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83 DAYS TO 2019 KICKOFF: Dalton Schoen

In which BracketCat counts down the 83rd day until the 2019 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State wide receiver Dalton Schoen.

#83 Dalton Schoen
Despite nagging injuries that cost him one game and diminished his statistics in others, Dalton Schoen (83) put together another solid season and ended the year as the No. 2 receiver. One Isaiah Zuber transfer later, he’s now the go-to-guy.
Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images

#83 Dalton Schoen

Redshirt Senior | 6-1 | 200 lbs. | Overland Park, Kansas
Dalton Schoen
Dalton Schoen
Courtesy Kansas State Athletics
  • Position: Wide Receiver
  • Previous College: None
  • Projection: Starter
  • Status: On Scholarship

Dalton J. Schoen (b. Oct. 13, 1996) is a former walk-on who had a breakout year as a sophomore and should continue to retain starting duties at receiver in 2019.

Schoen has averaged 18.0 yards per reception and enters his senior year ranked fourth in school history. He has averaged 45.8 yards on his five career touchdown receptions.

Schoen also enters his final campaign just 10 yards shy of becoming the 32nd player in school history with 1,000 career receiving yards.

After redshirting in 2015, he played in his first career game in 2016 against Florida Atlantic.

Schoen is a model student-athlete whose individual accomplishments and a general lack of depth at receiver both suggested he could contribute heavily in 2017, but that still didn’t prepare us for what happened. Until his injury, he was arguably the best receiver we had.

Schoen played in 10 games with three starts until an injury cut his sophomore season short, carding 23 receptions for 470 yards and three touchdowns as he finished 11th nationally in yards per reception (20.43).

Perhaps the highlight of Schoen’s breakout season came in a loss in Austin, Texas, when he set career highs in every category with five catches for 128 yards, two touchdowns and a long of 82 yards.

His 128 yards against the Longhorns were the fourth-most by an underclassman in school history, while his 82-yard touchdown reception was the ninth-longest pass play in school history.

Schoen recorded his second 100-yard game at Texas Tech, a contest in which he also hauled in a game-tying two-point conversion.

He logged a 70-yard touchdown reception on his first career catch against Central Arkansas, the longest reception by a Wildcat on his first career catch since 2001.

Schoen also garnered first-team Academic All-Big 12 honors in both 2017 and 2018, despite majoring in mechanical engineering.

He started 11 games in 2018, ranking second on the team with 32 catches for 520 yards and two touchdowns despite battling continuing injury issues.

Schoen tied a career high with five receptions against Texas, netting a season-best 67 yards, and he also had a three-catch, 64-yard performance the week prior at West Virginia.

He tallied a key 28-yard reception against Kansas, which was one play prior to the eventual game-winning touchdown. His touchdowns came against Mississippi State and UTSA.

Schoen played three sports at Blue Valley High School Northwest — baseball, basketball and football, under head coach Mike Zegunis — while maintaining straight A’s for all four years. He was named The Kansas City Star’s male Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2015.

Schoen had numerous Division II and Division III scholarship offers, and even took a visit to Harvard, but elected instead to walk on at Kansas State, where his parents attended and his brother, Mason, recently completed a four-year stint on the K-State men’s basketball team. (Mason Schoen is now a graduate assistant for the hoops Wildcats.)

Dalton Schoen also was a volunteer for Harvesters and the Special Olympics through First Downs for Down Syndrome, as well as a peer mentor for freshmen at his high school. He was one of six finalists nationally for a Wendy’s High School Heisman award.

Schoen earned first-team All-State honors as a senior after hauling in 42 receptions for 880 yards and eight touchdowns. He broke the Kansas high school record for receiving yards in a game with 380 on 12 catches with four touchdowns against Bishop Miege High School.

Schoen was selected to play in the Kansas Shrine Bowl, where he set the game’s record with 169 receiving yards. He also lettered four years in basketball — winning two state championships and earning honorable mention all-state honors — and four years in baseball, earning second-team all-state accolades.