Kansas State Football: Starting center Reid Najvar retires, joins coaching staff

The Kansas State football team took an unexpected hit Friday when news broke that center Reid Najvar would forgo his senior season.

In a Heartland College Sports exclusive, we learned that concussion symptoms were the reason for Reid Najvar’s decision to hang up his cleats in exchange for a clipboard.

He started all 13 games for the Wildcats a year ago and even earned an honorable mention from the Big 12 coaches. After all, he was the main cog for a unit that set a school record for rushing yards per carry (5.27). That group also tallied the third-most total rushing yards (3,013) and rushing yards per game (231.8) in school history.

Najvar was on the Rimington Trophy watch list heading into the 2017 season, too, an award given to the nation’s best college center. The Wildcats are one of five Big 12 teams to enter the season ranked, coming in at No. 19 just ahead of West Virginia at No. 20.

We’ve seen a growing number of players in the NFL retire early due to fear of concussions, most recently Baltimore Ravens’ lineman John Urschel. Branden Albert is another marquee name that recently retired — not necessarily to concussion symptoms — but he’s back already and looking to continue playing. Until an official announcement is delivered from Kansas State, anything is possible though.

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Najvar graduated from Kansas State in May of this year with a degree in business management but it looks like he may gear toward a career in coaching. This is a tough blow for the Wildcats, but at least he’s still with the program in some regard.