#21 Carlos Strickland II

Redshirt Sophomore | 6-4 | 212 lbs. | Dallas, Texas

Courtesy Kansas State Athletics

• Position: Wide Receiver
• Previous College: University of California
• Projection: Starter
• Status: On Scholarship

Carlos Lashun Strickland II (b. Oct. 11, 1996) is a transfer wide receiver who redshirted the 2015 season under California head coach Sonny Dykes and sat out due to transfer in 2016.

This highly touted prospect out of high school will compete for playing time in the receiver rotation as a sophomore and has three years to play three seasons.

He transferred in part to be closer to an ailing grandfather back home in Dallas, which is a short daily flight away from Manhattan Regional Airport. Other than TCU and perhaps Baylor, there is no Big 12 school more accessible to the Dallas Metroplex.

“Strickland is the kind of guy that K-State never gets,” praises SportsTreatise’s Ian Boyd, “a blue-chip, top-rated player nationally who went to Cal to play in Sonny Dykes’ Air Raid and then transferred...” He expounds:

His senior film from Skyline HS shows a dude with some scary speed for a 6-4 guy, in addition to the high-pointing and catching ability you’d hope to see from such a big dude.

He’s a definite candidate to be an ISO WR, a guy that has to be double-teamed with a safety over the top to really control, which is kind of scary given that K-State signed another guy with that kind of potential last year in Byron Pringle AND saw further development from some other young athletes.

Obviously, the Wildcats are going to put Pringle and Strickland on opposite ends of the field and pick on whichever DB gets asked to cover them without help.

Strickland attended the same high school, Skyline High School in Dallas, as former K-State linebacker Charmeachealle Moore. He lettered four years and was a three-year starter for the Raiders under head coach Reginald Samples.

Regarded as one of the top 150 overall players in the class of 2015, including a No. 101 ranking by Scout and a No. 132 ranking by Rivals, Strickland also was rated the 12th-best wide receiver nationally by Rivals and No. 14 by Scout.

He hauled in 84 catches for 1,770 yards and 27 touchdowns during his career, helping Skyline to combine for a 51-6 overall record, with an undefeated 28-0 mark in district and region games, and reach the Texas Division I state semifinals in both his freshman and senior seasons.

Strickland was named a Semper Fi All-American, earning Lone Star Elite and Texas Sports Writers Association All-State honors as a senior in 2014, when he registered 41 receptions for 896 yards and 15 touchdowns while adding three rushes for 46 yards and one touchdown.

Skyline finished the 2014 season as one of the nation’s top teams at 14-1 overall and reached the Texas Class 6A Division I state finals. Strickland caught 33 passes for 719 yards and a team-high-tying 10 touchdown grabs as a junior in 2013. He was named to the All-District 9-5A team as both a junior and senior.