Assistant Brian Lepak didn’t say a lot. Just look at the length of his press conference compared to the rest of the offensive assistants like Conor Riley, Brian Anderson and Thad Ward.
It is much shorter.
But what he did talk a lot about was toughness. In fact, toughness is was probably his answer to 75 percent of the questions he was tossed on Wednesday. He wasn’t chit-chatting much, but he sure as heck wants his room to be full of toughness.
Their entire group must be tough, he insisted. That is what they hang their hat on as a program, and he wants his room to embody that more than anything else. Every single one of them must be tough to play for him.
Their toughness must be improved, but in all areas. He wants them tough on the football field, tough at the point of attack along the line of scrimmage and to have the mental toughness to respond when the chips are down and they are facing adversity.
Lepak didn’t really rave much about individual players. He touched on true freshman Brayden Loftin and Garrett Oakley and how they are battling but a long ways away because the tight end position is a developmental position for the Wildcats.
But he did place a lot of pats on the back for the work that Samuel Wheeler has accomplished thus far in camp but really the entire offseason. HIs attitude and approach has really impressed his position group.
Not only is Wheeler a strong leader that has a lot of experience after five years in the program and beginning his sixth, he’s shown terrific ball skills, is improving in the running game and working his tail off for Kansas State.
His work in the run game as a blocker is where he has made considerable growth. Lepak really focused in on that phase of Wheeler’s performance. It is something that he has really embraced as a responsibility this year.
