Aside from a new Recruiting Notebook (EDITOR's NOTE: and DY's new 2021 Big Board), there hasn’t been a ton of new recruiting information flowing lately. Much of that is due to it being a dead period right now. The period, in which coaches cannot directly contact players, began on June 24 and ends on July 24.

Just before the period started, however, the Wildcats had an important weekend in which they hosted plenty of visitors. Most of them were commits already in the fold taking their official visits, particularly four prospects from Texas in linebackers Demarrquese Hayes and Jeremiah Harris, cornerback JoJo Wilson and defensive tackle Ronald Triplette.

The latter three are all from the Houston area. Triplette and Harris are even high school teammates. Both committed before seeing Manhattan, making the official visit the weekend of June 21 all the more critical.

“The visit definitely lived up to expectations,” Triplette said. “It was just great to hang out with the players and to spend time with the coaches. Also, my parents loved it.”

I think the timing of the official visit is a prudent conversation to have. I am not judging it or calling it a mistake to have them in June. I think the official visit in June was needed to grab the commitments of Hayes, Wilson, Triplette and Harris.

However, at the same time, they now have used up their expense-paid trip to Manhattan and any other one will have to come out of their own pocket. Perhaps the four of them will still be able to visit for a game in the fall, but there’s a chance they won’t.

It could also be troubling if they accrue interest from others and the Wildcats don’t have an official visit at their disposal to fend off late pushes from other programs. Their only ammunition will be the school visits and in-home visits in December.

Hopefully, it’s enough. In fairness to head coach Chris Klieman, too, he crushed that setting in the last cycle.

Relationships being built now can also be ammunition. If commits become so close with people in and around the program, it’s more difficult to depart the class. That’s K-State’s mission right now, and the Wildcats were able to jump-start and make significant movement in that step while the visitors were on campus.

“I was around Jaylen Pickle and Mike (McCoy) the most,” Triplette noted. “Plus, I loved the coaches. Coach Tui (Mike Tuiasosopo) is a great guy. I love him. He’s actually hilarious.”

To conclude, I don’t think there’s any concern at this time about any of the four, or really any of the commits, wavering from their K-State pledge.

It is something to keep in mind, though, and it’s a situation where K-State is well aware it will have to continue to recruit all of its commits aggressively.