Kansas State Football: Potential head coach candidate Chris Klieman

North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman is a name linked to the Kansas State football job since before it opened. Will the Wildcats be interested in the Bison head coach?

Before he was the Kansas State Athletic Director, Gene Taylor made one last move before leaving North Dakota State to become the Associate Athletic Director at Iowa in 2014. That was to name current defensive coordinator Chris Klieman as head coach of the NDSU program.

That hire came after Craig Bohl took the head coach position at Wyoming. Taylor then left for Iowa City and Klieman was off to the races.

Since taking over the Bison program, all Klieman has done is kept the train on the tracks, winning three national championships, a loss in the semifinals and a number one ranking in the 2018 FCS playoffs.

Winning brings attention, especially when the program is able to go into places like Kansas State in 2012 (with Bohl as head coach) or, under Kleiman, victories at both Iowa and Iowa State. Combine that with being the top FCS program in the country and that’s a legitimate program that has become a force to be reckoned with.

Klieman does have limited experience coaching in the Big 12, having spent one season at the University of Kansas under Terry Allen before venturing off to Missouri State. Along his stops, he ventured off to Northern Iowa and eventually North Dakota State.

Gene Taylor, the current Kansas State athletic director, was in Fargo when Kleiman was brought on board and watched him climb the ranks before naming his as head coach in 2014. That could be something to watch this offseason.

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Kleiman’s resumé and his attributes are straight forward. His program wins consistently and is a dominant FCS program with multiple wins over FBS teams. They have produced NFL draft picks along with a trophy case full of championships.

There are three issues at the forefront of Kleiman to Kansas State. As stated above, he’s only coached at a major level school for one season and that was over 20 years ago. Since then, he’s been at lower level programs. That raises concerns about his ability to find and recruit the talent available. Jumping from the FCS level all the way to the Big 12 is a mighty big jump.

He’s really never recruited Texas and Oklahoma. While he’s done a good job with finding talent in the upper midwest (Carson Wentz anyone?), he’s never really spent much time or developed the relationships necessary to find the players in the Big 12 footprint to build a program into a consistent winning team. When Kansas State wins again, they will have needed success in these states to win.

Lastly, is his success the result of his predecessor Craig Bohl? When Bohl accepted the job at Wyoming, he was coming off three straight FCS championships. While Kansas State certainly is not in terrible shape, the train certainly isn’t rolling along full speed ahead like the program at North Dakota State was when he took over. It’ll need some rebuilding for sure.

Do I think Klieman is the guy? Not likely. It’s hard to imagine that the football program would turn to a FCS level coach with so many things working for them.

Over the past five years or so, Kansas State has sunk a lot of money into their facilities, bringing them up to date with modern amenities. If Klieman were to move on, his likely route would be similar to Bohl’s, a non-Power 5 conference program. Perhaps if North Texas opens they would be interested in him? Kansas State, however, not the likeliest of options for the Wildcats.