The Manhattan Project Vol. III: Klein’s Prospective Swine
Kansas State brought in three transfer RBs this offseason--but the leading rusher from 2025 is still in the clubhouse... what to make of this?
Wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee, Wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee, wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee (Like a cop car)
- Lil Wayne, musician
Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter Vol. III is widely considered the best of his Carter collection, a group of six albums spanning from 2004 to 2025. Indeed, with mainstream hits like “A Milli”, “Lollipop” and “Got Money”, it’s not hard to see why critics rated the project favourably.
The primary focus of today’s article, Kansas State (KSU) RB Joe Jackson (JJ), wasn’t even born when Wayne dropped his first Carter album. Entering his fourth year of college football in 2026, the Florida product is coming off of his best year yet, leading the team with over 900 rushing yards, including a monster 293 yard performance vs Utah.
As for why I’m calling this article the “Manhattan Project Vol. III”, this will be the third year in a row where I write about KSU’s potential RB1. In 2024, my first project—The Manhattan Project Vol. I, if you will—we focused on rising senior DJ Giddens. He ended up having a good year.
Simultaneously as Wayne’s, my 2025 project did not hit with the same precision. While Tha Carter Vol. VI was receiving mixed reviews, my assumption that Dylan Edwards would pick up where he left from the previous year’s bowl game vs. RU proved folly.
In the end, Edwards did not play much in 2025, and it was the aforementioned Joe Jackson, who ended up leading the team in rushing. Edwards is now playing for the cross-state rival in Lawrence.
But the good news is one of the chief architects of that KSU offence that featured their top pig of the 2020s, Deuce Vaughn, is returning to the fold following former head coach Chris Kleiman’s retirement. Collin Klein spent the last two seasons as Texas A&M’s OC, but had previously served in the same role at KSU. He now takes over as the head coach.
Personally, I just remember mixing his and Kleiman’s names due to how similar they are. I’m glad that won’t be a problem anymore.
Taking a brief look at Klein’s RB1 history since being promoted to KSU OC in 2022, we can see that his starting RBs have generally been productive (albeit on a small sample size):
*Le’Veon Moss (2024): Season cut short by torn ACL/MCL vs. South Carolina in Week 10. Was leading SEC running backs in rushing before injury. Named All-SEC Second Team. Texas A&M ranked 2nd in SEC in rushing (195.5 YPG).
**Rueben Owens II (2025): Took over as primary back after Le’Veon Moss suffered an ankle injury vs. Florida in Week 7 (missed significant time). Owens had two 100+ yard games (vs. Mississippi State: 142 yds; vs. Missouri: 102 yds, 2 TD).
Coming back to KSU in 2025, I will say that I was not a fan of Joe Jackson based on what I saw early in the year. He was given a multitude of opportunities, yet did not demonstrate the ability to take advantage.
However, in Week Seven, the proverbial light bulb came on. JJ rushed for 110 yards on 27 carries vs. TCU, and from that point onward, he was averaging 22 touches per game, and just over 20 PPG. Though to be fair, that PPG number is heavily skewed by JJ’s last two appearances. He scored seven times in his final three games, after only scoring once (1) in his first nine games in 2025.
KSU acquired three transfer RBs in the portal for 2026: Makari Bodiford, Rodney Fields, and Jay Harris. Memphis’ Makari Bodiford is a rising junior out of Georgia. He’s a big and physical presence (5’11, 222) at the RB position, but did not see a lot of work behind Sutton Smith and Greg Desrosiers in 2025.
Behind him, there is inter-BIG12 transfer Rodney Fields from OKST. Fields had a few strong moments in 2025, and is stylistically somewhat similar to Jackson but with a stronger receiving profile. In my opinion, he presents the biggest challenge to Jackson for carries.
The final name that was brought in is former Oregon Duck Jay Harris, who started his career at a lower level of CFB, and did next to nothing during his two years in Eugene.
