Sports page of Oklahoman newspaper the Sunday after Iowa State's historic upset of the Sooners

Now that August is here it is time to re-familiarize ourselves with our starting quarterback, Kyle Kempt. In the offseason the NCAA granted him a rare sixth-year of eligibility. Questions about this will be coming, and we need to be ready for them.

What follows is a retracing of Kyle Kempt's journey through college athletics. Organized by year, it is a tale of one man's persistence to prove himself in the face of constant, uncontrollable, and arguably unfair, adversity. Tell it at the tailgate as you stand around the grill with your friends. Better yet, regale TToE fans who will undoubtedly poke fun at him for having such difficulty finding playing time. Bonus points if you convince them that the Ballad of Kyle Kempt is worthy of even their praise. Bias aside, in the end, I think it is.

Without further ado...ahem...

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

Let me try again...

"Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was a farmer's wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There was no garret at all, and no cellar - expect a small hole, dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family would go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path."

Ok, third time is a charm...

It all started at a high school in Ohio...

2012 at Washington High School (OH): As a senior he threw for 3,056 yards and 32 TDs. Kyle led his team to the Div. 1 state playoffs, where they lost in the "Elite 8" to the eventual runner-up. Ohio's sports writers rated Kyle 2nd team all-state QB.

Oregon State's OC, Danny Langsdorf, recruited him successfully. Langsdorf came to Oregon State in 2005 when head coach Mike Riley joined the program. Previously Langsdorf worked with wide receivers with the New Orleans Saints. In 2010 Langsdorf recruited future-NFL QB Sean Mannion. When Kyle arrived on campus Mannion was gearing up for his third season as starter. It was clear who would be leading the team this year and next year, but who would replace Mannion after the 2015 season? Kempt surely had his sights set on being Mannion's heir apparent.

Rivals rated Kyle as a three-star recruit and No. 71 prospect in Ohio. He signed with Oregon State in January 2013. He was also recruited hard by Indiana. Had other offers from Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Mississippi, Tennessee, West Virginia, and....wait for it...Toledo. Head coach Matt Campbell had just finished his first full season as head coach, going 9-4 and losing to Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

Kyle originally committed to Cincinnati but backed out because of a coaching change - when head coach Butch Jones resigned to be head coach at Tennessee. Cincy replaced Jones with Tommy Tuberville, so Kyle opted for Oregon State. This was the first time Kyle was forced to adapt to a sudden coaching change, but it would not be the last.

2013 at Oregon State: Redshirted. Kyle played on scout team and did not appear on the official roster. Junior Sean Mannion threw for 4,662 yards and 37 TDs. The Beavers went 7-6 and beat Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl. After the season Danny Langsdorf left the team to coach QBs with the New York Giants, led by Eli Manning. Kyle is now without the OC that recruited him in the first place.

2014 at Oregon State: In spring practice Kempt was in a three-way battle for second-string QB, but did not play during the season. In his final season with the Beavers Sean Mannion threw for 3,164 yards and 15 TDs. The team went 5-7. Kempt's two rivals to replace Mannion were Brent Vanderveen and Luke Del Rio. Vanderveen was a sophomore who won the backup role for the first two games of the year. Luke Del Rio transferred in from Alabama in time for spring practice and won the backup job away from Vanderveen after the first two games. Del Rio played in three games, went 8-18 for 141 yards and zero TDs. His signature moment came against Stanford when he threw a 52 yard completion. Kempt again watched from the sidelines as Vanderveen and Del Rio fought over who would replace Mannion.

Then bad turned to worse. After the season Mike Riley left to be head coach at Nebraska. Oregon State hired Gary Anderson away from Wisconsin. Kyle was now a third-string QB on a team with a new coach and without the OC that recruited him. Gary Anderson's QB rebuild did not include Kyle at all. Heck, it didn't even include Vanderveen or Del Rio either. Anderson wanted to make a splash with a QB replacement, so he brought in a true-freshman, Seth Collins. Collins's early enrollment in January of 2015 was the writing on the wall for Kempt, who left the team before spring practice. Collins was the star of the spring game and started the first seven games of the 2015 season before sidelined by an injury. Anderson's experiment with Collins failed, however. He switched to WR before the 2016 season. Kempt's rival, Vanderveen, played TE in 2015 and then left the team after the season.

Luke Del Rio followed Kyle's example and left the team before the 2015 season. He transferred to Florida where he sat out one year. Ahead of the 2016 season he was named starter, but was hampered by injuries and only started in six games, including a season-ending injury against Arkansas. In 2017 he started once, against Vandy, and suffered yet another season-ending injury. Oddly enough, Luke could have come back in 2018 for a sixth year, but he chose to end what the UF website called a "unique playing career." Right here would be perfect for analogizing Kempt and Del Rio with Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, but I'll spare you.

All this is to say that all the people chosen to play ahead of Kempt either did terrible jobs, changed positions or simply left the team. Not only that, but the coaches who believed in his potential were gone. But he didn't give up. It is notable how he was negatively impacted by NCAA transfer policy via the late addition of a third-rate Alabama QB in 2014. In less than one year he went from vying to replace an NFL-level QB to watching not one, not two, but THREE newcomers move ahead of him on the depth chart. And so began his odyssey to Hutchinson, Kansas.

