#77 Easton Kilty — All you really need to know about the North Dakota Fighting Hawks (formerly Fighting Sioux) is that they gave us their starting left tackle, Easton Kilty (77), in the portal. Thanks, Fighting Hawks! | Photo by David Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In which BracketCat counts down the 71st day until the 2024 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State offensive lineman Easton Kilty.

#71 Easton Kilty

Redshirt Senior | 6-5 | 305 lbs. | Stratford, Wisconsin

Position: Offensive Line
Previous College: University of North Dakota
Projection: Starter
Status: On Scholarship

Easton Kilty (May 1, 2002) is a highly experienced FCS offensive tackle who should be immediately able to plug and play at departed KT Leveston’s vacated left tackle position.

A 2023-24 grad, he is now pursuing a master’s degree in communications at Kansas State.

Head coach Chris Klieman had high praise for Kilty after his arrival this spring for practices:

He’s a physical guy. He has really good length. He gets challenged every day. He’s for sure a guy who’s already in our rotation just through our spring. How many we get into that rotation of six, seven, or eight, he’s in there for sure.

Kilty, who will have two years to play two seasons because he has not yet used his COVID year, played parts of four seasons for the North Dakota Fighting Hawks and was viewed as the fifth-best offensive tackle transfer available in the portal this offseason by 247Sports.

He started every game during the 2023 season at left tackle as he earned honorable mention All-Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) honors. UND ranked No. 2 in the MVFC and No. 3 nationally in completion percentage (70.3%) with the help of his blocking.

Kilty started 12 games at right guard as a sophomore in 2022, while he also started 11 games in the fall of 2021 as a redshirt freshman — the first three at right tackle and the final eight at left guard. So he’s played pretty much every single offensive line position other than center.

Kilty originally saw action in three games in the spring of 2021 (pandemic-delayed 2020 season) but retained his redshirt as he made his first career start at right guard in an FCS playoff game against No. 12 Missouri State, then an FCS quarterfinal at No. 1 James Madison.

After 2023, he was named to the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society.

As a prep, Kilty was a two-year letter-winner at Stratford (Wis.) High School, where he earned first-team all-conference honors as a senior after helping to lead the Tigers to the state title game in his final season. He also was named to the all-region team.

A highly coveted transfer this offseason who interviews well, Kilty selected K-State over Power 4 offers from Arkansas, Auburn, Boston College, BYU, Iowa State, Mississippi State, NC State, Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Virginia Tech.

Kilty’s sister, Macey, is a highly successful women’s wrestler who is a 2024 Olympic hopeful.