From The Couch – Klein Fills His Coaching Staff, Klieman Speaks, and Tang’s Team Flounders
I was going to wait until the transfer portal had settled down a bit before writing a column about it, but I’m not sure it is ever going to settle down, so today is as good of a day as any to dig into it. Let’s go!
Collin Klein has completed his coaching staff with the hiring of Missouri quarterbacks coach Sean Gleeson as offensive coordinator.
JM: I am not sure what to think about this hire. Was I ever impressed with Missouri’s offense or their quarterbacks this season? Not necessarily. A simple Google search of Sean Gleeson will give you the following nuggets of information from 2022…
“Rutgers announces firing of offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson.”
“Sean Gleeson was fired as the offensive coordinator for Rutgers on October 9, 2022, after the team’s struggling performance, which included a ranking of No. 108 in total offense and No. 104 in scoring offense.”
“The dismissal of Gleeson comes during some massive struggles for the team. Aside from a 66-7 win over Wagner, Rutgers has not scored more than 22 points in a game this season. The Scarlet Knights have lost three straight games, scoring 10, 10, and 13 points in those three games, respectively.”
I don’t want to be negative about this hire, but I’m here to provide commentary that you likely won’t hear elsewhere. If K-State’s offense struggles under Gleeson, K-State fans are going to quickly run him out of Manhattan.
Here is Collin Klein’s full staff, along with their salaries, from the Wichita Eagle.
“Here is how much base salary K-State has committed to Klein and his inaugural football staff with the Wildcats:
Collin Klein (head coach): $4.1 million
Jordan Peterson (defensive coordinator): $900,000
Thad Ward (wide receivers): $525,000
Mike Schmidt (offensive line): $500,000
Brian Lepak (tight ends): $480,000
Buddy Wyatt (defensive line): $400,000
Nick Toth (linebackers): $375,000
Marcus Woodson (cornerbacks): $350,000 in Year 1 and $450,000 in Year 2
Christian Ellsworth (quarterback): $350,000
Jeremy Jacobs (strength and conditioning): $350,000
Cory Patterson (running backs): $250,000 in Year 1 and $375,000 in Year 2
Jeremiah Johnson (defensive backs): $250,000 in Year 1 and $350,000 in Year 2
Stanton Weber (special teams): $250,000″
JM: There are a couple of things I like about this staff. First is the hiring of Jordan Peterson, who was co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach this past season at Texas A&M, Texas A&M is coming off a regular season in which it ranked No. 19 in yards allowed, giving up just 309.8 per game. They ranked first in the nation on third downs, and allowed 182.8 passing yards per game, which ranked among the nation’s best. Peterson comes into Manhattan with some pedigree, and I hope that success continues at K-State.
The second is the hiring Stanton Weber as special teams coordinator. K-State’s special teams were mostly a disappointment under Chris Klieman, at least compared to the historical greatness of K-State special teams. It is nice that there will be a special teams coach again. Weber spent the last three seasons coaching special teams at Toledo and spent a couple of years at South Carolina before that. Let’s be honest. If K-State wants to be successful in the Big 12, it must have strong special teams play. This is a good first step towards that.
Make sure you have your Tylenol handy if you are actively tracking all of the players leaving and coming in through the transfer portal. I found an updated list on the Wichita Eagle’s website….
“K-State football transfer tracker
Incoming (18)
Charlie Adams (offensive lineman from Cal Poly)
Koy Beasley (defensive back from Miami of Ohio)
Jayden Bryant (defensive end from Coastal Carolina)
Kamari Burns (defensive lineman from Cincinnati)
Dylan Davidson (punter from Emporia State)
Jaxson Duffield (long snapper from Oklahoma State)
Rodney Fields (running back from Oklahoma State)
Robert Hammond (kicker from Toledo)
De’Arieun Hicks (defensive lineman from Gardner-Webb)
Keiton Jones (offensive lineman from Missouri)
Joshua Manning (wide receiver from Missouri)
Mekhi Mason (linebacker from Louisiana Tech)
Tanner Morley (offensive lineman from Colorado State)
Delvin Morris (offensive lineman from Akron)
Jacobi Oliphant (linebacker from Oklahoma State)
Kaleb Patterson (defensive back from Illinois)
Ja’Son Prevard (defensive back from Virginia)
Austin Ramsey (defensive tackle from Kentucky)
Izaiah Williams (wide receiver from Texas A&M)
Outgoing (31)
Malcolm Alcorn-Crowder (defensive line) to SMU
Callen Barta (wide receiver) to Emporia State
Jayce Brown (wide receiver) to LSU
Teagan Cobb (punter) to Southeast Missouri State
Daniel Cobbs (defensive back)
Ryan Davis (defensive end) to Baylor
Dylan Edwards (running back)
Amarion Fortenberry (defensive back)
Truman Griffith (defensive end) to North Dakota State
Garrett Harstad (wide receiver)
Hudson Hutcheson (quarterback)
Will Kemna (offensive line)
Brayden Loftin (tight end)
Antonio Martin (running back)
Kaedin Massey (offensive line)
Colby McAlister (defensive end)
Andrew Metzger (tight end) to Ohio
Qua Moss (defensive back) to Tennessee
Chiddi Obiazor (defensive end) to Indiana
Ralph Ortiz (linebacker)
Tobi Osunsanmi (defensive end) to Indiana
JB Price (running back)
DeVon Rice (running back)
Maguire Richman (linebacker)
Austin Romaine (linebacker) to Texas Tech
Jayden Rowe (defensive back)
Jacques Spradley-Demps (running back)
Amos Talalele (offensive line)
Kanijal Thomas (defensive back) to Oklahoma State
Asher Tomaszewski (defensive line)
Devin Vass (offensive line) to West Virginia”
JM: You’d better buy a program for that first game if you want to start learning all of these players. Avery Johnson and Joe Jackson are back, but almost the entire roster will consist of newcomers. That is a recipe for disaster, especially with a new coaching staff and a head coach who has never been a head coach before. Can the 2026 season be a success? Yes, I suppose so, but odds are against it. K-State fans better be patient.
