Kansas State football: 15 best wide receivers in Wildcats history
By John Buhler
Greatest wide receivers in Kansas State football history: 8. Andre Coleman
Andre Coleman is another great former Kansas State wide receiver who starred for the Wildcats in the early Bill Snyder era in Manhattan. Coleman would make his way to the Big Eight in 1990 after playing his high school ball in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. He’d leave K-State as a member of the first team in school history to win a bowl game in 1993.
Coleman garnered some early playing time under Snyder’s watch as a freshman in 1990. He had 10 catches for 180 yards and a touchdown. He also had 18 kickoff returns for 385 yards as a freshman that season, a role he’d carry with the team throughout his college career. The Wildcats would go 5-6 that year and finish in sixth place in the old Big Eight.
Coleman saw his role expand in the passing game a bit in 1991 as a sophomore, as he finished with 18 catches for 279 yards and four receiving touchdowns. As a return man, he had an additional 12 kickoffs for 272 yards. K-State would improve to 7-4 in 1991 but failed to make a bowl game, despite finishing in fourth place in the Big Eight.
In his junior season, Coleman continued to get more looks as a K-State receiver. He ended up with 25 catches for 336 yards and two trips to pay dirt. Coleman also had 15 kickoff returns for 367 yards. However, Kansas State only went 5-6 that fall and failed to reach a bowl game for the 10th consecutive season.
1993 would end up being a landmark year for both Coleman and the Wildcats football program. Coleman was an All-Big Eight performer and an All-American in the return game. He had 42 catches for 761 yards and six touchdowns. Coleman returned 15 kickoffs for 434 yards, as well as 27 punts for 362 yards and a touchdown. Most importantly, Kansas State would go 9-2-1 that fall, beat the Wyoming Cowboys in the Copper Bowl and finish the season ranked No. 20 in the final AP Poll.
Coleman finished his K-State career with 95 catches for 1,556 yards and 12 touchdowns as a receiver. He would go on to be a third-round pick by the then-San Diego Chargers in the 1994 NFL Draft. Coleman played five years in the NFL with three different franchises, making it to Super Bowl XXIX as a rookie in San Diego. He would begin a coaching career at the college level in 2012, which included a six-year run on Snyder’s staff from 2013 to 2018. Coleman is currently an analyst for Tom Herman’s Texas Longhorns program.