Why Chris Klieman coached like a riverboat gambler in Kansas State’s loss to Oklahoma
Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman has a conservative reputation.
Traditionally, he is the type of sideline leader who seldom decides to go for it on fourth down and rarely allows his offensive coordinator to call trick plays. He would much rather beat an opponent by playing hard and executing well than by taking risks and surprising a defense with a halfback pass.
Klieman has coached 28 games at K-State, and he had only elected to go for it on fourth down 23 times before this week. But he changed approaches during a 37-31 loss against Oklahoma on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
He seemed bound and determined not to punt in this game, turning into a riverboat gambler every time his team faced a fourth down. He surprisingly made one aggressive coaching decision after the next and kept K-State’s offense on the field five different times on fourth downs. He even dialed up a surprise onside kick.
“I told the guys that we believed in them, and I needed to believe in them even more,” Klieman said. “We needed to be aggressive this game, because they have such a great offense that we need to be aggressive. I also thought we could move the football against these guys. I really thought that we would ... I just thought we could execute, and I believed in our guys to execute.”
The aggressive approach paid off, even though it wasn’t enough for K-State to upset Oklahoma for a third straight season.
Give Klieman credit for this much: He played to win the game.
Klieman held nothing back against the Sooners. His team only punted once. Every time the Wildcats cross midfield, it felt like they were in four-down territory. No field goals allowed.
K-State players responded to his aggressive approach by converting on four of five of those attempts.
“That was a confidence booster for the entire offense,” K-State running back Deuce Vaughn said after gaining 155 all-purpose yards and scoring a touchdown. “When the head coach is coming to you and saying, ‘Stay on the field.’ He is putting the ball in our hands and saying, ‘Go get us a first down.’ He’s pretty much putting the program in our hands. We have to be 100% on fourth down.”
“We were making them, so it just gave us even more confidence,” K-State receiver Landry Weber said after catching four passes for 65 yards and a touchdown. “We said, ‘All right. Let’s keep doing it. We can do this.’” The attitude we had in our huddle was really good all day.”
You could tell Klieman wasn’t going to punt unless he absolutely had to from the start.
The Wildcats faced a fourth-and-5 on their opening drive and quarterback Skylar Thompson kept the chains moving by hitting tight end Daniel Imatorbhebhe for 11 yards across the middle.
On K-State’s next drive, the offense faced a fourth-and-goal from the 2 and Klieman called a timeout to set up the perfect play. Coaches went over several plays with Thompson, and he suggested the Wildcats throw a pass to Phillip Brooks in the flats on a misdirection play. Klieman signed off on it, and it worked to perfection.
K-State pulled ahead 7-3 at the 4:31 mark of the first quarter.
The Wildcats were 2 for 2 on fourth down. As the game went on, they improved to 4 for 4.
They had so much confidence late in the game that they even tried to convert a fourth-and-14 late in the second half. It was K-State’s only missed fourth-down conversion of the day, and the Wildcats nearly pulled it off. Thompson zipped a pass to Weber past the chains, and he appeared to make a diving catch for another conversion.
But the play was overturned after a video review.
“We were so close to making a play there,” Thompson said. “It’s exciting as an offense and as a quarterback when your coach is showing his belief and trust in you.”
Klieman also dialed up a surprise onside kick midway through the third quarter. The Wildcats didn’t force the Sooners to punt once all day. So after K-State pulled to within 27-17, he decided to take a risk and try to keep the ball instead of giving it back to OU quarterback Spencer Rattler, who completed 22 of 25 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns.
The Wildcats appeared to recover the onside kick for a potential game-changing play until the officials controversially overturned it after two video reviews.
That gamble didn’t pay off. But Klieman had no regrets.
For one day, at least, he was a riverboat gambler.
Those type of aggressive decisions will help his reputation with K-State players, and possibly fans, even in a loss.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Why Chris Klieman coached like a riverboat gambler in Kansas State’s loss to Oklahoma."