Kansas State Football: Wildcats go with Chris Klieman as next head coach
By John McCarty
While not unprecedented, the Kansas State football will look to defy the odds in selecting FCS Chris Klieman of North Dakota State to be their next head coach.
Word came down Monday night that Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor had selected North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman to be the next head coach at Kansas State. After reported interest in North Texas Seth Littrell, Troy Neal Brown and others, spending over a week and hiring a search firm to hire a coach that could have been done with a text message feels, well, underwhelming. Should it be, however?
It should be noted, however, that Gene Taylor was the athletic director in 2014 at North Dakota State and hired Klieman to be the head coach at NDSU when Craig Bohl left to take the Wyoming head coaching job. Taylor is comfortable and knows Klieman very well.
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Based on winning, perhaps no coach in the country wins more than Chris Klieman and the North Dakota State program. Since taking over the Bison program in 2014, NDSU has a staggering record of 67-6 with three national championships, a loss in the FCS Playoff semifinals (finished third in the polls) and are currently undefeated in 2018.
The Bison defeated Colgate this past Saturday. Klieman’s team very well could win the 2018 FCS National Championship, which would give Klieman his fourth title in five years as a head coach at North Dakota State.
Kleiman came to Fargo from Northern Iowa in 2011 to serve as defensive backs coach (he took over as Defensive Coordinator in 2012), and his arrival marked perhaps the arrival of the NDSU program. From his arrival in 2011 through the 2018 season, NDSU has won a staggering six national championships in seven seasons.
Also part of his resumé is the victories over Iowa State in 2014 and Iowa in 2016. Considering the NDSU program, while he was an assistant, recorded wins over both Kansas and Kansas State, this is a FCS program that certainly appears to be unmatched.