Following a major win over Kansas in the 2024 Sunflower Showdown, Chris Klieman and the Kansas State Wildcats added two new football prospects.
The duo featured a new name in the Class of 2025 and the first commitment of the 2026 class.
The first athlete to commit to the Wildcats is 2025 prospect Darien Whitaker Jr., a 6-foot-4 linebacker from Nebraska. Coming out of Boys Town High School in the Class of 2025, Whitaker is listed as a three-star prospect by the 247Sports index and the nation’s 1409th-ranked player. He also checks in as the 84th-ranked player at his position and the sixth-ranked player in the state of Nebraska.
Nearly one hour after Whitaker Jr.’s decision, Klieman landed the first prospect in the Class of 2026, a cornerback from the state of Texas, Brandon Ford.
While Ford is currently an unranked prospect in his class, he holds offers from several big-time programs. The Texas native chose Kansas State over offers from 17 different programs, including Arizona, Arizona State, Houston, Nebraska, SMU, Texas Tech, Washington State, and more.
After a massive recruiting weekend that featured nearly 80 prospects in attendance across the next three classes, Kansas State appears to have gained an early lead on some major athletes. The team returns to action in Week 10 on the road vs. Houston on Saturday, November 2nd, at 2:30 p.m. CT.
