In which BracketCat counts down the 64th day until the 2025 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State offensive lineman Navarro Schunke.

#64 Navarro Schunke

Redshirt Freshman | 6-6 | 323 lbs. | Brandon, South Dakota

Position: Offensive Line
Previous College: None
Projection: Co-Second-String
Status: Preferred Walk-On (sort of on scholarship)

Navarro Schunke (Sept. 29, 2004) is a very accomplished young offensive lineman who is majoring in electrical engineering and redshirted but did not play in 2024, despite his size.

In another recruiting coup for this staff, we were able to get a kid to walk on who easily could have earned a scholarship at many other major schools. (More on this tale later…)

Schunke prepped under head coach Matt Christensen at Brandon Valley High School, where he was regarded as the 21st-best offensive guard nationally in the Class of 2024 by ESPN, while the organization also rated him the top prospect in the state of South Dakota.

He was rated the second-best prospect in the state by On3 and 247Sports, the latter also ranking him the 24th-best overall guard despite some injuries earlier in his prep career.

A first-team all-state performer who helped to lead the Lynx to a 40-6 record, Schunke also is an accomplished wrestler who became the first player in South Dakota history to win five Class A state titles, closing out his career by winning a whopping 165 straight matches.

He walked on at K-State over scholarship offers from Arizona State, Auburn, Coastal Carolina, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Pittsburgh, South Dakota State, South Florida and Tennessee, as well as interest from Iowa, Minnesota, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.

How, you might be asking, was “little ol’ K-State” able to get a 4-star player (by both 247Sports and ESPN) with so many high-major offers to pay his own way to college?

Well, a special Native American scholarship (and, I am guessing, a perhaps not insubstantial NIL deal on the side…) was a big part of it, but so was his lead recruiter, former offensive coordinator Conor Riley. Said Schunke of his then-position coach:

He kind of is like a coach I’ve had my whole life. Every coach that I’ve had has been completely honest with me and situations where maybe I don’t want them to be, but they are, in like tough truth situations. That was probably a big thing that he was just completely honest and straightforward with me about the whole thing.

Riley had similarly positive things to say about this freshman after the second bye week:

Especially coming out of a bye week, you’re starting to see guys who are developing more and more this past week and for the past few weeks. I can speak to myself, I’ll start there — Gus Hawkins is doing a really, really good job. Navarro Schunke, both guys who have taken some of those reps during our developmental stuff last week, where I really thought those guys did some fantastic things.

Schunke’s mother, Jennifer, played college softball at Arkansas, while his older brother, Damion, is a wrestler at fellow Big 12 institution Arizona State.