Kansas State position battle: Cornerback
Our Kansas State season preview series continues with an in-depth look at how the Wildcats plan to replace multi-year starters Ekow Boye-Doe and Julius Brents at cornerback. Boye-Doe is know with the Kansas City Chiefs and Brents was a second round selection of the Indianapolis Colts.
Kansas State contenders
Jacob Parrish: Of the six contenders, he played the most of anyone in a K-State uniform last year in what was just his true freshman season.
Keenan Garber: The Lawrence product may have the most impressive path and had the greatest achievement of anyone on the list. Garber starred in the defensive backfield for Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game after switching to defense just about 10 days prior to the contest.
Will Lee: In terms of credentials, he has some of the best after being ranked so highly from the junior college level and defending an Alabama receiver commit very well in the national championship game.
Jordan Wright: What has become clear in the offseason is that Wright is one of the better leaders in the K-State locker room and has ascended up the depth chart after a redshirt season.
Justice James: Injuries derailed his first season in Manhattan, but he was mentioned by Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman on Tuesday.
Tyler Nelome: Interestingly enough, the coveted transfer from Southeast Missouri State that had multiple Power Five offers has been discussed the least amount.
Analysis
Klieman discussed the secondary on Tuesday, which gives us a bit of a different perspective on the position group that we haven’t had for the others that have been previously discussed and previewed. His answers during the scheduled press conference make it sound like a true position battle is ongoing.
He seemed more certain about the starters at safety, to be honest.
The K-State head coach was the most complimentary about three players – Lee, Parrish and Garber. At the same time, he still had more than enough praise for Wright, but he sounded more like a swiss-army knife kind of contributor after being lauded for his versatility.
Parrish was commended for the way he came in during year one and was ready to contribute for the Wildcats. Kansas State used him more and more as the year drew along and he didn’t redshirt. That experience has been on display during the first week of practice.
For Lee, it took him a bit to get up to speed because he made it to campus late. Instead of enrolling in January, he wasn’t in Manhattan until March and missed the first few practices. Now that he’s more comfortable with the scheme and his surroundings, he is beginning to take off and has made the next step.
Prediction
I’m going to ride with the most proven commodity that was flashing last season for K-State and is viewed as the future star of the group, along with the player that is riding the wave of the most momentum and could be the most similar to Brents.
Player No. 1 is Parrish and player No. 2 is Lee. However, I wouldn’t count out Garber and there’s still more story to write.
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