Jake Clifton is a name to familiarize yourself with moving forward. That much is clear after speaking with assistant head coach Van Malone, a few of his teammates and even his position coach, Steve Stanard.

Malone spoke about him multiple times, unprovoked, as someone that has flashed through the first few weeks of practices during the preseason. He is impressing those around him that much.

Will he play right away? I don't know. But he's at least thrusting himself into the conversation. He’s being described as the furthest along from a mental standpoint out of all the freshman linebackers that Stanard has coached in his career.

Clifton is a sponge. He wants to acquire as much information as possible and was that way since day one.

The player that it seemed like Coach Malone wanted to rave the most about was new safety Josh Hayes. As a transfer from Virginia, he was brought in to play cornerback but was moved to safety in the Spring.

Out of that group, Malone seemed to glow about him the most and placed him in the same company as Julius Brents and Daniel Green in terms of how they were leading the way on defense.

He's played a lot of college football, and even for both Chris Klieman and Joe Klanderman already. He's definitely someone that should be penciled in as a starter in the back end of the defense.

They're still figuring out the safety position, and we'll touch on that next after speaking with more players and coaches.

Safety was the question mark of the team heading in to fall camp, according to the coaches. They did not shy away from that fact. Aside from Hayes, who else has risen up the depth chart?

For most of the offseason, we had heard a lot of promising statements about Kobe Savage. He was noted as someone that is always exceeding expectations. Surprisingly, each of he, Cincere Mason and Nickendre Stiger weren't mentioned by Malone.

It is possible that he slipped up and just forgot about them. It's not always easy to keep everything straight in front of several media members in that kind of setting, especially when it is not technically your position group.

However, he did have very good things to say about Drake Cheatum. That is a transfer from Prairie View A&M that has played a lot of football. TJ Smith received a shout from Malone as well.

He also commended the splash that true freshmen VJ Payne and Jordan Perry have made and the length that both possess.

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It was not long ago when new assistant Thad Ward revealed that the culture was set and their locker room was second to none.

Malone explained that their players love one another and they value that immensely within their program. It is an important part, and that has been an effort that they have been working towards since the 2020 season.

Chris Klieman learned from that year and has shaped his football organization accordingly.

Hearing Ward, Malone, Brian Anderson and Conor Riley praise Trumain Carroll for his impact on every little part of their program was interesting and an integral part of how they have re-tooled it all.

It was further reinforced when a source reached out the other day that had seen a practice. It was an individual not associated with the Wildcats and had seen other programs as well.

The clear and coherent reaction was that there wasn't a better practice atmosphere than the one in Manhattan. The locker room seemed to be the strongest and the most cohesive.

I asked Van Malone if the goal of preseason camp for his position group was just to find the next group in the rotation that would be spelling Ekow Boye-Doe and Julius Brents.

Of course, those two are the clear starters. He didn't necessarily contest that notion but he did share that they have improved the talent across the board at K-State. That has created intense competition in a number of spots.

Omar Daniels and Jordan Wright were the first names Malone indicated as being next-up after Boye-Doe and Brents. I would lean towards it being those two. However, he shared that Jacob Parrish, Justice Clemons and Colby McCalister also warranted a mention.

Adrian Martinez is who Joe Klanderman and company have to face all the time in practice now. Malone responded and explained what problems the quarterback gives the defense on a daily basis.

Martinez has shown the coaches how experienced he is by his knack for manipulating defenses just with his eyes. He is intentional about it.

He'll use his eyes to move safeties over to create larger passing windows with regularity. Nothing is telegraphed. He is deceptive in the pocket.

The coaches have made no secret that they love their culture, their locker room and the players more than any other time that they've been in Manhattan. Kansas State has their best roster on the field and probably their best one off of it since Klieman was hired.

Apparently some of the players are in the Vanier Family Football Complex so much right now that the staff is wondering if they even have a home somewhere in town. They are in there for hours on end preparing their minds and bodies.

One of those is Jordan Wright. Malone is not sure that they have a harder worker on the team.