Kansas State Football: Colby McCalister Commits to Wildcats

Colby McCalister, a 5’11, 175 pound cornerback from Friendswood, Texas (Clear Brook High School) gave his verbal commitment to the Kansas State 2022 recruiting class yesterday.

Colby, currently unranked by 247Sports and receiving the “base” 2* grade from Rivals, gives the Wildcats their first true defensive player in the 2022 (Silas Etter could play defense as well) and is the second commitment in 2021 after Sterling Lockett announced on New Years Day. He is also the first out-of-state commit in the class.

His only other offer was from Alabama State, but he was receiving interest from several P5 schools. Kansas State got to him early and secured his commitment. You’ll see a lot of that across the nation in 2022 class. Offer lists are going to be weird, and outside the Top 300 or so, commitments, on average, won’t take long. There is a shortage of slots for high school seniors in this class across the board.

What He Brings To The Table

McCalister is a physical corner who holds up equally well in the pass and run game. According to his Hudl video, he recorded 40+ tackles, seven pass break-ups, and two interceptions in a nine-game 2020 season.

If you’ve been following along with K-State recruiting under Coach Klieman, you’ll notice he has a “type” at corner. At 5’11”, 175-180, McCalister is similar in stature to Omar Daniels (6’0”, 170), Darell Jones (5’11”, 170), and Tee Denson (6’1”, 175). This staff tends to value bigger, physical corners who can play both boundary and field corner.

Physically, he should be good to go early in his career in Manhattan. With the new transfer rules, the days of waiting around for a guy to physically mature, especially at a plug and play spot like defensive back is over. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him at 185+ pounds by the time he hits campus.

Big Picture?

Today, Coach Klieman stated that out of his 25 allotted scholarships, 10 will be reserved for transfers (more on that later). That means the coaching staff has to be certain that about their takes this early. The fact that McCalister had a committable offer at this point in the recruiting process tells me all I need to know about his ability, at least in the eyes of the coaching staff.

Also, for all my “star watchers” out there...this is going to be a weird year. He will likely start as a mid to low 3* prospect once he receives a real rating. Everyone is behind because of Covid, including the recruiting services. This is doubly true in Texas where there are a few thousand potential recruits to evaluate.

Don’t freak out.

I see this being, at max, a three corner class. I also wouldn’t be surprised if this is the only high school corner in the class. Things are going to be weird for the next several recruiting cycles while coaches try and figure out the new recruiting landscape.

Next Up?

Hard to say. Things appear to be trending the right way for 247’s top rated player in Kansas, Nick Herzog, but I expect him to take his official visits this summer. More than likely, it will be another commitment like this one, where a guy gets an offer, thinks about it for a week and then pulls the trigger to ensure his spot in a recruiting class.