Today is college football’s early signing day. It is an opportunity for fans to get excited about the future of their favorite college football team. With the madness of the transfer portal turning college football rosters into a free-agent frenzy, I’m not sure how much signing day matters anymore. Will the players signed be with the program next year, the following year, or four years from now? It appears unlikely now more than ever, but K-State coach Chris Klieman has done a pretty good job navigating the transfer portal every year to plug holes in his roster at positions of need.

Today, I used the recruiting site On3 to look back at Klieman’s recruiting classes and see how they have panned out. While the number of players leaving to the transfer portal is concerning, the analysis of Klieman’s last two recruiting classes gives me optimism that the Wildcats will fare just fine and come out of this okay.

Here is my analysis of each K-State recruiting class since 2019.

2019

This class was ranked 67th in the country and consisted of 22 commits and one transfer.

Players from this class that are still on the K-State roster: Keenan Garber, Khalid Duke, Cooper Beebe, and Taylor Poitier. Players lost to graduation or the NFL: Ty Zentner and Julius Brents.

Six out of 23 recruits in the 2019 class stuck it out with K-State. 26%. Having 26 percent of the players remaining at K-State doesn’t appear very positive, but this was Kleiman’s first class and it was mostly assembled by the previous coaching staff.

2020

The 2020 class was ranked 52nd in the country and consisted of 27 commits.

Players from this class that are still on the K-State roster: Will Swanson, Carver Willis, Cody Stufflebean, Sam Shields, and Hadley Panzer. Players lost to graduation/NFL/5th year: Will Howard,

Deuce Vaughn, and Felix Anudike-Uzomah.

Eight of 27 stuck it out with K-State. 30%.

2021

The 2021 class was ranked 53rd in the country and consisted of 20 commits and one transfer.

Players from this class that are still on the K-State roster: Andrew Leingang, Darell Jones, Desmond Purnell, Damian Ilalio, and Shane Porter. Players lost to graduation/NFL/5th year: Timmy Horne.

Six of the 21 stuck it out with K-State. 29%. 29% is still not a great percentage, but it gets better in 2022.

2022

The 2022 class ranked 63rd in the country and consisted of 21 commits and six transfers.

Players from this class that are still on the K-State roster: Tobi Osunsanmi, Donovan Rieman, Uso Seumalo, VJ Payne, John Pastore, Jake Clifton, Colby McCalister, Tyson Struber, Brayden Loftin, Garrett Oakley, Drake Bequeaith, Sterling Lockett, Jacob Parrish, Justice Clemons, and Jadon Jackson.

Players lost to graduation/NFL/5th year: Adrian Martinez, Will Honas, and Josh Hayes.

18 of the 27 have stuck it out and remained at K-State. 67%. While that is a good percentage, many of these players haven’t seen the field much, so they may not have received a lot of interest had they gone into the transfer portal. But some talented players in this group are staying at K-State as far as we know.

2023

The 2023 class ranked 37th in the country and consisted of 27 commits and six transfers.

Players from this class that are still on the K-State roster: Avery Johnson, Terry Kirksey, Rex Van Whye, Jordan Allen, Tre Spivey, Donovan McIntosh, Joe Jackson, Asa Newsom, Andre Davis, Kanijal Thomas, Wesley Fair, Ryan Davis, Will Anciaux, Chiddi Obiazor, Devin Vass, Kameron Sallis, Jackson Fullmer, Andrew Metzger, Jayce Brown, Camden Beebe, Austin Romaine, Jack Fabris, Asher Tomaszewski, Daniel Cobbs, Keagan Johnson, Jevon Banks, Jacob Knuth, Marques Sigle, and Tyler Nelome.

29 of the 33 are still on the roster. 88%. A few players from this class saw significant playing time last season. I’m encouraged to look through the names of the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes that are remaining at K-State. Of course, things could change after the bowl game, but it appears that Chris Klieman has a young, talented core roster to build around. They might even be one of the youngest rosters in the league in 2024. That bodes well for the future.

The 2024 class isn’t rated highly, currently ranked 53rd in the country, so K-State has to improve recruiting dramatically if they want to compete for national championships, but competing for league titles every year should be doable for at least the short term. With NIL and the transfer portal taking over college athletics, building your roster like this would appear to be the model for programs such as K-State. By building a young, talented roster, Klieman can try to win with them before his best players leave to go to the highest bidder. It is sad it has come to that, but that is where we are.