Every Kansas State football player to be selected as a Consensus All-American

Kansas State football has a long history of great players to go through its program. From players like Gary Spani and Michael Bishop back in the late 1900s to more current players such as Deuce Vaughn and Cooper Beebe, Kansas State's roots run deep.

To be a Consensus All-American is a great honor. It means that the player was the best in the country in their position. To be a Consensus All-American is to be selected to the first team of at least half of the five organizations that select the All-America teams.

Kansas State has had 13 players make the All-America team, two of them making it twice in their college career. So let's look at who each player is and the season they were named an All-American.

Starting us off is Gary Spani who was named an All-American back in 1977. This was back in the days when Kansas State was in its dark years before Bill Snyder rebuilt the program. Spani has a lot of other accolades including being the first player to ever be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, being inducted into the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame, and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.

At Kansas State, Spani was a three-time All-Big Eight selection finishing his career with 543 tackles. In 1977, the year he was an All-American, he averaged 17 tackles a game and even had over 20 tackles in four different games.

Sean Snyder, son of Bill Snyder, was a punter at Kansas State and goes down as one of the best punters in Kansas State football history. Snyder averaged over 40 yards on his punts and almost 45 yards on his punts in 1992, the year he was named an All-American.

Snyder was the first Kansas State player to be named an All-American in the Bill Snyder era, and he was the first one since Gary Spani in 1977. Snyder had 3,572 yards on 80 punts in 1992.

Chris Canty is one of two Kansas State players to be named an All-American twice in his career. Canty was around when Kansas State was in the Big 8 and then when the Big 8 became the Big 12 in 1996.

Canty was an All-American in 1995 and in 1996 and in both seasons, he was the player opposing offense circled on the roster. In 2995, Canty led college football with eight interceptions, returning two of them for touchdowns, which is also the single-season record at Kansas State. He was only a sophomore when he learned his first All-American selection and led the Big 8 in most defensive stats.

Canty improved even more in 1996 allowing only 13 completions that season on 335 snaps and better yet, he did not allow a touchdown all season. Canty finished his career with 14 interceptions and 56 passes defended which is another record at Kansas State.

Like many of the players on this list are the best at their position at Kansas State, Martin Grmatica was no different. Gramatica is still the best kicker to ever go through Kansas State and even went on to have a successful NFL career.

Gramatica earned his All-American selection in 1997 after finishing his time with the Wildcats. Gramatica had a 76.4 field goal percentage at Kansas State hitting his longest field goal from 55 yards. He was also 97.4% on extra points making him almost automatic for the Wildcats.

Michael Bishop goes down as arguably one of the best quarterbacks in Kansas State football history. Even though he doesn't hold all the top spots on all the Kansas State record books for quarterbacks, he was a game-changer at Kansas State and was part of the team that came so close to making it to the National Championship in 1998.

Bishop was one of three Wildcats that earned their All-American selections in 1998. The 1998 team is arguably the best team in Kansas State football history. They were one win away from a National Championship. In the 1998 season, Bishop threw for 2,844 yards and 23 touchdowns.

Jeff Kelly was yet another player who came to Kansas State from a junior college and he was probably one of the best linebackers at Kansas State. Kelly was voted a Second Team All-American in 1997 but finished the job in 1998 to earn him First Team All-American.

Kelly finished his 1998 season with 87 tackles which was second most on the team, and a team-leading 23 tackles for a loss. To add to those stats, he also had six sacks and a team-high three interceptions, three forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries. He finished his career with 197 total tackles, 47 tackles for loss, and 13 sacks.

David Allen was voted as an All-American in 1998 as a kick returner. As a sophomore, Allen had his best year returning punts and kickoffs for the Wildcats. He had 729 yards in punt returns averaging over 23 yards a punt return. He also had four touchdowns on punt returns that year, which helped his All-American campaign.

Mark Simoneau is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame along with being the only Wildcat to be named an All-American in 1999. Simoneau's resume is long with many accolades including a Defensive Player of the Year award in 1999.

Simoneau was a three-time captain and went down as one of the greatest defenders in Kansas State football history. He finished his career with 251 career unassisted tackles, 400 total tackles, 52 tackles for loss, 15.5 sacks, eight forced fumbles, and seven fumble recoveries.

Terence Newman earned his All-American in 2002, his final year at Kansas State. He is also on the ballot for the next College Football Hall of Fame class. Newman played four years at Kansas State and was one of the best at his position and even went on to have a successful NFL career.

In 2002, the year he was named an All-American, he also won Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, was on the First Team All-Big 12, and even won the Jim Thorpe Award which is given to the best defensive back in the country. Newman was also a two-time All-American in track and field.

Jordy Nelson goes down as arguably the best wide receiver in Kansas State football history, only really rivaled by Tyler Lockett. Nelson received his All-American honor in 2007 after his final season at Kansas State.

After starting as a walk-on, Nelson impressed everyone being a big-body receiver that had soft hands and a great catch radius. His 2007 season was by far his best recording 1,606 and 11 touchdowns. He was the top receiver for the Wildcats, especially at a time when Bill Snyder was not the coach at Kansas State.

Like it is mentioned above, the competition for the best wide receiver to ever play at Kansas State is a tight race between Tyler Lockett and Jordy Nelson. Lockett does hold the majority of the records at Kansas State, so the tie would probably be broken in his favor.

Lockett earned his All-American in his final season at Kansas State as well in 2014, the year he broke a lot of the records he now holds at Kansas State. In his final season, he had 1,515 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. He currently holds 14 records at Kansas State and a lot of them don't seem like they are going to be broken anytime soon.

Deuce Vaughn joins Chris Canty as the only other former Wildcat to earn the All-American honor twice in his college career. Vaughn rivals Darren Sproles's title as best running back in Kansas State football history, and if he had stayed for a fourth season, he just might have gotten it.

In both of the years that Vaughn was named an All-American, he was vital in both the rushing and passing games. In 2021 he had 1,404 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns along with 468 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns. Then in 2022, he recorded 1,558 rushing yards and nine touchdowns along with 378 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns.

Cooper Beebe rounds out this All-American list as the most recent former Wildcat to be named an All-American. Beebe spent five seasons at Kansas State and it wasn't until his fifth and final season as a Wildcat that he was honored to be named an All-American.

Beebe joins the ranks of great offensive linemen to play at Kansas State as he was named Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2022 and in 2023. He played the majority of his snaps at left tackle, but his versatility and ability to play any position on the line is what made him so great.