In a perfect world with no transfer portal or early NFL Draft entries, Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman would have a full complement of players at his disposal when the Wildcats take on Rutgers in the Rate Bowl.
Instead, Klieman is just thankful that a vast majority of his frontline players will still be available for Thursday’s 4:30 p.m. CT matchup against the Scarlet Knights at Chase Field in Phoenix.
“I think that’s the biggest thing is the players you’re able to retain and keep here,” said Klieman, who lost 15 players but only two starters to the portal since the regular season. “And credit to those kids, credit to their teammates.
“I told them after Iowa State (a 29-21 loss on Nov. 30) that we have a really good bunch of talented players, and if you stay, I think we can do collectively some special things. The core of our best players returned.”
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More importantly, said junior nose tackle Damian Ilalio, those players who stuck around are fully invested.
“This game is the most important game of our lives because it’s the next one,” Ilalio said. We hammer that in to all the younger players. Even the older guys that are returning (next year) and even older guys that are leaving, it’s really important to cap their careers off with a win and send them out as winners.”
For super-senior offensive lineman Taylor Poitier, who started all 12 regular-season games at right guard, ending on a high note is a high priority.
“All the guys that I came in with, all the sixth-year guys, it’s just one last opportunity with each other,” said Poitier, who missed both the 2021 and ’22 seasons with knee injuries but came back as a key reserve last year before moving into the starting lineup. “We’re never going to get this back, and just leaving here with a W is a better thing than anything else.
“It’s just really exciting, just because of all the things we’ve been through throughout the whole year, it’s really going to shape us how we perform this bowl game.”
The Rate Bowl offers an opportunity for the Wildcats to bounce back from a horrible November in which they lost three of four games to finish the regular season at 8-4 after a 7-1 start. They face a Rutgers team (7-5) that won three of its last four.
“From the last game of the season to now, we have basically a new team,” said junior linebacker Desmond Purnell, who finished the season with 44 tackles, including nine for loss, with 3.5 sacks. “It’s going to help us propel into next year. And with a win like this, especially against a good Rutgers team from the Big Ten, it’s going to help us out in the 2025 season.”
While the Wildcats kept most of its lineup intact, it did lose three starters on offense in leading rusher DJ Giddens to the NFL Draft, while wide receiver Keagan Johnson and right tackle Carver Willis left via the portal. They also lost junior cornerback Jacob Parrish, who like Giddens, chose to forgo his senior season and declare for the draft.
“I’m excited that those core guys have stuck together as a team, and we’re excited,” Klieman said. “We’re going to play a lot of young kids on the 26th, but we’ve got a lot of returning veterans that have played a lot of football that are going to play. It’s going to be a big challenge.”
A challenge, yes, but the last thing the Wildcats want is to end the season on a sour note.
“Going into the offseason with a loss kind of sucks for a long time,” Ilalio said. “You don’t get that chance at redemption that you do during the season, so it’s really important for us to go out and take this seriously and go win this bowl game.”
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
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