Redshirt freshman Skylar Thompson started the season as Kansas State's third-string quarterback, and is expected to get his third career start Saturday against Iowa State.

John and Sue Ellen Thompson lived in an apartment complex on the edge of the Kansas State University campus. John worked as an umpire and school janitor while going through college before serving as a student assistant for Cotton Fitzsimmons on the K-State men’s basketball team. He graduated from K-State in 1971. Sue Ellen put school on hold after giving birth to their son, Brad, in 1969.

As Brad tells the story, he can still visualize the apartment’s red brick rising from the foundation. He’s seen photographs of where he lived at birth in Manhattan. Today, he studies the renovated Jardine Terrace student apartments from afar while tailgating with family in the parking lots lining Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Once inside the stadium on Saturday, Brad will watch 20-year-old Skylar, go to work, as the redshirt freshman quarterback leads the Wildcats, 6-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big 12 Conference, against Iowa State, 7-4 and 5-3, in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Skylar is building a foundation of his own.

“If my dad was alive, he’d be a very hard person to contain with Skylar playing out there,” said Brad, whose father passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2004. “It’s not just that he’s his grandson, but that he’s playing at K-State. He would be enjoying this more than anybody, I guarantee you.”

Brad and Skylar Thompson faced the death of Brad's first wife, Teresa, Skylar's mother, in 2004.

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In football, as in life, there are no guarantees, but there are opportunities. And after coming off the sideline in a 30-20 victory at Kansas, and after leading the Wildcats’ greatest-ever fourth-quarter comeback in a 42-35 overtime win at Texas Tech, and after feeling the low of a 28-23 loss to No. 23 West Virginia, Skylar Thompson added a mighty brick to his foundation on Nov. 18.

In his second-career start, Thompson completed 10 of 13 passes for 204 yards and three touchdowns while adding 17 carries for 93 yards and one score, and the 20-point underdog Wildcats pulled off a stunning 45-40 victory at No. 10 Oklahoma State in Stillwater, snapping a 13-game dry spell against teams ranked in The Associated Press Top 25.

A season that saw high expectations (the Wildcats were picked third in the Big 12 preseason poll) chopped down by narrow losses (four single-digit defeats) and unfortunate injuries at quarterback, has afforded Thompson the chance to prove himself down the stretch of this 2017 campaign. Displaying poise and maturity well beyond his slight experience in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the 6-foot-2, 209-pound Thompson left Stillwater with the fourth-highest passing efficiency rating (284.9) in K-State history, and as the first quarterback in 18 years to guide the Wildcats past the Cowboys at Boone Pickens Stadium.

“He’s coming along quite fine,” K-State head coach Bill Snyder said.

Matt Miller was a senior when K-State slaughtered No. 6 Kansas (41-7) in 1995, Jonathan Beasley was a senior when K-State topped No. 4 Nebraska (29-28) in 2000, Ell Roberson was a senior when K-State shocked No. 1 Oklahoma (35-7), and Collin Klein was a senior when K-State won at No. 6 Oklahoma (24-19) in 2012.

Shortly after Thompson became the youngest signal-caller in the Snyder era to defeat an AP Top 10 team, the son found his father waiting by the idling team bus, mindful of his words prior to the game.

“What a wonderful opportunity for you and your team!” Brad told him on Friday night. “No one is giving you a shot at this! Go battle, don’t look at the scoreboard, and we’ll see what happens!”

Amid the celebrating players and their parents, the son and father embraced.

“I think I made the most of my opportunity, dad,” Skylar said.

“Yeah,” Brad said, “I think you did.”

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In his second career start, Thompson and the Kansas State Wildcats defeated the 10th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys on November 18, 2017, in Stillwater, Okla.

Recounting the exchange earlier this week, Brad, a former high school basketball coach and current head principal at Fort Osage (Mo.) High School, and father to four children, couldn’t help but harken back to the twilight of Skylar’s outstanding high school career under head coach Ryan Schartz. The 2015 Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year, Thompson threw for 2,112 yards and 25 touchdowns with just three interceptions and rushed for 1,092 yards and 19 touchdowns in leading the Indians to a 13-1 record and the Missouri Class 5 state championship his senior season. He set a state championship game record with 455 total yards and seven total touchdowns.

“Our state run was really his coming-out party,” Brad said. “I saw shades of that Saturday. When he hits that, it’s fun to watch.”

Brad paused.

“He’s been through a lot,” Brad continued, growing emotional on the other end of the phone. “His mother passed away when he was younger and collectively we worked our butts off to raise him and put him into the best situation we could. I think he’s turned out to be a fine young man. I’m very proud of him athletically on the football but, but it pales in comparison — he’s a great kid.

