After a quiet signing day, Kansas State football looks to transfers for veteran depth
MANHATTAN — As expected, national signing day came and went without Kansas State football adding any players to its 2024 recruiting class.
Of the 15 players who signed in December — 13 from high schools and two from junior colleges — nine are enrolled for the spring semester.
As was the case leading up to the early signing day, the Wildcats appear to have held onto all their prospects with the remaining six expected to arrive in the summer.
While K-State stood pat with its recruiting class, Chris Klieman and his staff did add four players from the transfer portal. All four — two on each side of the ball — should either start or compete for playing time from the start.
In the absence of any more traditional recruits on signing day, here is a look at the Wildcats' four new transfers.
Related: Kansas State football adds offensive line transfer and 2024 high school receiver
Related: Kansas State football keeping Conor Riley as offensive coordinator
Tackle Easton Kilty adds experience to offensive line
Easton Kilty, a versatile 6-foot-5, 305-pound senior from Stratford, Wisconsin, was a three-year starter at North Dakota, where he played every position but center on the offensive line. After splitting time between left guard and right tackle and left guard as a redshirt freshman, he started 12 games as right guard his sophomore season and then last year moved to left tackle, where he received honorable mention All-Missouri Valley Conference honors.
Kilty was the No. 5-ranked tackle in 247Sports' transfer ranking and said he looks to replace two-year starter KT Leveston at that position for the Wildcats. Kilty will add a veteran presence on a line that lost four starters but returns plenty of young talent.
Dante Cephas gives the Wildcats a proven receiver
Dante Cephas, a 6-foot, 189-pound senior, comes to K-State after one season at Penn State, where he had moderate success with six starts and 22 catches for 246 yards in 12 games. Before that he was a two-time All-MAC first team selection at Kent State.
Cephas, whose position coach at Kent State was K-State receivers coach Matthew Middleton, has a chance to make an immediate impact with a Wildcat receiving corps that was inconsistent in 2023. His biggest season at Kent State was 2021, when he had 82 catches for 1,240 yards and nine touchdowns, and he followed that up with 48 receptions for 744 yards and three touchdowns in just nine games as a junior,
Ball State Jordan Riley should fill a need at Jack safety
Jordan Reed played in 37 games over three years at Ball State, starting all 24 over the 2022 and '23 seasons. In the last two years he totaled 158 tackles and 20 pass break-ups.
K-State returns starters VJ Payne at the strong safety and Marques Sigle at free safety, but Riley said he has his eye on the Jack safety spot manned by Kobe Savage before he transferred to Oregon at the end of last season.
Travis Bates provides depth at defensive end
Travis Bates had a solid redshirt freshman season at defensive end last year for Austin Peay, where he recorded 32 tackles, including 5.5 for loss with three sacks in just 10 games, earning Freshman All-America honors from Phil Steele.
K-State lost starter Khalid Duke to graduation and key backup Nate Matlack to the transfer portal, but return two veterans in Brendan Mott and Cody Stufflebean, among others. Still, Bates should compete for playing time early.
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: A look at Kansas State football's four transfer portal additions
