MANHATTAN — A mass exodus at quarterback last December helped clear the path for freshman phenom Avery Johnson to take over as Kansas State football’s starting quarterback.
But the departure of veteran starter Will Howard and a pair of backups before the Pop-Tarts Bowl also created a whole new problem. Forget for a minute that Johnson seamlessly stepped in and helped guide the Wildcats to a 28-19 victory over North Carolina State while also picking up most valuable player honors.
He had no choice.
With Howard moving on to Ohio State, where he now is the presumptive starter, and Jake Rubley and Adryan Lara also hitting the transfer portal, Johnson was the only quarterback left on the roster who had taken a college snap. Jacob Knuth, a redshirt freshman who transferred in from Minnesota as a walk-on, never even ran the Wildcat offense as he worked exclusively with the scout team.
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The same was true during the spring, when Knuth and true freshman Blake Barnett were the backups, making it all the more urgent for K-State to add an experienced quarterback to the mix. The Wildcats did just that by bringing in Connecticut graduate transfer Ta’Quan Roberson, who had a combined 11 career starts with the Huskies and Penn State.
Fast forward to preseason camp, and the outlook for QB2 is much brighter. While Roberson continues to learn the offense, Knuth has taken a big step forward, and there is a genuine competition for the backup job.
“It’s been good,” head coach Chris Klieman said at the start of camp. “Ta’Quan Roberson has been a really good acquisition for us as a mature guy that’s an older guy that is learning our offense.
“The game keeps slowing down for Jacob Knuth. I’ve been really impressed with Jacob and his continued growth.”
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New offensive coordinator Conor Riley agreed.
“I really like it now,” he said. “In fact, myself and one of the other coaches were talking, and quite honestly it’s the most legitimate battle we’ve had for a backup quarterback in some time.”
K-State thought enough of the 6-foot-3, 213-pound Knuth to recruit him out of Harrisburg High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and then invite him to walk on last year. He was the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year after leading passing for 2,413 yards and 26 touchdowns while leading Harrisburg to a 12-0 record and state title in 2022.
“I thought he did a really good job in the spring when we didn’t know a lot about him, because he was our scout team guy and did really good job in the spring,” Klieman said. “And then did a lot of things on his own this summer.”
As for Roberson, he signed on knowing that Johnson’s was the starter. But he also knew from experience that a lot can happen over the course of a 12-game season.
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After transferring to UConn from Penn State is 2022, he won the starting job only to suffer a season-ending injury on the second series of the opener. Then last year, he took over when the Huskies’ starter went down and played in 11 games with 10 starts, throwing for 2,075 yards and 12 touchdowns and rushing for 120 yards with two more scores.
Johnson echoed his coaches in assessing the newfound depth behind him.
“It’s a really fun group to be around,” Johnson said. “And we have a couple of young guys (and) Ta’Quan, a transfer, he’s an older guy. He’s bringing in some knowledge for me that I can learn from.
“Just being able to compete with him and Knuth and Blake (Barnett) and Hudson (Hutcheson), all those guys, we have a lot of fun together, spend a lot of time together, obviously. But whenever it’s time to get to work and get down to business, we do that as well.”
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Riley and quarterbacks coach Matt Wells are getting a good look at both Roberson and Knuth during camp.
“Right now, what I’ve seen is we’re looking for a little bit of consistency out of both of them, but there is a really strong competition within both of them,” Riley said. “It’s not like these guys have been in the program two, three years, and that goes without starting quarterback as well.”
Klieman, for one, is willing to let it all shake out before anointing a backup.
“I feel good,” he said. “We’re not at all close to saying who’s going to back up Avery. That’s going to take quite a long time for us to figure out, but I’ve been impressed with both guys. Both guys could help us.”
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: Who will emerge as Kansas State football’s backup QB to Avery Johnson?
