Five noteworthy things K-State football coach Chris Klieman said at Big 12 Media Days
Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman had plenty to say about the upcoming season while speaking with reporters at Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday at AT&T Stadium.
Here are the five most noteworthy things he said about the Wildcats.
A goldmine for K-State football players
College football players across the country were allowed to begin profiting off sponsorship deals earlier this month, with limited restrictions, as if they were professional athletes.
That makes this a new era for college athletics.
Many wonder how players making money off Name, Image and Likeness deals will impact everything from recruiting to game days. So far, there are few definitive answers.
But Klieman is confident in one thing: There’s no better place for a student-athlete to make money during the NIL era than the Little Apple.
“Manhattan is a home run for Name, Image and Likeness,” he said. “We are the main story in town at Kansas State University and our athletic department. Our kids are out in the community in all of our sports. When a kid comes to Manhattan, everybody’s going to know him in that community and he’s going to have a lot of opportunities. So for kids that think you have to go to the big, big market areas I disagree. I think Manhattan is a goldmine.”
Few K-State football players have lined up sponsorship deals with local business so far, but senior quarterback Skylar Thompson did post an ad on social media earlier this month. Thompson said he did it as a test run of sorts to see how much he wants to pursue more deals down the road. Interestingly, he said he enlisted the help of former K-State safety Denzel Goolsby to oversee his NIL deals.
Four core values
You will see four phrases plastered everywhere inside K-State’s football facility this season.
They are: discipline, commitment, toughness and be selfless.
Klieman will emphasis all four attributes as the Wildcats prepare for the 2021 season, calling them core values. Why? He thought K-State’s roster lost sight of them at times last season, and that was a reason why it ended the year on a five-game losing streak.
He wants to hit the reset button and improve the culture inside K-State’s locker room.
Klieman is also urging K-State players to stop by the coaching offices and visit several times a week to help boost camaraderie.
“We just kind of reevaluated and reset everything,” Klieman said. “We want to build up relationships and show the kids that you hear them and are going to take good care of them and love them. That is a really critical factor.”
Deuce is loose
K-State running back Deuce Vaughn was one of the nation’s top freshmen last season, amassing 642 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground to go along with 434 yards and two touchdowns as a receiver.
There is no doubt in Klieman’s mind that he will be even better as a sophomore.
“We have a pretty good tailback in Deuce Vaughn, who is as humble as as the day is long,” Klieman said. “I absolutely love how he’s handled the accolades and success that he’s had, because he hasn’t felt like he’s arrived. He feels like he has more to prove.”
Klieman said Vaughn is “underrated” as a pure running back, and the Wildcats will find creative ways to get him the ball in space this season.
Getting defensive
It may be a while before Klieman forgets about how the 2020 season ended for K-State.
The Wildcats lost their final game to Texas by the unsightly score of 69-31. As a defensive-minded coach, there was no uglier way for his team to go into the offseason.
With that in mind, he offered some blunt thoughts on the way K-State played on defense last year.
“We have to make great improvements on defense,” Klieman said. “We lost a couple of really good players on the defensive side ... and we have to make great strides on defense. We were not a very good defense throughout last year. We had a couple of nice moments of defense, but not good enough in this league to be successful. And that’s something that we’re going to work like heck to get shored up.”
Two players that should make a difference: Iowa transfer Julius Brents and Charlotte transfer Timmy Horne.
Brents has already established himself as the top defensive back on K-State’s roster, and Horne has turned heads as a defensive tackle.
Injury updates
The Wildcats were hampered by injuries at several positions during spring practice, but that most likely won’t be the case when preseason practices begin in August.
Klieman said the vast majority of K-State’s injured players are back at workouts and participating at full speed.
He mentioned that defensive back T.J. Smith was fully cleared within the past week and that receiver Landry Weber is also now 100%. One player that will need a little more time to return to full health is Chabastin Taylor. The 6-foot-4 receiver from Giddings, Texas is still working his way back from a torn ACL that he suffered late last season.
Taylor is participating in workouts, but Klieman said he won’t be full-speed until August.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Five noteworthy things K-State football coach Chris Klieman said at Big 12 Media Days."