College: Yeast transferred to Kansas State from Louisville for his final collegiate season. He played in 58 career games (42 starts) at the collegiate level. In 2013 at Kansas State, he started all 13 games at safety and registered 48 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, four interceptions and 14 passes defended en route to First-Team AllBig 12 honors from the league's coaches. He also earned votes for the Big 12 Defensive Newcomer of the year and he was a SecondTeam All-Big 12 honoree by the Associated Press. Yeast led the Big 12 in total passes defended, recording at least one in 10 of his 13 games played. He also finished 14th in the nation in second in the Big 12 in interceptions. In 2020 in his last year at Louisville, he started all 11 games played and notched 45 tackles (31 solo) and tallied one interception with a return of 21 yards, three passes defended and one forced fumble. He started all 11 games played in 2019 and tallied a career-best 61 tackles (38 solo) with one interception, four passes defended, and two forced fumbles. As a sophomore in 2018, he saw action in 11 games ant tallied four tackles (all solo) to go along with 1.0 sack. He played in 11 contests (six starts) as a freshman in 2017, when he notched 23 tackles (15 solo) and two passes defended.
Personal: Russ Yeast II is the son of Craig and Tori Yeast and has one sibling, Kiyah. His father Craig was a fourth-round pick in the 1999 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals and played nine season in the league (Bengals, Jets). During his time at Center Grove High School, Yeast was rated the third-best player in the state of Indiana for the Class of 2017 by ESPN, Rivals, and 247Sports. He went on to win Indiana Player of the Year by USA Today Sports and Gatorade Player of the Year honors. Yeast also was a runner up for Indiana's Mr. Football. He rushed for 1,525 yards and 19 touchdowns in addition to 32 receptions for 602 yards and eight touchdowns as a senior. He also tallied 251 kickoff return yards and 175 punt return yards. He led his team to a 12-2 mark and a trip to the state championship. He played for his father his sophomore and junior seasons at Fremoont Ross High School in Ohio. In college, he earned two degrees during his five years at school.
