defensive end Tobi Osunsanmi (Wichita East).
Kicker Chris Tennant (Mill Valley HS).
Offensive lineman Hadley Panzer (Lakin HS).
Offensive lineman Taylor Poitier (Miege HS).
Offensive lineman Sam Hecht (Mill Valley HS).
Defensive lineman Damian Ilalio (Manhattan HS).
Wide receiver Sterling Lockett (Blue Valley HS).
Tight end Will Anciaux (Kapaun Mt. Carmel HS).
Defensive end Cody Stufflebean (McPherson HS).
Defensive end Jordan Allen (Olathe South HS).
Linebacker Beau Palmer (Blue Valley HS).
Linebacker Austin Moore (Louisburg HS).
Defensive back Jacob Parrish (Olathe North HS).
Safety Wesley Fair (Wichita Collegiate HS).
Safety Nickendre Stiger (Wichita East HS).
Defensive back Keenan Garber (Lawrence Free State HS).

That is a LOT of talented Kansas kids. I count 15 starters from Kansas if you include the kicker.

There are only three other Big 12 schools with an “all-state” (both the quarterback and running back from the state that your school is located) duo, and they are all from Texas:

Josh Hoover and Cam Cook, TCU.
Behren Morton and Tahj Brooks, Texas Tech.
Donovan Smith and Re’Shaun Stanford, Houston.

Would you trade K-State’s offensive backfield for any of those three? I didn’t think so. It might be nice to have Tahj Brooks, but I would not trade Avery Johnson for Behren Morton. K-State may have one of the most dynamic “all-state” backfields in the country.

If Chris Klieman wins the Big 12 conference with this Kansas-heavy roster, it should cement K-State as the school of choice for Kansas high school football players. “Kansas State Proud” should be the motto of the season.