Kansas State football has found their next head coach. The Wildcats announced on Monday night that they’d be hiring Chris Klieman to take over the reigns from Bill Snyder.
Kansas State had a tough task when Bill Snyder announced he’d be retiring after 27 years at the helm of the program. While there were plenty of names linked to the vacant position, Gene Taylor and the Kansas State football program went with Chris Klieman of North Dakota State University.
Klieman has spent the last five seasons coaching the Bison of North Dakota State and has won three FCS National titles. He’s also currently leading the Bison through the playoffs this year, so it’s entirely possible he adds a fourth ring to that collection.
Klieman and the Wildcats agreed on a six-year deal worth $2.3 million annually. The contract might seem a bit steep, but in order to get a good coach, you have to be willing to spend a little dough.
BREAKING: #KState is expected to offer #NorthDakota State’s Chris Kleiman the head coaching job tonite, per source.. All indications point to him accepting the job & he's expected to coach NDSU as far as they go in FCS Playoffs. He is 67-6 at NDSU and has won 3 national titles.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 10, 2018
Updating our report from earlier today... #KSTATE makes it official: North Dakota State’s Chris Klieman is Wildcats new head coach. He’s 67-6 there.. Klieman has agreed to a six-year contract with a base salary of $2.3 million in 2019 with a $200,000 increase each year.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 11, 2018
As Bruce Feldman’s tweets above indicate, Klieman has done wonders at North Dakota State. I mentioned earlier how he’s won three titles there (and striving for a fourth) and he’s lost just six games in five years running the show there.
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When John McCarty of KC Kingdom covered the possibility of Chris Klieman taking over as K-State’s head coach, he had a few issues with the potential hire. First and foremost, McCarty didn’t like that Klieman had limited experience in the Big 12. He was the defensive backs coach for Kansas in 1997, but hasn’t been back in the conference since then.
McCarty felt that Klieman didn’t have enough big school experience to be the main man at K-State and he has a point. Even with his success at NDSU, it could be argued that Klieman was helped out immensely with Craig Bohl leading the program prior to him leaving for Wyoming. All valid points.
With that said, however, this hire appears to be one Kansas State fans can get excited about. No matter who comes into Manhattan, they’re going to have a really difficult task in trying to replicate what Coach Snyder did for nearly three decades.
No one is going to be better for the football program than Snyder, so that in itself is a lot of pressure for anyone. Klieman has experienced that type of pressure when he took over as the Bison head coach after Bohl left for Wyoming and he’s done a great job.
Snyder coached this program for 27 years and during that time led the Wildcats to a 215-117 overall record while making 19 bowl games (going 9-10 in those bowls). Kansas State football was nothing before Snyder took it over, so no one is expecting Klieman to make nearly as big of an impact. At least not for awhile.
The FCS is a different ball game than the Big 12 (and more importantly – Division 1), but Chris Klieman very well could be the right man for the job in Manhattan. What do you think, K-State fans? Do you like this hire?