COLUMN | 'One of the good guys': Klieman bids farewell to K-State

In a room filled with media and just about every available KSU athletics department employee, including many of his fellow Wildcat head coaches, Klieman bid farewell to life as a collegiate head coach.

“It just goes to show and proves to me that the good guys win, and doing things the right way, and doing it with class and doing it with integrity is the right way, and guys, that’s the K-State way,” Klieman said. “And it’s been an emotional day for me. I am at peace.”

The college football world shifted drastically from the time that Klieman left Fargo, North Dakota, to today. Life under NIL and the transfer portal has increased the difficulty of being a head coach in the modern world of college football.

Eventually, the shift became too great for Klieman, and with no quick fix on the horizon, he decided to give up the fight and focus on his health and his family.

“You just saw one of the greatest guys in this industry walk out of this room and retire from coaching, from the business that he loves,” athletics director Gene Taylor said tearily. “And what really pisses me off is he’s doing it because where we are in this industry … and if we don’t get this thing under control, more really, really good guys like Chris Klieman are going to walk away from this business.”

Klieman will hang around for a little while longer as K-State starts the search for a successor, which despite denials from Taylor, will most likely be favorite son and Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein.

But before the euphoria and excitement of the prodigal son potentially returning home sweeps you away, it’s worth it to take a step back at what the last seven years have meant.

Klieman ends his career at K-State with 54 wins, which is better than every Wildcat coach not named Bill Snyder. There have been 31 other head coaches in Manhattan; none of them have come close to those two men.

Klieman saw 26 First Team All-America designations and eight total All-Americans pass through his program in Felix Anudike-Uzomah (2021, 2022), Phillip Brooks (2020), Cooper Beebe (2022, 2023), Malik Knowles (2021, 2022), Randen Plattner (2022, 2023), Ben Sinnott (2023), Deuce Vaughn (2020, 2021, 2022) and Joshua Youngblood (2019).

Vaughn became the second player in school history to earn consecutive Consensus All-America honors when he picked up the accolades in 2021 and 2022, while Beebe was the first offensive lineman to be named a Consensus All-American when he earned the honor in 2023.

“Leadership to me is how many people you can impact on a daily basis, and make sure that’s a different person every day,” Klieman said. “I’m one of the lucky ones. I spent 15 years at the last two stops, and that’s a rarity. … It’s unique, doesn’t happen enough anymore. Relationships with players, impacts on people that reach far beyond this game, that’s always been my passion, and that’s always been my burn.”

Add in a Big 12 title, four bowl wins, getting to bowl eligibility in six of the last seven seasons and reaching heights never seen in Manhattan recruiting-wise, including the program’s first five-star player in tight end Linkon Cure, the resume easily lands him as one of the greatest coaches in school history regardless of sport.

Every home game Saturday in Manhattan, Klieman and his players walked through the west parking lot and past Snyder’s statue.

It’s hard to be the guy who has to follow the statue. More competent coaches than Ron Prince at more prestigious programs than K-State have tried and failed.

Not only did Klieman not fail, he nearly equaled the heights that Snyder had reached in years prior. And it’s something he’s done twice, after following Craig Bohl at North Dakota State, who had won three straight national titles prior to Klieman taking over.

“People said, ‘Don’t you dare follow Craig Bohl,’” Klieman said. “And we won four (national titles in five years). I followed the greatest coach, in my opinion, in the history of college football in Bill Snyder. And everybody said, ‘You don’t want to do that.’ And I said, ‘I just followed the guy that won three (titles) in a row, and we did OK. I’m ready to go to work.’ And I think we did a pretty damn good job here.”

He had every right to cling to this job and ride things out. He more than earned the chance to try and reach those heights again.

So many coaches get caught up in their pride and want to leave on a high note. And I’m sure that Klieman would’ve preferred that.

But he prioritized his health, family and, I’m sure, at some level, the future of the program, chose to walk away before the water got too deep.

He went out with a win in his final game and is leaving with his head held high, on his own terms.

There aren’t many of us who wouldn’t wish for the same fate.

Klieman leaves coaching as a winner, something he’s been his whole life. And he left K-State in a better place than he found it. And that is more than worth celebrating.