I know that I'm somewhat preaching to the choir here. The significance of walk-ons such as Brock Monty, Javier Craft, Kaelin Key, and Tom Killilea is enormous.
No, this isn't the thread where I talk the walk-on turned All-Pro stories like Jordy Nelson or J.J. Watt. Those guys are beyond rare. I'd argue that the poster child for our walk-on program is someone like Ben Powers.
What's the correlation between Powers, a JUCO player now at OU, and the K-State walk-on program? It's simple, really. a mere 9 months ago, Ben Powers was a recently graduated high school senior just down the road in Wichita at Kapaun Mount Carmel. A wrestling star and football moonlighter, Powers quickly emerged as an extremely valuable commodity in his short time at Butler CC. You can see similar stories every year, from Powers, to Garrison Wright, to Luke Hayes (just using Butler as an example). The literally unrecruited Kansas high school player that rapidly develops into a player that Power 5 schools are clamoring to land.
If you're looking for the simplest way to cut down on your utilization of JUCO recruits (and we have...significantly), then look no further than walk-on development. It's essentially a risk-free trial of prospects who could develop into solid contributors. You don't expect stars, the Jordy Nelson and J.J. Watt stories are the anomaly. But it does allow you the opportunity to fast forward a couple of year and potentially prevent the JUCO scholarship that you have to extend, for depth if no other reason. Hypothetically, if Garrison Wright had walked-on a few summer ago, are we out looking for 2-3 transfer offensive linemen to fill in this year? I'd argue probably not. And I'd also argue that not only would Wright be the 3-star offensive guard with offers from schools like Minnesota and TCU, but that he'd be better because he's spent his last two seasons in a Division I training program.
So, when you look at kids like Javier Craft, Tom Killilea, Kaelin Key, and Brock Monty, don't ask yourself "Is this kid the next Jordy Nelson?" but rather "Is this kid the next Ben Powers, and did we just keep him from being on the Power 5 market down the road?"
No, this isn't the thread where I talk the walk-on turned All-Pro stories like Jordy Nelson or J.J. Watt. Those guys are beyond rare. I'd argue that the poster child for our walk-on program is someone like Ben Powers.
What's the correlation between Powers, a JUCO player now at OU, and the K-State walk-on program? It's simple, really. a mere 9 months ago, Ben Powers was a recently graduated high school senior just down the road in Wichita at Kapaun Mount Carmel. A wrestling star and football moonlighter, Powers quickly emerged as an extremely valuable commodity in his short time at Butler CC. You can see similar stories every year, from Powers, to Garrison Wright, to Luke Hayes (just using Butler as an example). The literally unrecruited Kansas high school player that rapidly develops into a player that Power 5 schools are clamoring to land.
If you're looking for the simplest way to cut down on your utilization of JUCO recruits (and we have...significantly), then look no further than walk-on development. It's essentially a risk-free trial of prospects who could develop into solid contributors. You don't expect stars, the Jordy Nelson and J.J. Watt stories are the anomaly. But it does allow you the opportunity to fast forward a couple of year and potentially prevent the JUCO scholarship that you have to extend, for depth if no other reason. Hypothetically, if Garrison Wright had walked-on a few summer ago, are we out looking for 2-3 transfer offensive linemen to fill in this year? I'd argue probably not. And I'd also argue that not only would Wright be the 3-star offensive guard with offers from schools like Minnesota and TCU, but that he'd be better because he's spent his last two seasons in a Division I training program.
So, when you look at kids like Javier Craft, Tom Killilea, Kaelin Key, and Brock Monty, don't ask yourself "Is this kid the next Jordy Nelson?" but rather "Is this kid the next Ben Powers, and did we just keep him from being on the Power 5 market down the road?"
