Goal No. 10: NEVER GIVE UP. Never, never, never.
#10 Dillon Duff
Redshirt Freshman* | 6-2 | 205 lbs. (-2) | St. Louis, Missouri
- Position: Quarterback
- Projection: Co-Second-String
- Remaining Eligibility: 4 years
- Status: On Scholarship
Dillon Duff (b. Sept. 30, 2006) is a promising young dual-threat quarterback from St. Louis who is majoring in marketing. He redshirted* and did not see any game action in 2025, but enters 2026 battling for a backup spot.
As former head coach Chris Klieman said last year, Duff has competed heavily for the right to be in the two-deep:
Dillon is learning, but he’s getting the chance to get more reps so the few reps he got in the spring he’s learned from
and continues to improve every day. All three of those guys are going to continue to battle for that two spot.
What I really like about Dillon Duff is nothing is too big for him. He was drinking through a firehose trying to learn the offense and maybe he’d screw something up with the cadence or motion, and it never overwhelmed him. He’d go and execute a play, and he had that moxie of just making plays with the few snaps that he had. All three of those guys have a chance to be really, really good. I don’t know how it’ll shake out, but it’ll be fun to have an entire fall camp where we can do double reps and get a couple guys on each field and get some of those rep counts up. The experience factor of getting under center is going to help.
New head coach Collin Klein had similarly positive things to say about Duff during his first fall press conference:
Dillon Duff has worked incredibly hard. He’s very, very efficient throwing the football, has made really, really good decisions and protected the ball at a really, really good clip. I have told all those guys and have been very excited with what all three have done. Who takes the job here down the stretch? We’ll see, but I know they’re all working really, really hard, have done a nice job in the offense. We’ll kind of see how it goes.
Given that Klein has mentioned “consistency” multiple times this fall as being the surest way to see the field, I think Duff has a much better chance of being Avery Johnson’s first backup option on the field than some others.
He prepped under head coach John Merritt at De Smet Jesuit High School in Creve Coeur, Missouri, where he was viewed as the 35th-best pro-style quarterback in the Class of 2025 by Rivals while ranking as the 44th-best pocket passer by ESPN and the 56th-best quarterback by On3.
On3 also rated Duff as the 10th-best overall prospect in the state of Missouri after he earned first-team all-state honors from the Missouri Football Coaches Association and 2024 All Metro Team honors from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch following his senior year, which ended with him leading the Spartans to a state championship.
He threw for 2,735 yards and 26 touchdowns in addition to rushing for 666 (oh, that’s unfortunate…) yards and another nine scores during his senior campaign, and he set the school record for single-season completions (200) and tied the record for passing touchdowns.
Duff also picked up all-state honors as an athlete following his junior season, after throwing for 1,863 yards and 15 touchdowns on 138-of-225 aim, while he rushed for 595 yards and eight touchdowns.
The Spartans won consecutive district championships and advanced to the state semifinals during both his sophomore and junior seasons. Duff also competed in basketball, in which he helped De Smet to win the state championship as he earned all-conference and all-district accolades.
He committed to K-State over offers from Arkansas State, Duke, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, UCF and Western Michigan, plus interest from Clemson.
Duff’s primary recruiter was his former position coach, ex-offensive coordinator Matt Wells, who was assisted by his play-calling predecessor, Conor Riley. Learn more about his recruitment in this D. Scott Fritchen profile.
Duff hails from a pretty athletic family. His father, John, played basketball at St. Louis University and his sister, Mackenzie, plays soccer at Clemson. Their grandfather, Pat Duff, was a running back at USC, while they also have a cousin and two uncles who played football at Missouri, as well as another cousin who played football at Illinois.
*K-State has recently announced a new classification scheme that designates players by their year of eligibility regardless of whether they have “redshirted,” a term that will go out of use with the new “5-for-5” rule. Thus, the KSU SID lists Duff as a true sophomore even though he did not play in 2025. For the sake of consistency with past posts, I will continue to designate redshirts based on their playing history, but also note their remaining eligibility to stay consistent with the new designations as well.
