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Kansas State’s John Pastore, from Erie High, lines up for a snap against TCU during the 2025 season. (Photo by Chandler Mixon of Kansas State athletics\/Provided by John Pastore)<\/p>\nWhen head coach Collin Klein and offensive line coach Mike Schmidt were mulling over whether or not to take the job at Kansas State in the final days of 2025, they took a look at the roster that Chris Klieman left behind in the wake of his retirement.<\/p>\n
They discovered pretty quickly that 2022 Erie graduate and left tackle John Pastore would be someone they could rely heavily on. His work ethic and talent, Schmidt said, set him apart early into their relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has great feet,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cHe has the frame you\u2019re looking for with great length out there to touch some of those edge rushers, and he\u2019s got an unbelievable ability to stay bent throughout play, like with the flexibility part of the game and all that. He bends well in his stance, but the way he stays bent through a progression of a block, it\u2019s because that will allow him to kind of transfer his power. That\u2019s what he does at such an elite level.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s quite the compliment for someone who saw his first collegiate starts just the past season. Up to that point, Pastore had redshirted his freshman season, then served as a reserve in the two years that followed. He even had to overcome a back surgery that fixed two bulging discs, but that didn\u2019t stop him from earning 2025 All-Big 12 Second Team and 2024-25 Academic All-Big 12 honors from his conference.<\/p>\n
Kansas State’s John Pastore, from Erie High, lines up for a snap against TCU during the 2025 season. (Photo by Chandler Mixon of Kansas State athletics\/Provided by John Pastore)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means everything,\u201d Pastore said. \u201cIt was proving to myself that you can overcome hard things, and then you put your head down and work and you get rewarded at the end for everything you\u2019ve put in. It\u2019s mentally challenging more than anything when you\u2019re injured, just trying to be there for your team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastore said that in his time on the sidelines, he learned how to tweak his own approach by watching guys like KT Leveston, who now plays for the Browns. Leveston taught him how to study his opponents ad nauseam, to the point that the games seemed easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m on the field, if I see their back foot is back and a right hand down, I know that they\u2019re making an inside move versus backing off the ball,\u201d Pastore explained. \u201cWe\u2019ll practice the looks throughout the week. \u2026 When you get to the game, you know it\u2019s going to happen and you\u2019re so much more prepared. The games are so much slower than practice just because with our guys, you don\u2019t know what they\u2019re going to do before they do it, but then you get to the game and it\u2019s so much more clear that it just feels slower in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastore recently graduated with a degree in business management, but he\u2019s going to spend the fall chasing an additional degree in human resources management so he can capitalize on his final year of eligibility. He\u2019s excited to see what the 2026 season can bring, and he\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to see the biggest jump from his junior to his senior year, because he actually felt what it was like to play a whole season out there,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cI think that is one of the biggest motivating factors that a player can have is when they finally get their opportunity to get out there and play. It\u2019s kind of just like a little shock and awe in your first year out there. For him to have as much success as he did a year ago, we\u2019re looking to kind of duplicate that and exponentially grow from his development.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understood that he would be a linchpin for what we were trying to build and all that. He\u2019s been a nice, steady force in the room from a leadership perspective as well. He was one of the few guys in the room that I did do some research on before taking the job. It\u2019s always good to have a guy like that in the room when you take over, as long as you get him in your corner. He\u2019s done a great job in the five to six months we\u2019ve been together.\u201d<\/p>\n