Just like Dante's fabled path through the nine levels of Hell, sometimes the only way out is down. Hutchinson CC is akin to Satan's navel - the ninth level of hell and the point where the hero is in the deepest and darkest depths, but also where he sees the way out. The hero and his guide climb down below Satan's belly only to find suddenly that down was up and up was down. They were at the center and had to climb out the other side.

2015 at Hutchinson Community College (KS): The Blue Dragons were coming off an 11-1 2014 season where they won the regional championship. Head coach and former player Rion Rhoades won KJCCC Coach of the Year Honors. Expectations were high in Hutchinson when Kempt arrived on campus. That spring the college dedicated a new $2.5 million football complex, and two members of the 2014 team were playing in the NFL. But in 2015 the Blue Dragons had only substandard success, going 5-6 and winning only three conference games.

At Hutchinson Kyle was once again competing with two other QBs for the starting spot. In fall camp coach Rhoades named Kylen Binn the starter. In 2014 Binn split playing time with another QB, helping lead the Blue Dragons to that 11-1 record. The other aspiring starter was Dimonek McKenzie - a Minnesota transfer. Transferring to a community college only makes sense if you get playing time. Unlike Kyle, McKenzie saw the field. Without that, it seemed, Kyle would have been better off transferring to an FBS program and just sitting out a year. Another dead end and another wasted year.

By the end of August Kyle was sitting in the middle of Kansas knowing full-well he would never take the field for the Blue Dragons. As he looked ahead to next season he remembered the offer that Matt Campbell made to him at Toledo. Kyle did indeed target Iowa State because Matt Campbell was there. "I knew at that point I was either going to Toledo or going wherever he was going...So I ended up coming here. It was a great decision." His next step after Hutchinson was going to be wherever Campbell was, at least if Kyle had any measure of control over what little football he had yet to play. Kyle spent one semester at HCC and actually attended Campbell's very last game as head coach of Toledo - a 35-30 loss to Western Michigan in the Glass Bowl. Cambell's hiring at Iowa State made it clear to Kyle that his last chance at playing football would be in Ames, Iowa.

2016 at Iowa State: Kyle is the Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year. He finally saw the field for the first time - playing in two games, going 2-2 for 15 yards, and one rush for seven yards. When Zeb Noland suffered an ACL tear, walk-on Kempt was back in his familiar position as the 3rd-string QB. As a walk-on, Kyle was actually paying out-of-state tuition in order to keep his spot on the team. And he was humble about it - "I’m lucky enough to have a great family that provides for me and they gave me the opportunity to come here." The man just wanted a seat at the damn table and was willing to pay for it.

2017 at Iowa State: Jacob Park takes a leave of absence from the team. Kempt starts against Oklahoma and never looks back. Park transferred out of the program in December, giving Kempt a clear path to the starting job, provided he had any eligibility left. The 5th-year senior sent a written request to the NCAA asking for another year because he didn't get any playing time at either Oregon State or Hutchinson CC. His chances hinged upon the NCAA's interpretation of the "run-off" rule, which allows a player an extra year of eligibility if they were run off from another program. When Gary Anderson took over at Oregon State, Kempt argued that coaching decisions about the QB position gave him no choice but to transfer out, hence, being "run off." It worked for Nebraska QB Tanner Lee, who was run off the roster at Tulane when a new coach took over.

When Danny Langsdorf recruited him to Corvallis back in 2012 he was told that he would play. On the stint at Hutchinson, he wasn't run off by a new coach but rather was not given playing time by coach Rhoades. When asked about Hutchinson he was vague on the details - "I just didn’t play there. There were some things that went on ... things I discussed in the letter that I don’t want to go into."

Hakeem Butler said it best - "The dude hasn’t played football at all until this year," he said. "Kyle has been through so much. Everybody on this team has a story, but Kyle’s story is crazy — going through so many different schools and not playing. If anybody deserves an extra year, it’s him."

Sidenote - The Des Moines Register tried unsuccessfully for a FOIA request to get the letter that Kyle wrote to the NCAA. In the denial an Iowa State attorney cited FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The NCAA considered the request while Kempt led the Cyclones to a victory over Memphis in the Liberty Bowl. He went into that game expecting it to be his last, but hoped it would not: "If I get it, I’ll come back and work out during the winter," he said. "If not? I’ll prepare for the next level." Then in the middle of winter he got the word that he had one more year to play. It was the first time a player with an odyssey worthy of Homer was granted an extra year of eligibility. It probably took so long because of all the minor details needing hashed out and corroborated.

2018 at Iowa State: This summer he was listed on the pre-season Davey O'Brien Watch List, and for the first time since 2011, is the starting QB ahead of a promising final season.

It is only fitting to end with some of Kyle's own words. As a third-string walk on he had this to say about ISU: "I love Iowa State, love the Midwest, this is one of the closest teams I've been a part of ... it's a great fit." Imagine what he thinks now that he is the starter.