Collin Klein already putting his fingerprint on Kansas State’s offense as coordinator
Collin Klein had a surprise waiting for Kansas State football players on the first day of spring practice last week.
Instead of huddling up between plays and moving at a methodical pace on offense, as has been the case in Manhattan for many years, the Wildcats went pedal to the metal.
“We did a lot of no huddle, quick, up on the ball, constant movement, six plays in a row with tempo and other stuff like that,” K-State senior receiver Kade Warner said. “We are just changing the pace and trying to get more plays per game.”
Klein provided K-State fans with a glimpse of what he has planned for the offense when he took over as interim coordinator during a 42-20 victory against LSU in the Texas Bowl. The Wildcats elected to receive the opening kickoff rather than defer, they threw the ball 28 times for 259 yards and they ran it 34 times for 183. Their 62 plays were the third most of the entire season. Nearly every drive ended in points.
K-State head coach Chris Klieman promoted Klein to offensive coordinator almost immediately after they arrived home from Houston.
His play-calling style could be summarized in one word — aggressive.
“He likes to get the ball to his playmakers,” K-State receiver Phillip Brooks said. “That is what I like. We are trying to attack the defense rather than set the tempo and control the ball. I enjoy his aggressive approach.”
Still, few were expecting an all out change in style from the Courtney Messingham and Dana Dimel days.
Nebraska transfer quarterback Adrian Martinez turned some heads earlier this winter when he suggested Klein would sprinkle in some spread elements to K-State’s offense.
Then players showed up for the start of spring practice and they were learning hand signals from the sideline instead of play calls within the huddle.
It will be interesting to see how fast they are willing to go in live games. Any kind of up-tempo offense will move faster than the pro-style system we saw last season. Can they mimic what Oklahoma and Texas Tech have historically done? Or will they be a step back from that?
“That is probably the biggest change,” Brooks said. “We are normally controlling the tempo of the game and huddling up a lot. Right now, we are just going. I’m excited. I feel like that is going to be beneficial for us. We aren’t in shape yet, but we are going to get there.”
With Klein now at the controls, the Wildcats are eager to see what they can accomplish during the rest of their spring practices and, ultimately, how much more points they can generate next fall.
It seems his changes were welcome ones.
“I really like it,” Warner said. “More plays means more offense.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Collin Klein already putting his fingerprint on Kansas State’s offense as coordinator."