Chris Klieman has earned a fair chance to prove he can win at Kansas State
The first reactions of a coaching hire are among the biggest lies in sports. That’s worth remembering now, as Kansas State makes its most important personnel hire in a decade and large chunks of the fan base respond with ... that’s it?
THIS is the best we can do?
Chris Klieman is not a big name. He comes from North Dakota State, an FCS power but also an FCS school, which makes dismissing this hire the easiest thing in the world. Replacing a legend is a coach whose most recent homecoming game was against Delaware.
The list of coaches to successfully make the jump from FCS to college football’s highest level is short. Jim Tressel is probably the best example, but that was 18 years ago. Jim Harbaugh had the name recognition of an NFL quarterback when he succeeded for three seasons at San Diego, and Frank Beamer made the jump more than 30 years ago.
K-State plays against Oklahoma and Texas. The Wildcats could have been a losing program for the last 25 years instead of a nationally relevant one and still hired Klieman.
All of these things are true.
So is this: Klieman is a winner, and North Dakota State is an FCS school in technical terms only.
Klieman is a coach’s son with a reputation for keeping calm in chaos. He learned how to coach by living that life, the intricacies of how to treat each player a little differently but always special.
He is 67-6 the last five years, with three national titles and a semifinal game scheduled on Friday. He beat Iowa State 34-14 in 2014, a week before then-No. 20 K-State beat the Cyclones 32-30. He beat then-No. 13 Iowa in 2014; the Hawkeyes finished 6-3 in the Big Ten that year and played in the Outback Bowl.
If the K-State team that Bill Snyder had this year played the North Dakota State team that Klieman has in the FCS semifinal right now, K-State would almost certainly lose.
K-State football has been about doing more with less. Well, Klieman has done more than K-State with less than K-State as a head coach.
Klieman took over a powerhouse. That’s true. But he was also part of building that powerhouse, and most times when a bad coach takes over a good situation it deteriorates within a year or two. North Dakota State has only improved.
The biggest question about Klieman is whether he can recruit Big 12 athletes. That skill will have an outsized influence on his success or failure, and there is no way to know how that will go.
But consider that Snyder’s success was never measured by recruiting rankings, and that Klieman has already convinced some players to bypass FBS offers (including some in the Power Five) to play at North Dakota State. Carson Wentz played his last two seasons at North Dakota State with Klieman as the head coach.
Klieman walks into a difficult situation, even with the comfort of K-State athletic director Gene Taylor, who he’s known for years and promoted him at North Dakota State.
Following a legend is never easy, and he won’t benefit from the same initial honeymoon phase that most coaches enjoy.
An institutional insecurity at K-State remains from the last time Snyder retired, and Ron Prince led the program into enough disarray that he was fired and Snyder came back to save the place (again). K-State was losing transfers before Klieman was hired.
All of these factors mean Klieman is likely working with less talent than the general outside perception, and will be given less benefit of the doubt than most coaches.
This is a bit of a deflating hire, and can be fairly criticized as unimaginative and the safety hire of an AD who was afraid to hire someone he didn’t know.
But the guy can clearly coach, and will have better facilities and a bigger fan base to recruit to than ever before.
The best things about K-State remain the best things about K-State. The program will aim to win together, with a solid base. This is easy to forget now, but Prince was the flashy hire. He was young, had charisma, and was an instant recruiting upgrade over Snyder. That failed quickly. It was unsustainable. Klieman can position himself as the right kind of change.
There is no way to know if this will work. But Taylor knows him better than almost anyone, and he’s betting his professional reputation and future on it. Klieman can do this, with the right support and recruits. Much crazier things have happened.
Heck, at K-State, they already have.
This story was originally published December 10, 2018 at 8:31 PM.