#6 Max Marsh — Safety Max Marsh’s (6) offseason to transfer has opened up his position and jersey number for a fellow transfer, three-year Ball State starter Jordan Riley, who has already settled into the “Jack” role. | Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In which BracketCat counts down the sixth day until the 2023 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State safety Jordan Riley.

Goal No. 6: SELF-DISCIPLINE. Do it right; don’t accept less.

#6 Jordan Riley

True Senior | 6-0 | 202 lbs. | Clinton, Maryland

Position: Safety
Previous College: None
Projection: Starter
Status: On Scholarship

Jordan Riley (b. March 2, 2002) is a transfer safety who is majoring in marketing. He is already in line to start at the “Jack” safety position entering 2024 after playing in 37 games over three seasons at Ball State, with starts in all 24 games over the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

Riley is a true senior with a redshirt available if needed, but he does not have a COVID year.

He saw action in all 13 games in 2021 at Ball State, totaling nine tackles, and had a season-best five stops against Central Michigan and another two against Miami (Ohio).

In 2022, Riley started all 12 games, ranking second on the Cardinals with 97 tackles while also tallying three tackles for loss, a sack, a team-high 12 pass breakups and a forced fumble en route to All-Mid-American Conference third-team honors from the league’s coaches.

He tied for 24th nationally with 5.1 solo tackles per game, while he tied for sixth in the MAC in passes defended and 10th in tackles, becoming the only player in the MAC with more than 70 tackles and 10 pass breakups in a season.

Riley also set a career high with 14 tackles against UConn, a game in which he forced a fumble that led to the eventual game-winning touchdown as he earned MAC Defensive Player of the Week honors.

He also posted had 11-tackle games against Northern Illinois and Kent State, the latter being a career-best 11 solo tackles, and tallied his first career sack in the season opener at Tennessee, in addition to another tackle for loss at Georgia Southern.

Riley carded four pass breakups at Georgia Southern — a mark that tied for 13th in the nation — and two at Miami (Ohio).

He started all 12 games in 2023, ranking third on the Cardinals with 61 tackles to go along with three tackles for loss, eight passes defended and a fumble recovery, and he tallied at least five tackles in eight games, including a season-high nine against Georgia Southern.

The big-hearted Riley also had seven stops against Western Michigan, Toledo and Bowling Green; recorded a career-high two tackles for loss against Central Michigan and another at Western Michigan; and had one pass breakup in eight different games, while he recovered a fumble at Northern Illinois.

He prepped under head coach Andre Kates at National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, Maryland, where he was a four-year letter-winner for the Eagles and a first-team all-conference selection who helped his team to an 8-3 record as a senior.

Riley carded five career interceptions, including one he returned for a touchdown, and also competed in wrestling and track and field in high school.

He committed to K-State over offers from Big 12 Conference foes Cincinnati and Houston.

Riley originally committed to Ball State over offers from Charlotte, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia.

He has proven to be quite the communicator in press conferences, most notably when he trolled the offense with these remarks a few weeks ago, prompting Matt Wells to clap back:

We’ve been getting picks, fumble recoveries, it’s ridiculous. I didn’t really see it because in spring ball we were still trying to feel out what kind of team we wanted to be, but since day one, we’ve been getting fumbles and picks left and right. We feel like getting more turnovers this year will be our go-to.

Riley continues a proud string of immediate impact transfer safeties with NFL prospects.

Defensive coordinator and position coach Joe Klanderman said it’s no accident, either:

I really vibe well with guys that love football. I don’t vibe that well with guys that are just all about the flash of being in the portal. So, what we’ve done is we’ve found kids that maybe aren’t the highest profile names out there. They jump in the portal and maybe there’s not 70 schools that are recruiting (them), but we’re finding kids that really love the game, and we’re finding guys that want to get better, finding guys that want to get developed, that, for whatever reason, have hit a wall where they’re at. Jordan is that. Jordan loves football. He loves practice, he loves meetings, he loves learning, and Marques (Sigle) is the same way. We’ve just hit home runs with those guys.