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#18 Wesley Fair

Redshirt Junior* | 6-1 | 200 lbs. | Wichita, Kansas

• Position: Safety
• Projection: Co-Starter
• Remaining Eligibility: 2 years
• Status: On Scholarship

Wesley Fair (b. Oct. 8, 2004) is an experienced safety with speed, toughness and stamina from Collegiate High School in Wichita who is majoring in business administration and represented K-State at Big 12 Media Days.

He graduated from K-State in May with a bachelor’s degree in business management and currently is working on his master of business administration degree, but his interviewing skills also appear to be at the highest level.

Fair arrived in time for 2023 spring practices and several coaches praised his efforts in both spring and fall camps. While he did end up redshirting, he still played in three contests that fall as he retained his redshirt.*

Fair saw time as a reserve safety in the season opener against SEMO — recording a tackle and seeing time on 12 defensive snaps — and in the Pop-Tarts Bowl against NC State as he saw time on seven special teams plays during the season. He also had a tackle on kickoff coverage against the Wolfpack and against Baylor.

In 2024, Fair played in every game as a member of all four core special teams units, while he also saw time as a reserve defensive back against UT Martin, West Virginia, and Cincinnati and in the Rate Bowl against Rutgers.

He totaled single tackles on defense against UT Martin, West Virginia, Arizona State, Cincinnati and Rutgers.

Fair saw time on 33 defensive snaps during the year — including a career-high 12 against Cincinnati — while he was in for 181 special teams plays, including 26 in the Rate Bowl, and earned Academic All-Big 12 honors.

Last season, he played in all 12 games with starts in each of the first six contests, recording 36 tackles, a tackle for loss, three pass breakups and a fumble recovery over his 409 defensive snaps.

Fair also played on 110 special teams plays. Most notably, he returned a fumble 15 yards for a touchdown (and a 15-yard celebration penalty for launching the ball into the south stands) against TCU, the Wildcats’ first fumble-return score in two seasons.

He tallied a career-high five tackles against both Army and Kansas, while he had four each against Iowa State, North Dakota, Arizona and Baylor. Fair’s tackle for loss came against Texas Tech, while he broke up passes against Iowa State, TCU, and Kansas and again finished the season as an Academic All-Big 12 performer.

This fall, I project him to rotate playing time with promising sophomore Logan Bartley at strong safety, but he could just as easily end up starting at free safety again and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit given his experience:

I’ve become an older guy, so I’m trying to lead these guys well and make sure everybody is on the same page. We need to communicate, fly around fast, make plays on the ball, and I’m the quarterback of the defense. That’s really what coaches tell us to do. I’m trying to pass that mentality down to everyone in that room.

Just having new coaches is a fresh start. Not saying anything bad about the old coaching staff, but it’s just such a benefit to play loose, free, and to play with something new. It’s good and I enjoy it. Coach (Jordan Peterson) is a really smart dude. He has energy and mentally he’s really good. I’ve been trying to learn everything I can from him. … We have some really smart dudes. Coach JP and Coach (Jeremiah Johnson), they really get me right and I’ve learned a lot.

I loved the old coaching staff, but this coaching staff has so much energy, and they bring it every day. I love that. The change is going to be great for the team and for our future. I’m excited.

Fair prepped under head coach Troy Black at Wichita Collegiate, where he was regarded as the 69th-best athlete in the Class of 2023 by 247Sports, while the organization also ranked him as the seventh-best prospect in the state of Kansas. He was rated as safety by On3, which placed him at No. 72.

Fair picked up first-team all-state honors as a senior from Kansas Football Coaches Association, Sports in Kansas and KSHSAA Covered.

He also earned first-team all-state honors as a safety and honorable mention accolades as a quarterback from The Wichita Eagle during his junior and senior campaigns.

An honorable mention all-state pick as a junior from Sports in Kansas, Fair also participated in track and basketball for the Spartans.

Moreover, he seems to be a genuinely good person who, with roommate Avery Johnson, helps to teach kids at youth football and flag football camps in their home city of Wichita.

Fair chose K-State over offers from Colorado State, Harvard, Iowa State, Kansas, Louisiana Tech and South Dakota, as well as interest from Minnesota and Nebraska.

His primary recruiter was Taylor Braet, director of player personnel and high school relations, assisted by his former position coach and defensive coordinator, Joe Klanderman. Said Klanderman of Fair’s skill early on:

Our two young kids, Kam Sallis and Wesley Fair, as true freshmen, early enrollee seniors, they’re going to probably help us next year (in 2024).

It was really cool — I know he’s kind of quote, unquote, in the two-deep — but watching Wesley Fair run around and fly around and throw his body around. It was cool.

Fair was mentioned again in the 2023 offseason by both former head coach Chris Klieman and ex-cornerbacks coach Van Malone, cementing my prediction that he will be a much bigger part of things here in 2026.

*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 Fair as a true senior even though he did not play in 2023. 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.

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