“Even the performance, yeah, it’s exciting to see him perform, but I think the most exciting thing for me was watching him and his teammates after the game and just how excited he gets. He’s a good kid. He’s a good kid. I’m awfully proud of him.”

Teresa Thompson lost her battle with breast cancer in May 2004.

“We had a heck of a patch there,” Brad said. “My dad died of pancreatic cancer and then seven months later Skylar’s mom passed away of breast cancer. I tell you what, in retrospect you look at it, and obviously, I wish they were both here, but it kind of changes your path and your perspective on things, you know? Skylar became a big focus for me, as a dad, because I had a six-year-old kid here going, ‘What’s going on?’

“We just really tried to circle him and get him through it. I think he has done very, very well considering the circumstances.”

The glare of the spotlight hit Skylar, the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week, as he stood in front of a purple canvas backdrop inside the team meeting room at the Vanier Family Football Complex on Tuesday. The last-remaining player in a spacious auditorium that moments before bristled with his blazer-wearing teammates, Skylar described the 10-play, 71-yard game-opening touchdown drive against the Cowboys (“We knew we had a shot to win this game and we just took off from there,” he says), applauded wide receiver Byron Pringle and his four-catch, 166-yard, three-touchdown effort (“Me and Byron have always had a good connection,” he says), and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, he rattled off a list of people that he’s thankful for this holiday season (“Having guys like Collin Klein as quarterbacks coach, I really feel comfortable talking to him about anything and I know he’s going to support me no matter what’s going on in my life,” he says).

Then Thompson was asked to retrace his path to the team bus back in Stillwater, and recount the specialness of his father’s hug, and his gratefulness for the opportunity to experience that moment.

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Thompson and his quarterback coach, Collin Klein, were relaxed in pregame warmups at Oklahoma State.

Thompson, wearing his grandfather’s Jefferson City Jays lapel pin upon his blazer, began to speak, and then paused, as tears freely flowed. His left hand, outstretched from an “I AM SECOND” wristband, wiped away the tears, and then he spoke some more.

“My dad and I have been through a lot of different things,” Skylar said. “That moment, getting to share it with my dad, it was pretty special. We traveled all across the country trying to find a school for me. A lot of times, we were kind of second-guessing things because nobody was offering me, and people were telling me I was too small, and not good enough, and stuff like that. K-State gave me a shot. They weren’t my first offer, obviously, but this is the perfect program for me.

“You know, to have my dad there, and to be able to share a moment like that with me, it truly was a blessing, for sure.”

The blessing comes in the opportunity. Thompson, the first freshman quarterback to start under Snyder since 2005, these days feverishly labors to prepare as the No. 1 quarterback. Once seated behind senior starter Jesse Ertz (he suffered a season-ending knee injury in game five) and sophomore backup Alex Delton (he was knocked out of a pair of games with concussions and has missed each of the last two contests), phone calls to dad that typically arrived shortly after 7 p.m. now are on hold until Thompson leaves the football complex after 10 p.m. In fact, wide receiver Isaiah Zuber notes that it isn’t uncommon to see Thompson watching film until 11 p.m. many nights.

“It’s kind of the nature of the game and where he’s at,” Brad said. “Everything is new. The realization is he’s just now getting into the playbook. With what K-State does, he’s just scratching the surface. His time right now is just preparing to the best of his ability. I know he spends a lot of time with Coach Klein now just trying to get ready.

“Once the season is over, then you can take a breath and see what’s going on.”

One year after Ertz’s standout efforts down the stretch paved way to a turnaround season capped by a Texas Bowl victory, a very real possibly exists that the Wildcats will rely upon the arm and legs of their third-string quarterback to guide them past the Cyclones and on into the bowl game.

The realization becomes this: It could be Thompson’s team moving forward.

“I’m extremely confident in Skylar’s ability to lead our whole team,” preseason All-Big 12 right tackle Dalton Risner said. “As an offensive lineman and a team captain, I’m a leader, but a quarterback, when you’re put into that position, no matter who you are, you’re the leader of that offense and you run that offense. I’m extremely confident in his ability.

“Jesse Ertz was tremendous last year and Skylar Thompson can be tremendous this year. He has to continue doing what Skylar Thompson does.”

