Bio
Career: 2015 – 2019
Position: Wide Receiver / Defensive Back
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 205
Hometown: Wichita, Kansas
High School: Bishop Carroll
Career Stats
Games Played: 48
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Games Started: 33
Tackles: 189
Passes Defended: 11
Notes
High School
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4 Year Starter at Bishop Carroll
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2014 Gatorade Kansas Football Player of the Year
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USA Today All-Usa Kansas Offensive Player of the Year
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Rushed for 1,641 Yards and 31 touchdowns as a senior
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Helped Bishop Carroll to a 13-0 record and a state championship as a senior
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Bishop Carroll was 47-2 during Goolsby’s career as a starter, winning 2 state championships.
Kansas State
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2018 – First Team All-Academic Performer
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2017 – Forced a fumble that set up the game-winning score in the Cactus Bowl
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2016 – Second on the team in special teams tackles
K-State Career Awards
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2019 Honorable Mention All-Big 12 (Coaches)
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Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week (2019 at Mississippi State)
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2017 Cactus Bowl Defensive MVP
Highlights
Bring on the Cats Staff
Drew:
I’m cheating a little by picking Goolsby for 82 because he only wore it during his 2015 redshirt season. Truth be told, there weren’t many good options, and I think Denzel’s career illustrates one of Kansas State’s strengths over the last 20 years. They’ve had great success recruiting some of the best football players/athletes in Kansas and then figuring out where they fit into the team.
Goolsby signed with Kansas State after a stellar high school career as a running back at Bishop Carroll. As a freshman in 2015, he tried his luck on offense as a wide receiver but didn’t get much traction in his redshirt season on offense. In 2016, he moved from #82 (wide receiver) to #2o (defensive back) and primarily made an impact on special teams, where his 10 tackles were second on the squad.
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His success on special teams and in practice in 2016 earned him the starting nod at safety, where he would start, when healthy, for the next three seasons, stepping up as a team leader during the Bill Snyder-to-Chris Klieman transition. As a sophomore, he was the MVP of the Cactus Bowl, Coach Snyder’s last bowl win. As a senior, Goolsby was a captain on the 2019 squad that kicked off the Klieman era in style with an 8-5 record, silencing all but the most devoted Klieman doubters before they could ever get a solid foothold in the fanbase.
It’s weird to think about, but Goolsby is a bit of a relic from the bygone days of college football. The idea of a player spending a year at wide receiver and then moving to the other side of the field to play defensive back is quaint. I don’t know Denzel personally, so maybe this isn’t true for him, but in general, a player like Goolsby would be out the door, looking for someplace to play on offense if the same thing occurred in 2026. He stuck with the program, trusted his coaches, and went on to put together a solid college career.
It’s weird how much I appreciate something that was the standard course of action a decade ago.