So the path to #PIG status isn’t exactly clear for JJ (or anyone in this room, for that matter). Nonetheless, the Klein RB1 role has been such a honey pot for CFF workhorses in the past that it’s worth investigating ahead of time.
COACHING & SYSTEM
RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 18.91 (half ppr)
As mentioned, Colin Klein returns to Manhattan, KS, after a two year stint at A&M. His behaviour in College Station was much of the same from his days in Kansas.
While no particular RB finished a season with gaudy numbers (due to injury), he repeatedly concentrated carries to his RB1s, whether it was Le’Veon Moss or Reuben Owens.
Moss, in particular, averaged 17+ PPG when he was on the field in 2024, and was averaging over 40% team carry share prior to injury. In the two years Klein spent with KSU, both of his RBs received over 40% team carry share, and in Deuce Vaughn’s case, over 50% carry share. I don’t have to tell the reader that these are the types of figures you seek as a prospecting CFF manager.
Klein’s three year average from 2022-2024 in play calling splits was ~59% run plays to 41% pass plays. His teams averaged 70 plays per game, and 26 seconds per play.
The man who is taking over Klein’s old role at OC is former Missouri QBs coach Sean Gleeson, not to be confused with the British actor (here we go again with the vexing appellations in this club).
There are a few things to know about Gleeson (KSU’s OC). First, he is officially listed as a co-OC with OKST during RB Chuba Hubbard’s legendary 2019 season. The reason I have an issue attributing much of that prowess to Gleeson is that throughout the totality of his other tenures (Princeton OC, 2017-18 & RU OC, 2020-22), there aren’t any RB performances approximating anything close to that year by Hubbard.
He even had eventual back-to-back 1000-yard pig Kyle Monangai for one season in 2022, and yet managed to extract very little out of the future multiyear kilo rusher.
Since that stint at RU, he’s been an analyst with Northwestern (2023), Missouri (2024), and then eventually his former position, QBs coach at Mizzou. All this to say, I was not very impressed by the hire. But I do still like Klein, and his presence alone within the program is enough to warrant our attention.
Joe Jackson (6’0, 215)
2025 STATS: 169-911-8 (15 PPG)
You all know that I love players from Florida. RBs in particular from this area of the US seem to turn up disproportionately in CFB time and time again. Jackson not only has a good upbringing for this line of work, but impressive size at his foundation. There is a DJ Giddens quality to him in terms of frame, but he’s not quite there.
KState has been kind of a funny program in that they either have six-foot-plus, bigger RBs toting the rock, or near-midgets (no disrespect to Deuce Vaughn, who’s one of the my all-time faves). Indeed, part of the excitement last year with Dylan Edwards was that he was playing in one of the few programs in America that might be able to use him correctly, and that actually had the blueprint via Vaughn to show for it.
Ah well, it’s all water under the bridge now. Jackson came on exceptionally strong to end the year—and unlike Edwards at the end of 2024—was incredibly productive over multiple games. These players who have huge bowl games (like Edwards did vs. RU the year prior) are really hit or miss. That one data point often gets leveraged super hard the following offseason, and often results in the community over-valuing those players.
Jackson’s heater at the end of the year at least includes a sample of multiple games. Though the fact that he was given several opportunities earlier in 2025 and couldn’t take the next step is still concerning.
However, the biggest blemish to his 2026 profile is the competition that was brought in around him. There isn’t one particular player out of the three mentioned that screams out, but Fields (5’9, 200) is probably the most similar. The other two (Bodiford and Harris) are heavier at 225 pounds. In Harris’ case, he’s also taller (6’2).
There’s also the pesky detail that Jackson’s productive 2025 wasn’t under Klein, so there may not be a lot of loyalty either. And I haven’t even begun addressing the running QB situation.
In my mind, Jackson is exactly the type of player who should be viewed as a late round RB option. He has the upside to be a great CFF player, but for the reasons listed above, the risk/reward proposition really only makes sense with a lower investment pick. Especially in a particularly strong RB class. ◾
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Sample 2018-2024, excluding 2020.