By Jackson Schneider
MANHATTAN, Kan. - Kansas State Head Coach Chris Klieman met with members of the media Tuesday afternoon inside of the new Shamrock Zone of Bill Snyder Family Stadium. His update included all phases of his team ahead of it's 2021 debut against Stanford on September 4th.
One position group that has received large amount of attention ahead of the upcoming season is the running backs. With returning Freshman All-American Deuce Vaughn highlighting the room, Klieman says he'll do the brunt of the work.
Klieman also detailed a few other young backs who will likely impact games for Kansas State, like fellow sophomores Joe Ervin who played in four games as a freshman in 2019 before opting out of the 2020 season, and Jacardia Wright who has seen action in seven games as a Wildcat.
But one local product whose name has already been spoken a number of times throughout camp was mentioned as well.
"D.J. Giidens, I really believe will be in that mix, whether it's now or as the season goes along, he's done some really good things that we're excited about him possibly playing as a freshman," said Klieman. "We just have got to continue to slow the game down for him. So we feel like we're gaining some versatility there and more guys than just Deuce van make plays."
When asked about Giddens' rather quiet arrival to Manhattan and how the Wildcat coaching staff found out about him, Klieman referenced seeing Giddens perform in-person this season.
"Well, he's just from right down the road at Junction, so that's how he ended up here. I mean, we knew who he was all the way through the last few years," said Klieman. "I was able to watch him play when my son played over there. Knew he had an unbelievable amount of ability, and Coach Anderson did a great job recruiting him, Coach Sped did as well and we knew his athleticism and now how could he understand what we're doing, how good was he able to comprehend, as well as the maturity factor to play college football. It's just different from high school and he's done a nice job."
Throughout fall camp, both players and coaches have highlighted Giddens' ability and how he might impact the offense as a true freshman. Klieman detailed exactly how he's been able to make his mark.
"Very strong running back, breaks arm tackles and stuff. We're continuing to have him learn the protections and he's getting so much better at that, he's got nice hands out of the backfield," said Klieman. "It's just, you're not going to force feed a kid like that 40-50 plays early on in a season, but he's somebody that we think has a chance to help us this year."
Klieman also assured the media that his arrival on the media's radar was not a surprise inside of Vanier.
"He didn't fall under the radar in our mind. We were well-aware of him and well-aware of his ability for a while," he said. "We were not surprised, we were pleased with how quickly he was able to acclimate to college football, so he's a guy that we've been on for a while and we're excited about getting him here."