MANHATTAN, Kan. — Practically three years in the past, Chapman McKown sat down to write down his hero. Not an e mail, not a DM, not a textual content.
“An actual letter,” Deuce Vaughn recalled.
I look as much as you, the letter started, an announcement each inspirational and ironic.
Vaughn on the time was Kansas State’s 5-foot-5, 180-pound Swiss Military knife working again who had simply accounted for 164 whole yards and a landing in his second profession recreation in opposition to Oklahoma in 2020.
McKown, simply coming into Norman North Excessive College in Oklahoma, was watching. He wanted some inspiration.
In the future, I’ll be at your place, his letter continued.
That wasn’t a boast. In reality, it stays to be seen whether or not he’ll attain his aspirations. Nonetheless, the 2 are linked for apparent causes.
The pair actually look as much as numerous issues. McKown himself is undersized at 5-foot-8, 165 kilos; he is simply starting his profession as an early entry most popular walk-on for the Sooners. Vaughn, a two-time All-American, continues to coach forward of subsequent week’s NFL Draft.
What’s forward is clear, although Vaughn has not forgotten what he left behind.
“I obtained on the telephone with him whereas I used to be coaching a few months in the past,” Vaughn mentioned of McKown. “Man, it’s so cool. I nonetheless have his letter.”
It is trite to assuming their ceilings are restricted as a consequence of their measurement. That is not the case, particularly in their minds.
Soccer — each faculty and professional — has met them at this second. Former FAU RB Devin Singletary (5-foot-7, 200 kilos) has led the Buffalo Payments in dashing throughout every of the final 4 season. He’s now with the Houston Texans.
The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs received the most recent Tremendous Bowl with the assistance of Jerick McKinnon (5-foot-9, 200 kilos), a seven-year veteran. Barry Sanders (5-foot-9, 200 kilos) is among the best working backs in NFL historical past having flashed among the most electrical performs ever seen on a gridiron.
No person is making that comparability, however Vaughn is totally different. So totally different that, at 5-foot-5, he’s the shortest participant ever measured on the NFL Mix since knowledge started being tracked in 2003.
His draft projections range.
“He might go at No. 30; he might go at No. 7,” Kansas State RB coach Brian Anderson mentioned.
Almost certainly, Vaughn might be a Day 2 or Day 3 decide, if that. Professional Soccer Focus had him as their highest-graded working again on the sector in each 2020 and 2021. CBS Sports activities has Vaughn ranked because the No. 317 general prospect.
Don’t be distracted by these predictions. This story goes past draft rooms. It reverberates from this charming hamlet. It goes into tv community board rooms. Media rights sources let it’s identified that the likes of Kansas State being nationally related was key to the Large 12 getting a brand new, richer TV deal regardless of the convention dropping Texas and Oklahoma.
Okay-State profitable its first outright Large 12 title in 19 years is a part of that story. It does not occur with out Vaughn changing into the soul of a program that has at all times been developmental.
Look no additional than final month when 5-foot-7 guard Markquis Nowell led Jerome Tang’s Wildcats to the Elite Eight. Discover an undersized underdog development right here?
“We, Okay-State, needed to turn out to be a part of the ‘haves’ rapidly,” Wildcats coach Chris Klieman mentioned. “When Oklahoma and Texas left, we challenged one another as a employees. We challenged one another as a program. We challenged one another as gamers. We must be related proper now.”
Vaughn match proper in with that developmental custom as a three-star prospect out of Spherical Rock, Texas, in 2020. Anderson is credited with “discovering” Vaughn. “BA” had identified Vaughn’s dad, Chris, for 20 years. In his down time as an assistant coach at Coffeyville Neighborhood Faculty in Kansas, Anderson would drive the two ½ hours to Fayetteville, Arkansas, the place Chris was a Razorbacks’ assistant.
By way of the years, Anderson would watch Deuce would develop up in faculty locker rooms by his dad’s jobs: Arkansas, Ole Miss, Tulsa, Texas.
“I obtained to see it up shut and private,” Deuce Vaughn mentioned.
When the time got here, Anderson introduced Vaughn’s movie to Klieman.
“Within the final three years, you inform me one other working again who has been extra productive,” Anderson mentioned. “… I’ve by no means seen the dude have a nasty day. He is mad when he cannot apply, even [if] he is sick. Actually, I’ve by no means seen him get pissed at anybody.”
