After losing nine players to the transfer portal in the first window of the season, K-State had made it over a week past their final spring practice before they had their next defection. Offensive lineman Jalen Klemm entered the portal on Friday, making him the 10th Wildcat to exit the roster since last season, via the portal.
Klemm came from Pennsylvania where he was the highest-rated member of K-State’s 2022 recruiting class. Klemm redshirted in 2022 and didn’t see time in 2023. His transfer recruitment will come with a decent amount of suitors and there was some concern that he would have wound up at Oregon when his dad, Adrian, took a job on staff two years ago, but his father now works for the Patriots.
With this portal loss, the Wildcats now have seen three offensive linemen leave this offseason. In addition to Klemm, K-State lost former Hutch JUCO transfer Kingsley Ugwu and 2020 recruit Witt Mitchum.
K-State now has two available scholarships and holds 14 scholarship offensive linemen set to be on the roster for 2023. The math on losing offensive line members adds up, due to the high number of starters that decided to come back after last season. Cooper Beebe was a possible top half of the NFL Draft selection but decided to come back for his senior season. While four other seniors remain on the roster with Beebe (Christian Duffie, KT Leveston, Hayden Gillum, Taylor Poitier).
The Wildcats also bring back Hadley Panzer who started a majority of games last season, as well as talented underclassmen like Andrew Leingang and John Pastore. K-State’s offensive line room is stacked, and the current recruiting class already holds a pair of commits in Ryan Howard and Gus Hawkins, with more likely on the way with room for three more possible additions.
***FOLLOW ALONG WITH K-STATE TRANSFERS WITH THE TRANSFER TRACKER***
