With K-State’s 2026 kickoff closing in, Blake Barnett’s path has already taken a sharp turn from blue-chip recruit to useful piece in the Wildcats’ quarterback room.
Barnett arrived from Erie High School in Colorado as a highly regarded 4-star quarterback and got to campus in time for 2024 spring practices. He’s majoring in business administration, and his first year in Manhattan was all about learning. Barnett redshirted in 2024 and never saw game action as he worked his way into the offense.
The payoff came in 2025, when Barnett finished the season as Avery Johnson’s primary backup after drawing steady praise from the staff. Klieman said in July 2025, “Blake makes plays. He’s got to minimize some mistakes, as do all the quarterbacks,” former offensive coordinator Matt Wells added that spring, “Blake, finally getting in and being healthy, showed great improvement.”
Klieman also pointed back to Barnett’s growth in October 2024, when the quarterback was finally healthy enough to show what he could do after missing spring football. “Blake Barnett was fun to watch because we missed him during the spring.
He missed all of spring football, so for him to truly get an opportunity - he just first learned the offense in fall camp - for him to now run scout team and then play quarterback and do K-State stuff, that was fun for us to see. We saw some really good things out of Blake, but that was fun because we hadn’t really had a chance to see that yet.”
Still, Barnett’s most valuable role in 2025 ended up coming away from the traditional backup job. He was used as a Wildcat gadget runner and appeared in four games against UCF, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Colorado.
Across those appearances, he carried the ball 14 times for 40 yards. His busiest outing came against UCF, when he posted a season-high 23 rushing yards on five carries and broke off a long run of 11 yards.
Against Colorado, he ran four times for 13 yards.
Barnett’s résumé coming out of high school was loaded. He was a four-year letter-winner and two-year captain at Erie under Jeff Giger, and Rivals ranked him the top overall player in Colorado for the Class of 2024 while also slotting him as the seventh-best dual-threat quarterback in the class. On3 had him as the state’s top overall prospect, and ESPN listed him as the 17th-best dual-threat quarterback in the country.
He was also a three-time first-team all-state selection by the Colorado High School Activities Association and earned Class 4A Player of the Year honors as a senior. Barnett started all 43 of his prep games, helped Erie go 36-7, and capped it with a state championship. Along the way, he set the Colorado state record for overall touchdowns with 159, passing the previous mark of 141 held by Christian McCaffrey.
Barnett’s high school production was massive: 7,518 passing yards and 88 passing touchdowns, plus 3,420 rushing yards and 68 more scores. He also shared the field with current K-State offensive lineman John Pastore.
Beyond football, Barnett was a three-year letter-winner in track, winning state titles in the 100-meter dash and 4x200-meter dash, and he added two years as a basketball letter-winner.
K-State beat out Colorado, Colorado State, Kansas, Oregon State and Washington for Barnett, while Georgia and Illinois also showed interest. Collin Klein was his primary recruiter, and the new head coach had plenty of praise for Barnett when fall camp opened - while making clear there was still work to do.
“You look at Blake Barnett - some of his flash plays are really, really exciting. Obviously, very, very athletic; really, really good twitch; good tools and can really push the ball down the field; and he has created some explosive plays through the course of camp pushing the ball down the field. Then, again, the consistency factor, he’s still growing into that.”
That consistency battle could decide whether Barnett holds onto the No. 2 spot behind Johnson or whether Dillon Duff moves ahead of him. Christian Ellsworth said the competition has been intense from the start: “Blake Barnett and Dillon Duff, those suckers are competitive and they compete every single rep,”
“We’re in the middle of our conditioning phase and it’s been great to see those guys jump to the front of the line. Avery (Johnson) is pretty fast, but those other guys aren’t afraid of the competition and want to jump in, and compete and push him to his limits.
It’s been great to watch. They’re going to be in a battle.”
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