Kansas State football coach proclaims defensive line is healthy after spring injuries

MANHATTAN — It was just a few months ago that Kansas State's defense, and especially the defensive line, seemingly spent more time watching than participating in spring drills.

It got to the point where coach Chris Klieman and his staff were looking for volunteers to fill in for the walking wounded. The injuries — several players sat out while recovering from postseason surgeries — even forced the Wildcats to cancel a public scrimmage.

The good news, Klieman said, is that five practices into preseason camp, the Wildcats are mostly good to go. And that includes defensive end/linebacker Khalid Duke, who was notably absent from a Monday morning practice segment open to the media.

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"We're confident (Duke) is going to be set and ready to go for the first game," Klieman said Monday during his first preseason news conference. "And we are being very smart with him, coming off the injury that he had, and then he missed some time for some other things.

"But he is going to be on target to be ready to go on Sept. 3."

The Wildcats open the season at 6 p.m. on Sept. 3 against South Dakota at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Duke, widely regarded as K-State's best pass rusher at the time, lasted just three games before suffering a season-ending ACL tear against Nevada. He missed the entire spring as well.

Others who were limited in the spring were ends Felix Anudike-Uzomah, a first-team all-Big 12 selection, and Nate Matlack, along with interior linemen Eli Huggins, Robert Hentz and Jalen Pickle.

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But now all of them have been given a clean bill of health.

"I thought coach Tru (Trumain Carroll) and his staff, and Scott Trausch in nutrition and Mindy (Hoffman) in the athletic training room — all that support staff — did a phenomenal job of getting the guys ready for football," Klieman said. "And now it's our job to get them ready for playing football as far as being out there longer and having pads on and in playing shape."

After two practices in helmets only and three more in helmets and shoulder pads, the Wildcats will be in full pads the rest of the preseason.

"Now it's our job as coaches that we don't wear them out the entire month of August and September and we're not as fresh as we need to be in October," Klieman said. "We've made some adjustments to our practice schedule, adjustments to the amount of time out there. Some of the different drills we're doing so that we can try to stay fresher longer.

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"And that's something that everybody's trying to do, but we've done a lot of research, the support staff and myself, to come up with ways for our guys to take care of their bodies better, to hydrate and have great nutrition and great recovery so that they can bounce back and be able to stay healthy throughout the whole season."

Keeping Duke healthy is a top priority. Not only had the Wildcats planned to use him as an edge rusher, but also as a hybrid Sam linebacker in their new 3-3-5 defensive scheme.

When he went down, it left the Wildcats with safety Reggie Stubblefield filling that spot.

"We need both types of bodies. I think that's the big thing," Klieman said of the third linebacker position. "And last year we didn't have both type of bodies and we went out and either recruited to that or moved some guys around in the winter and the spring so that we had the ability based on what the offense was going to do … that we can have a true backer in there as well as to some of the teams that will be more spread offenses, more 11 and 10 personnel, and throwing the ball around, that we could go to a speed package out of this.

"We have to have both, and last year when Khalid got injured, we really were stuck with just one way of doing things and we saw how people attacked us when we did it that way. And so we have to have an answer."

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Having Duke, a 6-foot-4, 246-pound junior, on the field should help. During the spring, the coaches also moved Missouri graduate transfer Shawn Robinson, a 6-2, 231-pound safety, to linebacker.

Klieman reiterated that limiting Duke's participation early on in preseason camp is strictly precautionary.

"He'll be fully healthy," Klieman said. "I'm convinced there's nothing that he's being held back from, but he's just missed an awful lot of time.

"And so for us, some of the time that he missed, we're getting back now in August and making sure that he's in tremendous shape physically, making sure that his knee is back. We want to make sure that we have Khalid for the long haul, not just for the month of September."

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's defensive line recovering from injuries