‘We had to take some chances’: Chris Klieman defends coaching decisions in Sugar Bowl
Chris Klieman regrets nothing.
The Kansas State football coach made so many aggressive decisions during a 45-20 Sugar Bowl loss against Alabama on Saturday at the Superdome that one could compare him to a teenager playing Madden. He went for it three different times on fourth down, he called timeouts when the Crimson Tide appeared content to run out the clock late in the second quarter and he tried a surprise onside kick.
All three of those decisions blew up in his face and allowed the game to spiral out of control in favor of Alabama. But he refused to apologize for any of his coaching moves afterward.
“I would have done it again,” he said.
Really?
“I’m never going to second-guess myself,” he added.
Not even in hindsight after seeing negative results?
“We came here to win, man,” Klieman said. “We didn’t come here to try to keep this thing close or whatever. We came here to win. And that’s what we thought gave us the best opportunity.”
Klieman further illustrated his point by saying that K-State entered this game “in attack mode from the start.” It didn’t matter to him how many times the Wildcats had to go for it on fourth down or how often they had to pull out a trick play. They were going to be as aggressive as possible. Their motto might as well have been: “come home with your shield or on it.”
Well, no one can say Klieman coached too conservatively in the Sugar Bowl. In a crucial span of four minutes (on the scoreboard), K-State went from having a golden opportunity to take a 17-14 lead late in the first half to trailing 35-10 early in the third quarter.
Game over.
“We understood they were going to make plays,” K-State running back Deuce Vaughn said. “For us, on offense and on defense, we had to stay in the fight. We weren’t able to do that the entire game, and things got out of hand.”
Could things have been different with a more conservative coaching approach from Klieman? Maybe.
While it is certainly true that an underdog team like K-State was unlikely to beat a juggernaut opponent like Alabama without taking a few risks, Klieman arguably took things too far with some of his coaching decisions.
Here is a quick rundown: Klieman elected to go for it on fourth down on three different occasions during an important drive late in the first half and K-State ended up not scoring a single point on a possession that lasted 18 plays and drained 10 minutes, 32 seconds off the clock. Alabama led 14-10 at that point. Instead of pulling to within 14-13 with a field goal, the Wildcats walked away with nothing.
Then Klieman compounded that error by electing to call timeout after K-State stuffed an Alabama run on the next play. He wanted to get the ball back and score again before halftime. But the Crimson Tide decided to get aggressive themselves and drove the length of the field for a back-breaking touchdown rather than simply running out the clock. That made the score 21-10.
A comeback seemed unlikely at that point, but Klieman made K-State’s odds even worse by attempting a surprise onside kick at the start of the third quarter. Alabama wasn’t fooled and recovered the kick in excellent field position. That led to a quick touchdown pass from Bryce Young that made the score 28-10. With the game spiraling out of control, K-State quarterback Will Howard then threw an interception and Alabama pulled ahead 35-10.
It would be interesting to know how much differently things would have played out had K-State kicked a field goal and gone into the locker room down 14-13. But Klieman and K-State players refused to go down that road.
“I would have done it again. Deuce would have said, ‘Let’s go again.’ We wanted to go ahead at halftime,” Klieman said. “It was under a minute left. We made a really good call and just didn’t execute it. And then, shoot, they’re at the 1‑yard line and we’re going to use timeouts and try to get the football back.”
And on the onside kick: “We had to take some chances because of the last two drives that they had on offense, where we struggled to slow them down. Whether or not it’s an 80‑yard drive or a 45‑yard drive, once again, we came here to win.”
The biggest problem with Klieman’s aggressive decisions were that they didn’t work. Had Howard connected with tight end Ben Sinnott on fourth-and-goal instead of sailing a pass out of bounds the Wildcats would have led 17-14. Had their defense prevented Alabama from running for several first downs on the ensuing drive, K-State would have only trailed by a single score. Had Ty Zentner recovered his own onside kick, the Wildcats would have gained a valuable possession at the start of the second half.
But none of those things happened, starting with Howard missing Sinnott in the end zone.
“I just missed the throw there, simple as that,” Howard said. “He was open in the flat, and I missed him. We would do it again, no doubt. We came here to win the game. We were going to go for it in the red zone. You don’t win games with field goals, especially against a team like Alabama. I would do the same thing again, I just have to make the throw.”
This story was originally published December 31, 2022 at 5:41 PM with the headline "‘We had to take some chances’: Chris Klieman defends coaching decisions in Sugar Bowl."