SLATE: The best #62 in the nation is... Tyler Mitchell?

We’d be lying if we said we had high expectations of now-junior guard Tyler Mitchell when he committed to K-State back in 2015. After all, Mitchell came to Manhattan from the depths of Alabama, and one would be forgiven for assuming that a guy the Crimson Tide let slip through their grasp probably wasn’t an All-American.

What little we knew. As the summer rolls on and everyone under the sun is doing some form of countdown, Andrew Doughty at HERO Sports has been counting down the best player with each uniform number. Ten days ago, he tabbed Wildcat tackle Dalton Risner as the best #71 in the nation.

Yesterday, K-State landed its second member of the squad as Mitchell was named the best #62 in college football. Doughty’s reasoning? Mitchell posted the Cats’ biggest increase in grade from Pro Football Focus from 2016 to 2017. The best part of all this is that K-State has two of the 39 players selected so far, which is two more than the rest of the Big 12 in its entirety.

Meanwhile, at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships this weekend in Des Moines, a couple of former Wildcats took home silver medals. Well — technically former Wildcats. Erik Kynard Jr. is definitely a former Wildcat, and he nabbed silver in the men’s high jump by clearing a height of 2.28m. Terrell Smith is also a former Wildcat, since he graduated and concluded his collegiate career, but apparently his 20.44 mark in the semifinals of the men’s 200m counts as a new K-State record.

Oddly, Smith finished third in his heat while posting that mark before going on to take the silver in the finals with a 20.74 time.

Finally, we’ll conclude our not-much-news Monday morning with today’s Sports Extra. Corbin McGuire profiles Ben Kern, the former Wildcat golfer who qualified for the PGA Championship last week.