When the news about Chris Klieman started to spread like a prairie fire yesterday, I was surprised but not that surprised. The last two seasons have clearly taken a toll on Coach Klieman. I don’t have any
inside information, but you could see it on his face and hear it in his voice over the last two seasons. The losses seemed to hit him harder, and the wins looked more like relief than joy. The press conference after the loss to Utah, in particular, was tough to watch. He seemed emotionally wrung out in a way that was hard to watch. You may question his clock management on occasion, but you can’t question his love for Kansas State football.
He is also disenchanted with the current state of college football. He particularly despises that walk-ons will no longer be allowed and has mentioned it at every possible opportunity in his press conferences. These are obviously just my observations, but in my opinion, Chris Klieman considers himself, first and foremost, a football coach. He finds meaning in bringing in fresh-faced 18-year-old kids, helping them become men, both on and off the field, and building lasting relationships. College football has strayed away from that core principle over the last decade.
Chris Klieman looks like a man in desperate need of a vacation…like a year-long vacation. College football is an all-consuming, 24-7/365-day pressure cooker. Coaches are compensated extremely well, but money can’t buy back the cumulative years coaches spend away from their families. Regardless of how much money is in your bank account, life remains frustratingly linear. When you pour your entire life into your profession, as David Gilmore sings in Pink Floyd’s song Time, “one day you find ten years have got behind you.”
I hope Coach steps back, takes care of his health, spends time with his family, enjoys his money, and lets life slow down for a little while. He’s more than earned it.
There will be plenty to talk about before the Wildcats open the season on September 5th in Bill Snyder Family Stadium against the Nicholls Colonels. I don’t see any reason to rush ahead with rumor and speculation. Still, I don’t think I’m breaking any news when I say current Texas A&M Offensive Coordinator and Wildcat legend Collin Klein is going to take the reins of the program once A&M’s run through the College Football Playoffs is complete.
I don’t know if Coach Klein will be a successful head coach. College football is a strange beast. Sometimes perfect fits don’t work out. Look no further than Scott Frost’s inglorious tenure at his alma mater for proof, but yesterday can only be seen as the absolute best-case scenario for the Kansas State football program, both short and long-term. The best a college football program can do is to get the right coach, in the right spot, at the right time, and hope you catch a couple of breaks. Colline Klein is the right coach, in the right place, at the right time, hopefully the breaks follow.
To better appreciate the Bill Snyder 2.0-to-Chris Klieman-to-Collin Klein transition, let’s look at a few schools that have failed at the same task.
Texas went from Mack Brown-to-Charlie Strong-to-Tom Herman before finally landing on Sark. They may be back now, but they burned through the GDP of several mid-sized countries in the process.
Southern Cal went from Pete Carroll-to-Lane Kiffin-to-Steve Sarkisian-to-Clay Helton-to Lincoln Riley, and it’s still far from certain that Riley is going to work out.
Notre Dame went from Lou Holtz-to-Bob Davie-to-Ty Willingham-to-Charlie Weis before Brian Kelly figured out how to turn money into winning football.
Florida’s Urban Meyer-to-Will Muschamp-to-Jim McElwain-to-Dan Mullen-to Billy Napier to Jon Sumrall almost seems cruel to Florida fans until you remember they’re Florida fans. In that light, post Urban Myer Florida may be the best evidence I have for a loving God.
Stepping back from the Blue Bloods, I’ve covered Purdue football since the Danny Hope era. Let me tell you, the Joe Tiller-to-Danny Hope-to-Darrell Hazell transition was like watching your dog run away every day. Everything Coach Tiller established was in ruins by the time Jeff Brohm hit town, while waiting for the Louisville job to open up. Now that Brohm has returned to the nest, Purdue is back to being one of the worst teams in college football.
I’m sure I don’t need to remind any of y’all, but the Bill Snyder-to-Ron Prince transition was such an abject disaster that Bill had to return to the stadium with his name on it to shore up the foundation of the program after three seasons. I don’t need to tell y’all how bad these things can get; you’ve experienced it firsthand!
