MANHATTAN — Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman was brief in his statement regarding the departure of running back Dylan Edwards, who elected to redshirt and enter the transfer portal last week.
"Last week, he decided to redshirt and that he was going to leave the team," Klieman said Monday, Nov. 10, during his weekly media session . "I wish him well; It's unfortunate, but I wish him well."
News of Edwards' departure broke on Friday, Nov. 7 , while the Wildcats were in an idle week. The running back from Derby High had sat out most of the season with what had been described as a leg injury.
By sitting out the rest of the season , Edwards is eligible to use a redshirt year and maintain a year of eligibility because he only appeared in four games. He will have two years of eligibility remaining, regardless of where he decides to play next.
Edwards' frustrating season began with much promise, but he was injured before taking an offensive snap in Week 0's loss to Iowa State in Ireland, having muffed a punt in his lone play. The only game he made a sizable impact came in Sept. 27's win over UCF, in which he rushed for 166 yards and a touchdown, but he was limited in the following week's loss at Baylor.
Edwards' absence has been impactful on Kansas State , as it was expected by many to compete for a Big 12 championship and possibly a spot in the College Football Playoff. Instead, it is 4-5 overall, fighting for bowl eligibility and is on the verge of having a season without a 1,000-yard rusher since 2020. Joe Jackson leads the team with 407 rushing yards.
"Joe's done a really good job, and we're going to get a look at Monterrio Elston, JB Price and Devon Rice," Klieman said. "We're gonna look at everybody back there because we've gotta get more production out of the run game, and it could be just one guy. It's going to be a collective effort."
Edwards, a four-star prospect out of high school, initially committed to the Wildcats in June 2022 before flipping to Notre Dame about a month later. Before he put pen to paper, he flipped once again to Deion Sanders at Colorado in December, where he played for a season.
In April 2024, Edwards left Colorado and put the purple on once again, this time actually suiting up for the team and playing alongside DJ Giddens for a season. The 2025 season was supposed to be his, playing as the partner-in-crime next to Avery Johnson in what was supposed to be one of the most dangerous backfields in the Big 12 and college football. That never happened.
Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_ , contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Dylan Edwards transfer portal — What Kansas State football coach said
