How Kansas State football's Ben Sinnott became one of the Big 12's best tight ends

MANHATTAN — Ben Sinnott's path to a college football career was never a given.

Then again, the fact that made himself into one of the Big 12's tight ends shouldn't come as a shock, either. Kansas State coach Chris Klieman, for one, isn't surprised.

"No, because I just know what a great athlete the kid is," Klieman said of Sinnott, a 6-foot-4, 245-pound junior from his own hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. "From baseball to hockey to football to basketball to golf, the guy can do it all, he really can."

Indeed, Sinnott did a little of everything at Columbus Catholic High School, which coincidentally is Klieman's alma mater as well. In addition to football, he lettered in baseball, golf, tennis and track.

And that's not even counting his favorite sport, which wasn't offered at his school.

"Hockey was my first love, just since I started when I was 3," said Sinnott, who played in a club league all the way through high school. "It's kind of all I knew.

"But football has definitely developed into that sport."

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Ben Sinnott found in football what he loved about hockey

While golf, tennis and track allowed Sinnott to showcase his athletic ability, football offered the one thing that made him love hockey.

"I did not want to play football until I could hit," he said with a smile. "I wasn't playing flag football or anything, but that probably came from hockey.

"I think it was like third or fourth grade, and it was really fun. I loved it right when I picked it up."

Even when Sinnott realized that hockey wasn't his ticket to college success, football recruiters weren't breaking his doors down, either. But through his local connections and seeing the potential that others might have missed, Klieman offered him a chance to walk on at K-State.

"It wasn't easy for Ben," Klieman said. "He was a walk-on that came in here and earned an opportunity. He was undersized — 205, 207, 210 pounds — and knew he needed to change everything he did in the weight room and everything with his eating habits to have a chance.

"That's not easy if you don't know if you're ever going to get a chance. He bought into everything. He changed everything to say, 'I want to play. I don't just want to be a part of the team. I want to play and be a difference-maker.'"

When he first arrived in 2020, Sinnott was listed as a fullback, though that position group at the time was somewhat interchangeable with tight end in the Wildcat offense. As a redshirt freshman in 2021, he had three carries for 12 yards and a touchdown with just two catches for 15 yards.

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Tight end's growing role in Kansas State offense led to Ben Sinnott's rise

But when Collin Klein took over as offensive coordinator at the end of that 2021 season, the tight end position became more prominent and Sinnott took full advantage. Two years in the weight room with the Wildcats' strength and conditioning coaches had seen him bulk up to 240-plus pounds without affecting his speed and agility.

As the season progressed, Sinnott became a favorite target of quarterbacks Adrian Martinez and then Will Howard, when Martinez was sidelined by injury. He had four catches for 80 yards in the Big 12 opener at Oklahoma, and then his real breakout game came on Nov. 12 at Baylor, where he caught seven passes for 89 yards with two touchdowns in a 31-3 K-State blowout.

By the end of the season, he had 31 catches for 447 yards and four scores.

"When you're athletic and then you gain confidence, that's the thing that Ben would tell you," Klieman said. "Once he gained confidence to say, 'I can play at this level,' … all of a sudden it started to click for him his redshirt sophomore year.

"I saw a very confident kid starting to believe more and more, and I saw Will Howard and Adrian say, man, this kid is really good and he's starting to believe how good he is. That's why he's such a matchup nightmare for people."

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No one appreciates how far he has come more than Sinnott himself.

"I walked on here and it just means a lot knowing with the work, the time, the effort and the sweat, it's all coming together," he said. "It means a lot for me."

At the end of last season, Sinnott was a first-team all-conference selection by the Big 12 coaches, albeit as a fullback. But Klieman is convinced that it was just the beginning.

"He's an All-American type of player if he stays hungry, he stays focused, which I believe he will," Klieman said. "He and Will Howard are really close, and I think that's a big thing, because they watch film a lot together, they throw a lot together. I think everybody saw that those two were on the same page an awful lot.

"A quarterback's best friend is typically a tight end when the heat's on, and you know there's a big body out there you can throw it up to and the kid can come down with it."

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Ben Sinnott's off-field connection to Will Howard benefits on-field one

A shoulder injury from last year forced Sinnott to sit out much of spring practice, but he and Howard will have plenty of time to work together over the summer.

"We have a really good chemistry," Sinnott said. "He's one of my best friends here for sure. We're super close on and off the field, so it almost comes natural when we start playing."

As for Klieman hyping him as a potential All-American, Sinnott took it as validation of what it took for him to get to that point, but also as motivation to keep pushing forward.

"That's really big, and it means a lot coming from a guy like him," Sinnott said. "It's something to definitely think about, but I don't dwell on it.

"I'm going to come day by day and worry about what I've got to do that day, and things will take care of themselves."

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 tight end Ben Sinnott goes from walk-on to star