So far, Thompson has completed 33 of 55 passes for 510 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions, and already ranks fourth on the squad with 251 rushing yards on 56 carries (4.5 yards per attempt) and two scores. Against Oklahoma State, he became the first quarterback since Jake Waters in 2013 to complete three passes of 40-plus yards in a single game (Thompson had three touchdown passes to Pringle of 47, 46 and 60 yards) while in the clutch at Texas Tech, he demonstrated a rare freshman moxie by unflinchingly rallying the Wildcats to their first road overtime win in history.

“He’s a bright young fellow and he’s very conscientious, wants to succeed, wants to help his team, and is willing to do all that he can,” Snyder said. “He’s bright so he engages in the information quite well and is able to process it well and quickly. He’s a young guy that seems to have a great deal of poise and doesn’t get rattled with incident that occur on the field, which younger players normally do to a certain degree. He’s just handled all of that very well.

“Poise is his number one asset.”

Thompson scored on K-State's first drive of the game at Oklahoma State, a five-yard dash off a designed pass play. The redshirt freshman ran the ball on six of the drive's 10 plays, covering 65 of the drive's 71 yards.

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When adversity strikes, and a team loses not only its starting quarterback, but its backup, it typically spells disaster for most squads. From a tough first-career start for Thompson — a 13-of-26 passing performance for 159 yards and two interceptions against the Mountaineers — spawned eye-opening composure, growth and raw determination one week later in the face of 56,790 at Boone Pickens Stadium.

“I was happy for him,” linebacker Trent Tanking said. “I think he took a lot of undeserved critique during the West Virginia game. I was happy for him to come out and perform the way that he did. He just has a certain type of passion and it’s uncommon for a freshman to be that passionate. It was really special to watch him perform like he did.”

Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell noticed it while watching film: K-State might have something special.

“I tell you, Skylar is a young man, being able to watch him and see him progress over the past couple games you really are impressed,” Campbell said. "A very high-end arm. The plays that he makes are difference-maker plays and then you talk about the athleticism he has as well to do what they’ve done offensively and that’s impressive.

“For K-State, you’re getting a five-star threat, a guy who can run it and throw it and then on top of it manage the offense. You can really see how he has continued to allow this team to grow as the season has gone on and it’s impressive.”

This Thanksgiving season, teammates are thankful for Thompson.

“We’re blessed to have a guy like Skylar,” running back Alex Barnes said. “We knew coming into the season we had three really good quarterbacks and it’s a shame that our first two had to go down the way that they did. Skylar coming in, being able to show his confidence and that natural God-given ability that not very many people on this earth have, it’s really special. I’m thankful for Skylar and all that he does for us.”

Time often moves fast. Why, it seems like just yesterday Brad watched fifth-grade Skylar play at quarterback in the Pop Warner national tournament in Florida. A year later, Thompson began working with esteemed quarterbacks coach Skip Stitzell out of Fayette, Mo. (“I think we missed two sessions between his sixth-grade and high school senior year,” Brad says) — and, boom, suddenly Brad stood in the stands and watched Skylar complete his high school career with his record-setting performance in a 63-28 victory for the state title.

“By the fourth quarter,” Brad said, “you were just sitting there trying to appreciate the situation of what’s happening.”

So, too, arose a similar situation in Stillwater.

“For me, it was just more sitting in the stands and just experiencing the whole event, obviously, with Skylar being a part of it,” Brad said. “You don’t have an opportunity to experience stuff like that very often. It was pretty neat. It was pretty neat.”

On Tuesday, Skylar had shifted focus to the Cyclones.

“I just can’t get hung up on it and let all of this hype and excitement from the game stick in my head,” he said. “I’ve got to put it behind me. We’ve got another big game this weekend against a great football team. If we spend too much time thinking about the past, they’re going to sneak up and beat us.”

Brad and wife Kathy, and about 30 other family members from Los Angeles, Iowa and Florida, will meet in Manhattan on Saturday. No turkey this year. Just football.

Just as red brick rises up from the foundation of the renovated K-State student apartments where Brad lived in his infancy, a sense of newness, too, fills the adjacent stadium, where he will go to watch his son, so young in his college career.

“It’s what he’s worked for his entire life, for the opportunity to present itself, and for him to work through everything,” Brad said. “The Texas Tech game was a great game, the West Virginia game was definitely a challenge for him, and I was curious like everybody else to see how he’d handle it, and he handled it as well as he could.

“What we keep talking about is building that foundation. You don’t know with anybody how fast that’s going to happen.”

These days, it’s happening with each snap each week, as Skylar finds his way and continues to grow before his father’s eyes.

After the Texas Tech victory, Skylar posted on his Twitter account: “This one was for you, Mom!”

Mother must be so proud.