“Collin and I talk frequently, anyway, but I think it’s pretty well known he was going to take another job. I mean, he was up for a lot, and Collin was, in my mind, ready to take that next step. And I just thought, ‘Wait a minute, if I’m getting out, and I don’t want him to take a job and then I get out, that wouldn’t be very good. So, yeah, we had a good conversation. I’m gonna keep that conversation between Collin and I, but we had a good conversation.”…Chris Klieman, in an interview from the Manhattan Mercury
JM: Klieman gave a very honest and candid interview to the Manhattan Mercury about some of the challenges he was facing as head coach.
“We don’t have any guardrails and rules. Anybody can do whatever the heck they want. And that for all of us coaches, not just myself at Kansas State, I’ve talked to (many coaches) across the country, we’re all kind of like, ‘We need some guardrails so that somebody can’t spend $45 million, while somebody else is spending 15.”…Chris Klieman, in an interview from the Manhattan Mercury
JM: I don’t understand how anyone thinks that college football can survive at the current trajectory. It’s a huge mess.
“That was where I was kind of at my wits’ end. I don’t blame any of these kids. It’s not their fault, but you get done playing Colorado, and come Monday, man, there’s 20 (players’ agents) that want to know a number, or they’re ready to go into the (transfer) portal.”…Chris Klieman, in an interview from the Manhattan Mercury
JM: Can they not put a system in place like the NFL? There is already a model for this.
“That’s all I’m going to do the whole month of December and January, is work with whatever 80 of our kids to see if we can keep them, and if not, go work with 580 kids to fill the 30 spots we’re going to need, and that’s all December and January. That’s not recruiting. That’s just finding ways to make deals… You’re just putting compensation packages together. And once again, that’s not me. That’s the way college football is, and I’m OK with that, but I don’t have to be a part of it if that’s the way it’s going down. And that’s why, rather than me just sitting there and milking it for whatever, seven more years on my contract, I was like, I can’t do this.”…Chris Klieman, in an interview from the Manhattan Mercury
JM: I think there are a lot of coaches who feel just like Klieman does. Mike Gundy is probably one of them. He wouldn’t play this game, his program didn’t keep up, and he got fired for it.
“I’ve been doing this for 35 years, (but) I’d die if I kept doing this job, I’d die. If I kept doing this job, I was gonna have a heart attack, or I was gonna have a stroke. My blood pressure was through the roof. The stress and anxiety, not of winning and losing — my legacy is going to be fine on winning and losing.”…Chris Klieman, in an interview from the Manhattan Mercury
JM: I’d been saying for a while that Klieman didn’t look healthy, and it looked like his heart wasn’t really into it. That’s pretty sad if you ask me. He’s a good guy who did things the right way and was forced to make a change because, let’s be honest, college sports is such a dirty business. On the flip side, we have a new coach in Collin Klein that embraces all of this, as do all of his coaches. Will he be successful? I have no idea.
JM: K-State basketball is a train wreck. They are 9-7 overall and 0-3 in the Big 12. The Arizona State game was one of the few opportunities they had to get a conference victory. They might be the worst team in the conference. It’s not just that they are horribly coached; it’s that they appear not to be coached at all. What a con job Jerome Tang did to get hired for the job, endear himself to fans, students, and the community, and repeatedly put a piss poor product on the floor. He had two players, Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson, who willed the team to an Elite 8 appearance in his first year, but it has all gone to hell since then. There is no fixing it. There must be a change made, but is the money there to buy Tang out of his contract? I know I don’t have it, or he’d be gone already.
JM: Tim Fitzgerald does a great job here discussing the history of K-State basketball and how and why they are what they are at the current moment. Where we disagree is that Fitz doesn’t think K-State can return to its past glory, but I hold out hope that it can. It’s going to take the right hire and some luck, but K-Staters still love their basketball and would get onboard en masse if they have a worthy product to support. It has to start with replacing Jerome Tang. The Tang experiment is not working, and it will never work. Please find me a guy who can coach talented players and build a program that we all can be proud of.
