SAN DIEGO – San Diego State tight end Kahale Warring (kah-HALL-ay WHERE-ing), who played one year of high school football and started his college career as a walk-on, was selected tonight by the Houston Texans in the third round of the NFL Draft.
After redshirting his first season on campus (2015), Warring played the next three seasons and recorded 51 receptions for 637 yards and eight touchdowns in 29 career games (930 offensive snaps). This past season, he led the Aztecs with 31 receptions for 372 yards (12.0 average) and a team-high tying three TD catches in 597 offensive snaps.
A native of Sonora, Calif., Warring appeared on the Mackey Award Watch List (nation's top tight end), twice on the Burlsworth Trophy nominee (nation's most outstanding player who started as a walk-on) and was an honorable mention all-Mountain West selection as a junior.
Warring's impact in games grew as his career progressed. Each season with SDSU, he eclipsed his reception and receiving yard totals from the season before and he caught at least three passes in each of the final five games that he appeared in as a collegiate player. During that five-game stretch, he had 21 catches for 240 yards and three touchdowns. Included in that span, were career-highs in receptions (six), receiving yards (95) and receiving touchdowns (two) in the game at Nevada (Oct. 27, 2018).
Warring is the 86th player selected in the 2019 NFL Draft making him the 57th Aztec player selected among the top 100 selections in the draft and marks the sixth time since 2011 that SDSU has had a player selected in the first 100 picks. Only three tight ends in the history of the Mountain West Conference have gone higher than the 86th pick – SDSU's Gavin Escobar in 2013 (47th overall), Brigham Young's Doug Jolley in 2002 (55th) and San Jose State's Josh Oliver in 2019 (69th overall).
This marks the sixth San Diego State player selected in the last three NFL Drafts and gives the Aztecs 18 NFL Draft selections in the last nine seasons.
Warring becomes the first Aztec player selected by Houston since Chester Pitts was picked by the Texans in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft.
San Diego State finished the 2018 campaign with a 7-6 record, highlighted by a pair of victories against top 25 teams. The Aztecs, who return their leading passer (Ryan Agnew), rusher (Juwan Washington) and tackler (Kyahva Tezino) from a year ago, are one of 14 teams to make a bowl game in nine consecutive seasons.
Season tickets are currently available for the upcoming 2019 season. Fans can purchase tickets through GoAztecs.com, over the phone by calling (619) 283-7378, or by visiting SDCCU Stadium's Window E weekdays between 9 a.m. PT and 5 p.m. PT.