Kansas State season preview: Cornerbacks

Our Kansas State preview series will analyze each and every position on the roster. Next up is the Wildcat cornerbacks.

PROJECTED KANSAS STATE DEPTH CHART

STARTERS: Jacob Parrish, Keenan Garber
SECOND UNIT: Justice James, Jordan Dunbar
THIRD UNIT: Kanijal Thomas, Donovan McIntosh

Nobody on the roster will challenge the starters. Parrish and Garber are as much of certainties as we saw from the Kansas State pair of Julius Brents and Ekow Boye-Doe. Head coach Chris Klieman has even shared that James has the third spot buttoned down.

The debate comes at the No. 4 spot between Dunbar, Thomas and McIntosh.

STRENGTHS

While simple, the strength of the K-State cornerback room is just overall quality. Everyone has seen the praise for Garber and Parrish from Klieman, Avery Johnson and Conor Riley by now. But it also extends to James.

Furthermore, chatter behind the scenes suggests that there’s a real belief that Parrish and Garber both have All-Big 12 and NFL potential.

CONCERNS

Truthfully, it is hard to find a concern. And naming one is a bit of a stretch. I’ll go with length, especially compared to prior teams. Nobody is as long as Brents or even Will Lee from last year. Does that limit the effectiveness when Kansas State goes to more zone looks?

Length is why we could see Jordan Dunbar or Donovan McIntosh grab the fourth spot and not Kanijal Thomas. Not only is Thomas still recovering a bit from an offseason surgery, but he is built more like Parrish in that he doesn’t possess elite size but does have the speed.

A BOLD PREDICTION

“Oh my gosh, who’s that?” is the exact reaction I had when watching the first K-State open practice of training camp and I saw a particular player wearing a white No. 25 jersey. I didn’t remember a defensive player wearing No. 25.

I looked it up, and it was true freshman Zashon Rich.

He looks like a million bucks. That’s how next level cornerbacks are supposed to look. He was huge, possessing a ton of length but also able to fly all over the field. Rich isn’t all that refined and far from a finished product. Calling him raw would be the perfect description.

However, the future is extremely bright and he can really develop fast with those traits if he hones in on his craft. The early returns from those around the Kansas State program are promising. Do not be stunned if he climbs up the depth chart a bit as the season moves along.

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