Kansas State signed more of its 2016 recruits than all but four Power Five schools

Before getting to the news, don’t miss Luke Thompson’s latest review of K-State’s NCAA tournament chances in this week’s Tournament Thursday.

Football

It turns out that if there’s one thing you can’t blame K-State’s generally mediocre recruiting on, it’s actually getting players to sign and stick. Matt Baker at the Tampa Bay Times reports that according to 247Sports, only three Power Five schools managed to sign a higher percentage of their 2016 offers than K-State. 17.4% of the players Bill Snyder and his staff tendered scholarship offers to chose the Wildcats, tied with Utah for fourth-best.

Stanford led the list at 30.1%, followed by Texas and Oklahoma State at 22.8% and 18.8% respectively. Last among all Power Five schools? You’ll be surprised: it’s The U, at a measly 5.7%.

Of course, some of this is naturally a function of how many offers you’re throwing out there, and how well targeted they are. Nobody would ever accuse Nick Saban and his staff of whiffing on the recruiting trail, but Alabama only signed 9% of their 2016 targets. K-State’s strong numbers here are indicative of two things: not making offers to every damned player on the planet, and doing a good job of targeting guys they’ve got a good shot of landing.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the college experience, Jordan Willis is no longer Kellis Robinett’s problem at the Star/Eagle — he’s NFL writer Terez Paylor’s. And Paylor, along with everyone else, has been paying attention to the former Wildcat’s progress during Senior Bowl practices this week. Spoiler: he’s not doing himself any damage.

Track and Field

The New Westminster (B.C.) Record has a brief piece on K-State freshman Nina Schultz, a native of the Vancouver suburb. Schultz exploded onto the scene last week with a massive victory in the pentathlon at the DeLoss Dodds Invitational held at Ahearn.

The team returns to action tomorrow in Albuquerque at the New Mexico Invitational.

Basketball

Start counting points, K-State students. K-State Athletics and the SGA have announced early entry procedures for the February 6 game against That School Down the River.