Kansas State hiring North Dakota State's Chris Klieman as its next football coach

Mon, 10 Dec 2018, 7:01 pm

North Dakota State’s Chris Klieman will be the next head coach at Kansas State. (AP)

North Dakota State’s Chris Klieman will be the next head coach at Kansas State. Klieman would be hired amid a ridiculously successful run at North Dakota State, where he’s gone 67-6, won three national titles as head coach and is two victories away from winning another.

Klieman is considered an unconventional choice, as it has become increasingly rare for a Power Five program to pick a head coach from the FCS ranks. Along with his daunting record, there are other reasons this makes sense. Klieman has strong ties to Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor, who came to Kansas State from North Dakota State. During Taylor’s stint at North Dakota State, he promoted Klieman to head coach after Craig Bohl left for Wyoming after the 2013 season.

Kansas State confirmed the hire via social media with a video of Taylor offering the job to Kleiman.

“I’m very excited to have Chris Klieman lead our program,” Taylor said in a statement. “He is a perfect fit for us, both from a personal standpoint and as a head coach. He’s a tremendous teacher who I had the pleasure to hire at NDSU and watched him turn into a very successful coach. He will bring a ton of energy and excitement. His teams play extremely hard, disciplined football. He’s a winner. That’s all he does is win, and we’re excited to have Chris, Rhonda and the entire Klieman family join our K-State family. They will be a great fit not only for Kansas State Football and Kansas State Athletics, but also the entire community of Manhattan.”

Klieman has agreed to a six-year deal with a base salary of $2.3 million in 2019 with a $200,000 increase each year.

While they play at different levels and leagues, the core of the Kansas State coaching job and North Dakota State job are similar – they require high-end player identification and development, which Klieman has shown a keen eye for at North Dakota State.

Expect Kansas State to play a pro-style offense predicated on running and controlling the ball, an antidote to the high-flying spread ethos of the Big 12. The other candidates that he beat out fit that high-scoring paradigm – Troy’s Neal Brown, North Texas’ Seth Littrell and Memphis coach Mike Norvell. This hire is a statement by Kansas State that they want to be different than the peers in their league.

It could be a tricky few weeks for Klieman with North Dakota State on the cusp of another national title. North Dakota State plays South Dakota State on Dec. 14, and if they win, the FCS title game isn’t until Jan. 5 in Frisco, Texas. That would mean that he’d be juggling recruiting and establishing his staff at Kansas State and preparing for the title game.

After North Dakota State blew out Colgate on Saturday, Klieman acknowledged that he spoke to Kansas State officials earlier in the week. Sources told Yahoo Sports he had a conversation with Kansas State president Richard Myers on Sunday morning, seemingly the final step.

He’ll replace Hall of Fame coach Bill Snyder, who stepped down at age 79 following this season. Snyder went 215-117 in two stints that spanned 27 seasons at Kansas State, which has a dim history of success without him as the head coach. Snyder left in the wake of a 5-7 season.

This marks the final Power Five job to be filled in the first wave of the coaching carousel cycle.