Kansas State Football: Is Chris Klieman set up to fail?
By John McCarty
A roster thin in both numbers and talent will pose challenges for new Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman as he tries to win games on the field and win over a fan base unhappy with the hire.
There are a variety of ways for Kansas State fans, alumni and observers to react to the announcement that Chris Klieman of North Dakota State has been named head coach at Kansas State.
The initial consensus from national media on social media is that people should be excited by the hire, viewing the championships at NDSU and the winning pedigree as an asset and quality hire for the program. Fans and local media took to the news with anger, frustration and indifference (see Bruce Feldman’s and Jake Trotter’s tweets below).
The question not being asked is simply this, has Chris Klieman been set up to fail?
The biggest concern and why it was absolutely necessary for a change at head coach was the trajectory of the program. Already limited in players within the program, Kansas State continues to struggle with roster size, projected currently to be roughly 15-20 players under the limit. With a limited roster and what certainly appears to be a limited recruiting class, depth is an issue.
Gone is Dalton Risner, All-American offensive tackle. Gone is Duke Shelley, the Cats top cornerback, along with Kendall Adams and Elijah Walker, two of the top three safeties on the roster. Gone is Alex Delton, who will transfer. A total of 17 players (16 seniors and Delton’s transfer) have left the program since the end of the season.
A program that struggled to get to 5-7 this past season has lost perhaps their best player on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. It certainly does not appear that the replacements are coming in through the recruiting class, as the numbers are not there.
Adding to the issues are who leaves the program after the 2019 season. Three starters along the offensive line (Scott Frantz, Adam Holtorf, Tyler Mitchell) along with both starting wide receivers (Isaiah Zuber and Dalton Schoen).
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The entire starting defensive line is departing after next year too (Reggie Walker, Trey Dishon, Kyle Ball and Jordan Mittie) along with top reserve Joe Davies. Linebackers Elijiah Sullivan, Daquan Patton and Justin Hughes are also preparing for their last season. So yes, Kansas State loses their ENTIRE starting front seven after this season.
Add to that five depth defensive backs (included is starter Denzel Goolsby) and you can see serious issues with the talent level scheduled to return in 2020. Perhaps we are getting a clearer vision perhaps on why younger, up and coming coaches didn’t want the job.
It’s hard to feel good about a coach, any coach, stepping into a situation in which his hiring failed to excite a large portion of the fan base, and stepping into a situation that is likely worse than what they are stepping out of.
If the Wildcats fail to reach a bowl game next season or the following season, and the Wildcats don’t have some elite level recruiting class coming in, it’s hard to imagine Cats fans giving Chris Klieman much more time.
Fair or not, and it’s not fair really, when a program makes an unprecedented move of hiring an FCS coach to take over a program and is met with so much blow back (seriously, if you are on Twitter and need a laugh, search #FireGeneTaylor) usually that coach doesn’t get a lot of time to turn a program around.
There is no doubting Klieman is a quality coach (67-6 record at NDSU, regardless of level, is impressive). However, with all that is working against Chris Klieman, one certainly has to wonder, is he able and up to the task?