In which BracketCat counts down the 56th day until the 2025 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State defensive tackle Damian Ilalio.

#56 Damian Ilalio

Redshirt Senior | 6-2 | 300 lbs. | Manhattan, Kansas

Position: Defensive Tackle
Previous College: None
Projection: Starter
Status: On Scholarship

Damian Ilalio (b. Jan. 23, 2003) is a highly experienced, athletic defensive tackle out of Manhattan High School who stuck around to play for his hometown college team.

After he had a good spring camp in 2022, he played in five games during the Big 12 Championship season, making solo tackles against South Dakota and Oklahoma State.

In his career highlight to date, Ilalio was in for the infamous stop on 4th and goal inside the 1-yard line in overtime during the Big 12 Championship game against TCU, which led to the game-winning field goal. He also finished as a second-team Academic All-Big 12 performer.

As an encore in 2023, he saw action in 11 games, with starts in the season opener against SEMO, the regular season finale against Iowa State and the Pop-Tarts Bowl against NC State.

Ilalio came away with nine tackles, two tackles for loss and half a sack last season as he set a new career high with three tackles against NC State, in addition to the first full tackle for loss of his career.

He had two tackles and his half-sack against SEMO, missed the Texas and Baylor games due to an injury, and earned first-team Academic All-Big 12 honors to cap an eventful season.

During the offseason last year, Ilalio worked hard and surpassed Uso Seumalo as K-State’s No. 1 nose tackle entering the 2024 season. In this capacity, he started all 13 games, coming away with 34 tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks over his 461 defensive snaps.

This was the most tackles by a Wildcat interior defensive tackle since Will Geary had 44 in 2017, while it was the most tackles for loss and sacks by a defensive tackle since Ilalio’s mentor, Eli Huggins, had six tackles for loss and three sacks in 2021.

Ilalio recorded four tackles against Kansas, including one in the end zone for a safety.

It was the Wildcats’ first safety since 2022 (also against Kansas, via holding in the end zone) and first via a tackle in the end zone since Felix Anudike-Uzomah at Texas Tech in 2021.

That came on the heels of a career-high six tackles at West Virginia, while Ilalio had five at Iowa State and four against Oklahoma State.

Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman noticed his effort and improvement last season:

Just because he’s solid, (Ilalio) doesn’t make mistakes. It’s hard to find a lot of flaws with what he’s doing. Great understanding of what we’re doing, great understanding what an offense is doing. For example, a couple weeks ago when we played West Virginia, screens were an issue for us against Colorado. We kind of figured that that was going to be in West Virginia’s plan. Sure enough, it was. I think he had three TFLs on screens. He has just great feel for the game. I think that comes with maturity, experience and reps.

For Ilalio, that maturity comes at least in part from his recent experiences of fatherhood.

He also registered half-sacks at BYU and in the Rate Bowl against Rutgers, carded his first career full sack at Tulane, and again earned Academic All-Big 12 honors after the season.

Ilalio, who is majoring in athletic training and rehab sciences, “blueshirted” and then redshirted in 2021. He prepped under head coach Joe Schartz at Manhattan, where he was regarded as the sixth-best prospect in the state of Kansas for the Class of 2021 by Rivals.

Named to the Kansas Football Coaches Association (KFBCA) Top 11 team as one of the top players in the state among all classes in 2020, in addition to the organization’s first-team all-state squad, Ilalio also was voted the 2020 Kansas Class 6A Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team all-state honoree by The Wichita Eagle.

In addition, he was named the Sports in Kansas Class 6A Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team all-state honoree, as well as a first-team all-state selection by The Topeka Capital-Journal as a senior.

(Plus he picked up first-team all-state honors as a junior from both the Capital-Journal and Eagle, while he was an honorable mention pick by both organizations as a sophomore!)

Ilalio totaled 129 tackles, 35 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and five fumble recoveries for the Indians over his junior and senior seasons in high school.

He also competed in wrestling — he was a two-time league wrestling champion — and track and field for Manhattan High, where he played with former K-State safety Joe Hall III.

Rated a 3-star player by most recruiting services, Ilalio picked K-State over offers from Air Force, Army, Emporia State and Illinois State, as well as interest from Kansas, North Dakota State and Northern Illinois. His primary recruiter was recruiting coordinator Taylor Braet.

“My son (Colby Klieman) play(ed) with (Ilalio) at Manhattan High,” said head coach Chris Klieman. “I was able to watch an awful lot of those football games. I got to see a kid dominate the line of scrimmage, have an unbelievable motor.”

Coach Klieman called his praise “the benefit of being a dad and not a coach.”

“You can tell he loved the game,” he said. “You can tell that his teammates really enjoyed him. He was happy for teammates. That kid’s a winner, a flat-out winner. With his work ethic and motor and those things, I know he’ll be a great fit here and have tremendous success.”

After two full seasons under his belt, what did Klieman have to say now about Ilalio?

The other guy that we knew was good but he’s just coming into his own as he comes into his body a little bit more is Damian Ilalio. Damian might be one of our best technicians on defense. He plays with tremendous pad level. He’s always down for the cause. He’ll have a role (in 2023), too. … (He) is going to help us as well. When you throw Damian into a third- and fourth-and-goal situation and he’s able to walk people back in a Big 12 Championship game, that gave him a lot of confidence.