The NFL is listening. The groups know his story. When he obtained to campus, Vaughn danced. Not in public and to not music however to his playbook. In his room, repping footwork.
That anecdote begins with Anderson remembering the primary time the undersized freshman entered the working again assembly room.
“He walks within the room the primary day, pocket book open, web page after web page of notes,” Anderson recalled. “Quick ahead, he will get right here. He is in his dorm room by himself at nighttime going by his footwork within the run recreation — within the mirror by himself.”
In entrance of a mirror? How did BA know?
“He instructed me,” the coach mentioned of Vaughn.
That pocket book? It had been meticulously curated by Vaughn. He already had entry to Kansas State movie by Vaughn’s dad, who now’s a Dallas Cowboys scout.
“You may at all times inform your self what [play] it’s,” Vaughn mentioned. “You may discuss it. However there’s nothing greater than doing it proper there in entrance of your self. … You’ve got executed it so many instances in order that once you’re with the quarterback and also you’re meshing it, you are saying, ‘I’ve executed this factor 500 instances.'”
The Swiss Military Knife label may as nicely be renamed the Vaughn Index. He does so many issues so nicely at a small measurement that he’s rewriting the e book on enjoying nearer to the bottom. Conventional tailback, slot receiver, go professional blocking expertise that will not harm him on the subsequent degree. There are additionally seven profession kick returns.
Even with the Flint Hills wind gusting throughout professional day final month, Vaughn made certain he caught punts in entrance of scouts throughout the professional day at Invoice Snyder Household Stadium.
“It is the best and quickest technique to get on the sector [in the NFL],” Vaughn mentioned of particular groups. “The previous three months, I have been catching punts on daily basis I can.”
Little, although, has been straightforward for the child who was nicknamed “Deuce” by his mom. A mere “Junior” label simply did not appear to suit. It made him stand out differently earlier than he stood out as a participant. Vaughn stopped rising within the ninth grade, resigned to stature and the way he might maximize it.
Vaughn referred to as his measurement his “superpower.”
“I at all times knew he was fearless and never afraid to run inside,” Klieman mentioned. “We began to make use of him as a pure working again because the [first] season went on. I have been saying ever since he obtained right here: He is a really underrated working again between the tackles. A few of his greatest gamers have 3-4 yard positive factors that might have been 5-6 yard losses. You may’t get clear pictures at him.”
“His means to catch passes and route working was uncanny,” mentioned Okay-State offensive coordinator Collin Klein. “He absorbs the soccer [as a pass catcher]. He’ll modify to the ball. He assaults the soccer so nicely when it is within the air. It covers for errors that you just or I would not know.”
All of it has shaped that legacy that can endure as a result of numerous this has occurred earlier than at Kansas State. You can draw a direct line from Okay-State legend Darren Sproles to Vaughn. At 5-foot-6, 190 kilos, Sproles performed 15 years within the NFL. That was after dashing for nearly 5,000 yards in 4 seasons at Okay-State.
In 2021, Vaughn grew to become the primary Kansas State participant voted onto the AP All-America first workforce in 15 years (as an all-purpose participant). That 12 months, he was the Large 12 Offensive Participant of the 12 months. AP named him a first-teamer once more in 2022.
He leaves faculty after three seasons attending to no less than 3,600 profession yards dashing and 1,250 profession yards receiving within the fewest video games (37) of any participant since 1996.
“I had a sense midway by the season with the manufacturing he was having [that] this was going to be his final 12 months,” Klieman mentioned, “as a result of it isn’t like you are going to say he’ll achieve 20 kilos and three extra inches. He had executed what he wanted to do in life and on the faculty degree.”
“I knew [he could play] from his tape,” mentioned Klein, a 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist. “I do not understand how somebody goes to develop and develop. I perceive how gritty they’re. He exceeded each expectation.”
In the long run, it was again on the telephone. McKown had been inspired. It is time for Vaughn to be reassured. Sure, NFL observers have instructed him, you’ll be able to play on this league.
“Working backs coaches, particular groups coaches telling me, ‘You are not too small,'” Vaughn recalled. “‘I would not be on the telephone with you for those who have been too small.'”