Which brings me back to Coach Klieman
Coach Snyder retired during my second year in Manhattan. Jon was kind enough to let me start writing for BOTC in 2018, and I got Bill Snyder’s retirement and a contentious coaching search in my first offseason. In terms of college football blogging, that’s about as close as it comes to Nirvana.
I was certain North Texas Coach Seth Littrell would replace Coach Snyder. He was coming off a 9-4 season in Conference USA and was one of the hot names in the coaching carousel. Other folks in the Kansas State Blog-o-sphere had their own preferences, but I was a Littrell guy. When it was clear Chris Klieman’s name was gaining momentum, I was intrigued. He was an elite head coach at the FCS level with multiple championships on his resume and seemed like the perfect fit in terms of culture and playing style.
I felt very alone in that opinion for a little while.
I thought it might work; while other people, with significantly larger microphones, held their breath and balled up their fists because Klieman and Athletic Director Gene Taylor had a previous, wildly successful coach/AD relationship at North Dakota State. I’m familiar with the passion of college football fans; it can sometimes overwhelm reason, but I still can’t wrap my brain around the idea that Chris Klieman was a bad hire because the athletic director trusted him. I think some folks hated the Klieman hire because they loathed Gene Taylor for not firing Bruce Weber … but I digress.
It took me a while, but I went back and found an article I wrote on December 7th, 2018, in response to all the Klieman blowback I was hearing, entitled, “What I Learned from Being Dead Wrong About Dabo Swinney” (you can find it here). I’m not known for my intelligence, my rugged good looks, absolutely, but every now and again, I get something right.
In one of my closing paragraphs, I wrote:
Learn from my mistakes, people. At this point, the best thing you can do is rally behind whoever is named head coach and hope for the best. That way, you can claim credit if it works out, instead of having a long list of shameful hot takes hanging around your neck like an albatross.
Those of us who hoped for the best were handsomely rewarded.
On December 7th, 2018, if I offered you seven seasons of Chris Klieman and guaranteed a 54-34 record, including a Big 12 Championship, would you take it?
What if I told you that after his seventh season, Klieman would step away from coaching and be seamlessly replaced by Collin Klein? No muss, no fuss, just a clean transition from a coach who successfully navigated the Wildcats through one of the most tumultuous eras in the history of both college football and the world at large to one of the hottest coaches on the market, who also happens to be a legendary K-State quarterback.
Would you take that deal?
I know I would.
I remember one of the issues raised during the post-Snyder coaching search was the supposed difficulty of finding a coach who thought they could win in Manhattan. How could anyone other than Bill Snyder convince a decent football player to come to K-State? Well, Collin Klein’s first game as a starting quarterback for the Wildcats came against Texas on November 6th, 2010. He completed two of his four pass attempts for 9 yards and rushed for 127 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries in a 39-14 beatdown of the Longhorns. You won’t find a coach more confident in his ability to win big in the Little Apple; he’s already done it.
The Kansas State Wildcats, once dubbed “Futility U” and “America’s most hapless team” by Sports Illustrated, appear to have pulled off one of the most challenging feats in college athletics. A feat that multiple “Blue Blood” programs have failed to achieve.
It took two attempts, but they stuck the Bill Snyder dismount.
As I said, I don’t know how this is going to work out, but I do know this: It’s been seven seasons since Bill Snyder retired, and the program is in a significantly better place now than it was when he hung up his windbreaker. Coach Klieman’s ability to win in the face of long odds and unprecedented adversity, and win the right way, the Wildcat way, has put the program in the absolute best-case scenario.
I can’t think of another coach who better fit what the Wildcats needed at that moment in history than Chris Klieman.
I can’t think of another coach who better fits what the Wildcats need moving forward than Collin Klein.
It’s a great day to be a Kansas State football fan.
