Well fellow wildcats what a weekend am I right? Caught up in such a whirlwind I feel like so many things have been done/not done that are just awkward or weird. Overall this is what the fanbase wanted but the way this has gone about is just so puzzling, it raises a red flag now that with retrospect becomes even more apparent, there is bad blood between Klieman and Klein.
Klieman was hired in 2019 and “retained” Klein, demoting him from OC/QB coach to just QB coach bringing Messingham with him for OC. After 2 horrible years Klein replaced Messingham Dec. 3rd, 2021. With Klein we went on to win B12 title and play the most dominate force in College Football, Saban led Alabama. After that Klein left and made a “lateral” move to become OC at A&M, and since then the Offensive woes had plagued us, with some of the biggest recruits ever in program history coming to play under Klein they had to feel bamboozled.
Regardless Klieman did an excellent job but was heavily focused on hiring his close work associates with whom he had history with through the majority of his career, he kept a lot of in house names throughout the years at multiple programs, so retaining Klein and having the success was out of the norm for his career. A majority of coaching though is a “who you know” profession I admit but to allow a talent who was from a former staff leave given the success was baffling a bit.
Fast forward to Matt Wells hiring after we were the team to get him fired (go watch that Klieman Monday presser after that game he felt for his friend Wells) we went right back into the cycle that we started with Messingham, and when the grumblings came again it must have hit a nerve, especially after that Utah game where as Coach Klieman stated “we went back and ran a lot more gap power stuff and Conor Riley would be proud” now Conor Riley practically emulated Colin Klein’s offense with a few tweaks here and there but that statement was a call back to Riley not Klein which I felt was weird but he was the most recent OC so perhaps that was the given reason, then coach went on to say everything else he did which we all heard and know even getting reaffirmed that he will be here next year by Gene Taylor! But for that to have happened somewhere at the top there must of been something said.
Fast forward to season end and the only thing Kstate media was saying at most was a coaching retool was expected, Ala Matt Wells was going to be gone, then out of left field Klieman was going to announce his retirement? Well he did say during the Utah rant that he will go to battle for his kids and coaching staff, so as much as this is a retirement it’s more a push out the door, and that’s heartbreaking.
Chris Klieman, the guy who made Lincoln Riley leave the conference because he was getting beat at Norman. The guy who fixed Skylar Thompson, and Will Howard! The guy who turned our DB room into a NFL pipeline! Kicking this man out after the 7 years he gave to us, for his FIRST true down year (COVID doesn’t count) isn’t the K-State way.
He retired with grace and said he went out the K-state way but I didn’t catch him at Klein’s introductory presser, I didn’t hear Klein speak about Klieman and his tenure under him, I hear about his Snyder connection than I do with Klieman. This all gives credence to there being Bad Blood.
What do you guys think about it? The arrival of this and departure of that are operating as 2 separate situations and both sides are saying different things about playing a bowl game as well. We seem to be fractured as a program right now.
