How Kansas State football tackle Carver Willis has carved out a niche on the offensive line

MANHATTAN — Four years into his Kansas State football career, Carver Willis is a veteran member of the Wildcats' offensive line.

And yet, joining a group that returned all five starters from last season made him feel that he still had a lot to prove.

When right tackle Christian Duffie suffered a summer injury that forced him to miss all of preseason camp as well as the first three games, it fell on Willis to fill the void. The last thing he wanted was to let the team down.

"It's interesting. I've been with these guys for four years, but I still want to show up every day and make sure that I'm good enough to be in that group, because the group that we have in that locker room playing o-line is phenomenal," said Willis, a 6-foot-5, 291-pound junior from Durango, Colorado. "And there's no way that I want to be the one that showed up and was the weak chain link.

"And so, having those guys hold me accountable and then having me put pressure on myself to be good enough to play with those guys has been a very big thing."

Related: Return of tackle Christian Duffie adds stability to Kansas State football offensive line

It wasn't always smooth sailing to start with. Willis struggled to the point that on occasion All-America left guard Cooper Beebe slid out to right tackle to alleviate the pressure on quarterback Will Howard. That, in turn, affected the rest of the line as right guard Hadley Panzer switched to the other side and Taylor Poitier took Panzer's spot.

But when Duffie finally returned for the Big 12 opener against Central Florida, things began to settle down. That allowed Beebe to remain at left guard, plus helped Willis mentally and physically.

"Just being able to run off to the sideline and talk with him about different things we're seeing, especially with him sharing reps," Willis said of trading notes with Duffie. "Having that on the sideline has been huge for me."

The assumption when Duffie returned was that he would eventually ease back into a starting role with Willis providing relief when necessary. But instead, with the offensive line finding its groove of late and Willis showing steady improvement, he has remained the starter.

Heading into this Saturday's 11 a.m. game against Houston at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the two are separated by the word, or, as No. 1 on the depth chart. The Wildcats are on a bit of a roll, having won two straight games and three of their last four on the way to a 5-2 overall record and 3-1 Big 12 mark.

Related: Kansas State football offensive line perseveres while getting closer to full strength

Willis has been a part of that resurgence, which has started to silence his doubters.

"It's truly incredible what he's been able to do this season," Beebe said of Willis. "And everybody saw it. Everybody outside (was saying), 'Oh, he can't do this, he can't do that,' and just to see him grow up and feel comfortable in the role.

"And I told him, this was his first year where he actually started a game, and I knew how nerve-wracking that could be. I had the same problem when I first started. I gave up two sacks against Arkansas State. So he just got so much more comfortable, so much more confident in his game, and it's truly impressive to see how much he's grown up."

Willis' emergence has allowed Duffie to ease back into the mix. In K-State's 41-3 victory over TCU last week, Willis played 50 snaps to 30 for Duffie as the Wildcats racked up 343 yards rushing and 587 in total offense.

"(He has made) a ton of progress," head coach Chris Klieman said of Willis. "He was our offensive lineman of the game from a coaching perspective. Carver is a really good athlete (and) he's been able to maintain and gain weight as the season has gone on, and that's something that's been important to Carver.

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"He has been in the system for a long time now, so he understands what we're doing, and he's run blocking and pass blocking at a high level, and he just needed confidence. He needed snaps and game reps, and as awful as it was to have Duff out throughout fall camp and early on in the season, it definitely made Carver better because he got all those reps with the ones."

Duffie agreed that he is a different player now than he was at the start of the season.

"I think the thing I've made the most improvement in is slowing down the game and focusing on fundamentals," he said. "And slowing down and focusing on fundamentals makes the entire game easier, just because you know what's going to happen.

"I think I've grown a lot. It's a different environment, and one I hadn't been fully used to yet. But over the games, you start to slow things down in game speed, and I think I've been able to grow a lot throughout that."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football tackle Carver Willis continues to make strides