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Kansas State football: Chris Klieman climbs in national coach rankings

By Ethan Lee

MANHATTAN, KS - NOVEMBER 07: Head coach Chris Klieman of the Kansas State Wildcats leads his team out onto the field, prior to a game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium on November 7, 2020 in Manhattan, Kansas. (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images)
MANHATTAN, KS - NOVEMBER 07: Head coach Chris Klieman of the Kansas State Wildcats leads his team out onto the field, prior to a game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium on November 7, 2020 in Manhattan, Kansas. (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images) /
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Heading into his third season leading the Kansas State football program, Chris Klieman has earned some respect for his work with the Wildcats.

Chris Klieman hasn’t been in Manhattan for very long, but the head coach of the Kansas State football team has been recognized for his work in developing the Wildcats. Prior to the start of the 2021 college football season, Klieman has moved up in the Power Five coach rankings from CBS Sports and 247Sports.

Here’s the full Big 12 coach rankings from the experts at CBS Sports and 247Sports:

  1. Oklahoma Sooners’ Lincoln Riley
  2. Iowa State Cyclones’ Matt Campbell
  3. Oklahoma State Cowboys’ Mike Gundy
  4. TCU Horned Frogs’ Gary Patterson
  5. Kansas Jayhawks’ Lance Leipold
  6. Kansas State Wildcats’ Chris Klieman
  7. West Virginia Mountaineers’ Neal Brown
  8. Texas Longhorns’ Steve Sarkisian
  9. Texas Tech Red Raiders’ Matt Wells
  10. Baylor Bears’ Dave Aranda

But while Klieman for some reason hasn’t earned enough respect to be in the top half of the Big 12 coach rankings just yet, he’s currently sitting at No. 37 when ranked among all of the Power Five coaches.

That’s up five from where Klieman was sitting just one season ago.

It stands to reason that if the Kansas State football team can have a relatively injury-free season then the Wildcats will have a few more wins. And a few more wins probably moves Klieman up even further on this list.

Chris Klieman is entering his third season of being the head coach of the Kansas State football team

Klieman and the Wildcats have been pretty successful together so far, even if the tumultuous, injury-filled 2020 season was pretty difficult for the Kansas State football team (and for its fans).

In 2019, Kansas State had a very solid season. The Wildcats got things started with three consecutive wins, crushing the likes of Nicholls State and Bowling Green before heading to Starkville, Mississippi to hand a 31-24 loss to the SEC’s Mississippi State Bulldogs.

K-State then lost back-to-back games to Oklahoma State and Baylor, but responded by beating TCU and then shocking the No. 5 Oklahoma Sooners. That upset of OU would be what Klieman and his team could celebrate most from 2019 and the Wildcats ended up at 8-5 on the year.

And while 2020 was rough and the Kansas State football team only managed to go 4-6 on the season, it’s worth noting that the Wildcats were successful before the injury bug started biting them.

In fact, Klieman and the Wildcats handed Oklahoma another shocking upset loss in 2020.

He’s 2-0 against Lincoln Riley and the Sooners and he’s got the chance to continue building the Wildcats into a consistent winner, and potentially a Big 12 contender. The Wildcats certainly have an underrated coach.

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