Kansas State Football: Wildcats go with Chris Klieman as next head coach

09 JAN 2016: North Dakota State Bison head coach Chris Klieman holds up the championship trophy after the game between the North Dakota State Bison and the Jacksonville State Gamecocks at the FCS Championship at Toyota Stadium in Frisco,Texas. North Dakota beats Jacksonville State for it's fifth straight championship 37-10. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire) (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images) /

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Kansas State players (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Klieman will also have to show an ability to get in, recruit, and do it in a big way.

Kansas hired Les Miles, while Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma loom surround the state ready to attack for talent, and Clemson has proven a knack for grabbing a player or too. Will Klieman be able to get in and sell the talent on coming to Manhattan?

On a personal level, and there is going to be some venting here, but, there are a few things about this hire that make no sense and are rather frustrating.

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

First off, the contract. This is an absurd contract for a coach coming from the FCS level regardless of their winning percentage. Making 300K at North Dakota State, Klieman receives a MASSIVE pay raise. Which in and of itself is perhaps a bit on the high end of a deal, but, a good contract shows confidence. However, to have 200K (roughly 8.6% initially) every year on a six-year contract is just dumb and I’ll go ahead and say it, asinine.

Seriously, you’re telling me this contract doesn’t land a coach with some level of coaching or coordinating at the Power-5 level such as Neal Brown? (For reference, Neal Brown was making 800K at Troy. His buyout, however, was step, rumored to be at 3 million. ) Kansas State is not a school that’s exactly swimming in cash, known more for doing more with less than perhaps spending their way to championships, this is an extreme overpay.

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