#77 Carver Willis — Carver Willis (77) saw quite a bit of playing time in both 2022 and 2023 as a reserve offensive tackle, a role he’ll look to build on in 2024 as the starter. | Photo by Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In which BracketCat counts down the 77th day until the 2024 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State offensive lineman Carver Willis.

NOTE: Kansas State has elected to advance players’ classification even though the 2020 season did not affect eligibility. Those who wish to take advantage of this extra year will be listed as a (“super”) senior again after their original eligibility would have been exhausted.

#77 Carver Willis

Redshirt Senior | 6-5 | 285 lbs. | Durango, Colorado

Position: Offensive Line
Previous College: None
Projection: Starter
Status: On Scholarship

Carver Michael Willis (b. April 20, 2002) is an athletic, experienced offensive lineman with good feet and technique who arrived early for spring camp, played, and redshirted in 2020.

Now a grizzled, seasoned veteran, he enters 2024 as the presumptive starter at right tackle.

Willis, who is majoring in entrepreneurship and innovation, saw action in four games during the pandemic season as a reserve left tackle against Texas Tech, TCU, Iowa State and Texas.

He helped the 2020 Wildcats to tie for first in the Big 12 and 27th nationally in sacks allowed (14), while K-State led the Big 12 and ranked fourth in the nation in red zone offense (93.9%).

Willis was one of nine true freshmen to play for the Wildcats in 2020, retaining his redshirt, but the only one along the offensive line. But then he did not see any game action in 2021:

Willis never told his coaches that he believed that he had lost the love for the game his sophomore season. Truth is, Willis, who blocks for the quarterback and ball carriers, couldn’t get out of his own way. He made football “harder than it needed to be.” He isolated after being the only offensive lineman to play his freshman year. “I had an ego bigger than this room,” he says. Then he experienced an epiphany after playing zero snaps in 2021: He had to strip himself of ego and rely upon others.

He bounced back in a big way during the 2022 championship season, playing in seven games as a reserve right tackle and seeing time against South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Baylor, West Virginia, Kansas, and in the Sugar Bowl against Alabama.

“We saw the physicality in film, and we wanted to see the athleticism,” head coach Chris Klieman said of Willis. “The athleticism was there in camp and that was the big thing that we needed to see — the ability to take his steps and the ability to move his feet. You could tell he was a technician. Once we saw him do those things, we felt pretty comfortable.”

Willis played in all 13 games last season, with starts in each of the first seven contests at right tackle in relief of the injured Christian Duffie as he picked up All-Big 12 honorable mention accolades from the league’s coaches. He also helped the Wildcats pick up semifinalist status for the Joe Moore Award as one of the top offensive lines in the country.

Willis also helped K-State to rank in the top 30 nationally in 11 offensive categories, including scoring (10th, 37.1 points per game), rushing (11th, 204.1 yards per game), third-down conversions (11th, 47.9%), rushing touchdowns (12th, 32) and first downs (12th, 310).

He was part of a unit that also ranked second in school history in total offense per game (445.2 yards) and first downs, third in total offense (5,788 yards), sixth in points per game and rushing yards per carry (4.98), seventh in total rushing yards (2,653) and 10th in rushing touchdowns. His starting experience makes him one of our most experienced returners.

Willis prepped under head coach David Vogt at Durango High School, where he was rated the 86th-best offensive tackle in the nation and the seventh-best player in the state of Colorado in the Class of 2020 by 247Sports.

He earned honorable mention all-state honors as a junior in 2018 for the Demons before picking up first-team honors as a senior after helping Durango to earn an 8-4 record and a trip to the state quarterfinals in 2019, and he also lettered in basketball.

Willis chose the Wildcats over offers from Colorado State, Kansas, New Mexico State, Northern Colorado and Wyoming, as well as interest from Baylor, Indiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

His primary recruiters were former offensive coordinator (and fellow Colorado native) Collin Klein and his new replacement as offensive coordinator, offensive line coach Conor Riley.

If you read this far down and you have the time, please go read this wonderful spring feature about Willis courtesy of K-State Athletics’ own D. Scott Fritchen.