This Week in K-State Recruiting: Can Lance Leipold add competition for local targets?

The Sunflower Showdown has been a one-sided rivalry of late when it comes to both football and football recruiting.

Kansas State Wildcats coach Chris Klieman has won both of his head-to-head meetings with the Kansas Jayhawks and he has also won most of his head-to-head recruiting battles with KU since he was hired in 2019, so much so that he has signed two players from Lawrence.

That is a trend that K-State fans would like to see continue. Landing top in-state recruits hasn’t always been easy for Klieman, as the Wildcats have faced outside competition from Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Nebraska and others, but he has rarely had to worry about the Jayhawks.

Over the past three recruiting cycles, K-State has landed five in-state prospects who also held scholarship offers from KU, according to Rivals — Cooper Beebe, Jax Dineen, Keenan Garber, Nate Matlack and Sam Shields. Meanwhile, KU has signed two in-state recruits who had offers from K-State — Devin Neal and Jayden Russell.

The Wildcats picked up several other local recruits over that time who never received much interest from the Jayhawks as former coach Les Miles opted to cast a wide recruiting net that often put their focus on other regions.

Expect that to change now that KU has new leadership.

Lance Leipold made it clear during his introductory news conference on Monday that recruiting the state of Kansas and the Kansas City metro area will be major priorities.

“Extremely important. It needs to be our foundation and become the backbone of what we are,” Leipold said at his introductory news conference on Monday. “(Recruiting) locally (is important) for many different reasons. The closer the players, the more often they can come here. It gives you an opportunity to build a relationship and develop trust. There are so many pluses to that.”

That sounds awfully similar to what Klieman said about recruiting locally at his introductory presser.

During his previous job at Buffalo, Leipold struck a balance between local and national recruits. Buffalo’s latest recruiting class featured three players from New York, one from New Jersey and several others from Michigan and Florida. Its 2020 class featured five players from the Northeast, four from Maryland and two from Pennsylvania.

It would make sense for Leipold to focus on Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas now that he is with the Jayhawks.

“Some of the programs in the Midwest, when you see what they do — and they play a certain brand of football that is physical, tough, disciplined football — it’s usually a lot of (their) core people are right there in the backyard. And we plan to do that as well.”

K-State and KU were already competing for at least three of the top uncommitted in-state recruits in the 2022 class. Both teams have offered Hays linebacker Jaren Kanak, Stilwell offensive lineman Nick Herzog and St. Thomas Aquinas defensive tackle Jalen Marshall.

The Jayhawks haven’t landed any 2022 in-state recruits. The Wildcats have landed three — Silas Etter, Sterling Lockett and Tyson Struber.

Leipold will face an uphill battle as he tries to create more competition for high school recruits in the Sunflower State. Time will tell if he can make it happen. But he values local recruiting as much as Klieman does, which is different from the past few years of this rivalry.

SEMO transfer update

It’s been a busy week for Southeast Missouri State transfer Bydarrius Knighten.

Since announcing plans to finish his college football career at another school as a graduate transfer the defensive back has received recruiting interest from nearly a dozen teams and picked up scholarship offers from four of them.

Washington State and K-State were the first teams to offer. Then Utah and Mississippi State followed suit.

Knighten is a 6-foot and 197-pound defensive back who has spent the past four seasons playing for the Redhawks. He was a key member of their defense. Knighten made 262 tackles and six interceptions while playing at the FCS level. Now he is looking to finish out his college career at the FBS level with his lone remaining year of eligibility.

Mississippi State seems like an intriguing option for him, considering he is originally from Tunica, Mississippi.

For now, though, he is weighing all his options.

Knighten said via text message that he has enjoyed speaking with K-State coaches Joe Klanderman and Klieman. He also likes the look of K-State’s football facilities.

He is an important recruiting target for the Wildcats, which could use another veteran defender in their secondary next season.

K-State cracks top 5 for Georgia WR

K-State is among the final schools that Tajh Sanders will consider before he makes a commitment announcement.

Sanders is a 5-foot-10 and 175-pound receiver from Valdosta, Georgia. He is a three-star recruit and the nation’s 62nd ranked player at his position, according to Rivals.

He lists K-State in his current top five along with Miami (Florida), Mississippi State, Florida State and Kentucky.