Tom Hayes retiring as Kansas State defensive coordinator

The Kansas State football team will have new coordinators on both sides of the ball next season.

Tom Hayes has decided to retire after six seasons as K-State’s defensive coordinator, a source confirmed Saturday morning. The news was first reported by Gopowercat.com.

Hayes leaves the business after a long coaching career that began in 1977 and included stops with 11 different teams throughout college and the NFL. He joined K-State in 2011 as the team’s defensive backs coach and was promoted to defensive coordinator a year later.

The Wildcats have been up and down on defense since. Under Hayes, they were consistently strong against the run and regularly weak against the pass.

K-State has never ranked better than 60th nationally against the pass under Hayes, and that came in 2013 when the Wildcats allowed 219.8 passing yards per game. On the flip side, K-State has never ranked worse than 53rd against the run, usually allowing less than 150 rushing yards per game.

Last season was a continuation of that trend. K-State allowed 310.3 yards per game through the air, a number that ranked 129th nationally, but stymied teams on the ground, allowing 121.8 yards, which ranked 17th nationally. The Wildcats routinely made big plays on defense, though, and forced 12 interceptions and 11 fumbles last season.

Giving up big yardage is to be expected in the Big 12. Still, fans have been critical of Hayes in recent years, as K-State’s defense has ranked in the bottom 25 nationally against the pass for three consecutive seasons. His defenses were best known for playing a bend-but-don’t-break style, as K-State has been solid in the red zone. The Wildcats ranked 57th nationally in points allowed last season.

Before coming to K-State, Hayes spent time as the defensive coordinator at UCLA, Oklahoma, Kansas and Stanford. He briefly served as interim head coach for the Jayhawks after Terry Allen was fired in 2001.

Former K-State offensive coordinator left last month to become the head coach at UTEP. The Wildcats replaced him with former receivers coach Andre Coleman. Snyder also promoted assistants Charlie Dickey (running game coordinator) and Collin Klein (passing game coordinator) into new roles on offense. All three received new contracts.

This story was originally published January 27, 2018 at 8:12 AM with the headline "Tom Hayes retiring as Kansas State defensive coordinator."