Goal No. 3: UNITY. Come together as never before.
#3 Gunner Maldonado
Redshirt Super Senior | 5-11 | 193 lbs. | Chandler, Arizona
- Position: Safety
- Previous Colleges: Northwestern University; University of Arizona
- Projection: Starter (eventually)
- Status: On Scholarship
Gunner Maldonado (b. June 13, 2001) is a transfer safety from Arizona who is completing his recovery from a devastating knee injury late last season. Thus, he does not appear on the season-opening depth chart, yet he is expected to be able to possibly play Saturday. But you don’t bring in a guy like this and not eventually start him…
He actually spent the 2020 season at Northwestern, playing in three games as a true freshman and recording a tackle against
Maryland as he preserved his redshirt.
Maldonado then transferred to Arizona, where he played in 10 games in 2021 with six starts at safety, tallying 36 tackles, half a tackle for loss, an interception, three total passes defended and a forced fumble.
He opened the year with a season-high eight tackles and a pass breakup against BYU, also had a pass breakup against Northern Arizona and picked off a pass against UCLA, and carded six tackles at Oregon plus five apiece against UCLA and Colorado.
Maldonado saw action in 11 games in 2022 with nine starts, carding 48 tackles, two tackles for loss, a pass breakup and three forced fumbles. He had a season-high nine tackles at Utah and against Washington State, the latter game in which he set a career high with 1.5 tackles for loss, forced a fumble and broke up a pass.
Maldonado also had six tackles against Arizona State, and five apiece against Mississippi State and UCLA, while he also forced fumbles against Mississippi State and UCLA.
In 2023, he appeared in all 13 games with 12 starts, recording 81 tackles, a tackle for loss, two interceptions, three total passes defended, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries for his best season on record yet.
Maldonado had a career-high-tying 10 tackles against both Oregon State and Arizona State. His interceptions came in the final two games of the year against Arizona State and Oklahoma, the latter being in the Alamo Bowl.
Maldonado also had two fumble recoveries — including one he returned 87 yards for a touchdown — and nine tackles against the Sooners as he earned Alamo Bowl Defensive Most Valuable Player honors.
Last year, he started each of the first four games of Arizona’s inaugural Big 12 journey before a knee injury ended his season. Maldonado totaled 11 tackles, a tackle for loss and an interception on the year, and had a season-high-tying four tackles against New Mexico and Kansas State, the latter game in which he recorded a tackle for loss.
He also picked off a pass at Utah, in addition to tallying two tackles, and earned Academic All-Big 12 honors.
Maldonado ended the 2024 season tied for 15th nationally among active players with six career forced fumbles.
Regarding that torn ACL, Maldonado said it was a tragic but unavoidable situation:
Really it was just a normal football situation. I was trying to get off a block, the play was going out of bounds onto their sideline and one of my teammates that was trying to make a tackle spun off the guy and flew right into the side of my knee. That’s basically what happened. It was one of those plays where it’s just bad luck. It was just one of those things. Just a bad situation. My cleat was in the ground. There was nowhere for my knee to go.
He prepped under head coach Rick Garretson at Chandler (Ariz.) High School, where he was viewed as the 39th-best safety in the Class of 2020 by ESPN, while he was rated No. 42 by Rivals and No. 46 by 247Sports, the latter of which ranked him as the 14th-best overall player in the state of Arizona.
Maldonado earned all-state and all-region honors as a senior, when he tallied 43 tackles and seven interceptions, helped to lead the Wolves to four consecutive state titles, and was named a team captain.
He originally committed to Northwestern over offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Indiana, Iowa State, Memphis, South Dakota State and Utah State.
His primary recruiter was his new position coach, running backs coach Brian Anderson.
Learn a lot more about Maldonado by reading this excellent D. Scott Fritchen profile from back in January:
What appealed to him about K-State?
“Just everything,” he says. “It’s in a conference that I’m familiar with now, just the program and coaches, and they have a history. Being around defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman, I could tell he’s a football guy, and it was good to sit in his office talking football. I met some of the players on the team and they’re really cool, really respectful guys, and they talked to me about their culture in the locker room and it’s a culture I’ll fit into.
“Shoot, man, just going to a place where there’s good people and good football, I’m just trying to be a part of that.”
Where might Maldonado fit in Klanderman’s defensive equation?
“It’s a good group of guys and, man, I’m just going to come in and try to be the best teammate and best player I can be and wherever I fall, that’s what it is, but that’s what I’m trying to do,” he says. “I want to be the best teammate and player I can be and help the team however I can.”
