Chris Klieman

“Stack good days on top of good days, and I promise you will be pleased with the process.” That was the message throughout year one of the Chris Klieman era at Kansas State. And let’s just say there were many good days stacked on top of one another.

Klieman, a proven winner with a championship history, was named the 35th head football coach in Kansas State history on December 10, 2018, and in year one at the helm of the K-State program, the Wildcats managed to win eight games, finish in a tie for third in the Big 12 after being picked ninth in the preseason, knocked off No. 5 Oklahoma at home for the first time since 1996, won at Mississippi State – the Wildcats first win in 11 tries inside an SEC stadium – kept the Governor’s Cup in Manhattan following their 11th-straight win over rival Kansas and quickly got back to bowl eligibility after missing out the year prior. The eight wins by Klieman were the most in school history by a first-year coach and also ranked second nationally among first-year Power 5 head coaches in 2019, trailing only Ohio State’s Ryan Day.

A total of 15 Wildcats earned All-Big 12 recognition in 2019, led by Special Teams Player of the Year Joshua Youngblood, who became the first true freshman in Big 12 history to be named Big 12 player of the year on offense, defense or special teams. His three kick returns for touchdowns led the nation in 2019 and sparked key Big 12 wins over Texas Tech and No. 23 Iowa State.

Klieman’s work started on the field but didn’t end there as the Wildcats placed a school-record 32 players on the Academic All-Big 12 teams, including a league-record 26 first-team members. Headlining the list was Adam Holtorf, who was the Big 12 Scholar Athlete of the Year, a First Team Academic All-American and candidate for the Campbell Trophy.

Prior to arriving at K-State, Klieman capped his five-year stint as head coach at North Dakota State by winning his fourth national championship in 2018. He tied Jim Tressel (Youngstown State) for the most FCS National Championships as a head coach, while he was a part of all seven of NDSU’s national championships, the most in FCS history.

Klieman guided the 2018 Bison to a perfect 15-0 record, just the fifth team in FCS history to go undefeated and untied on the way to a national championship. North Dakota State also claimed that feat in 2013 when Klieman as the defensive coordinator.

A native of Waterloo, Iowa, Klieman finished first in NDSU history in winning percentage (.920) and third in victories (69).

Klieman’s accomplishments as the Bison head coach came despite losing 23 seniors and welcoming seven new assistant coaches prior to his first season at the helm in 2014. That year, the Bison went 15-1 and won the national championship before going 13-2 with another national championship in 2015, 12-2 with a semifinal appearance in 2016 and 14-1 with a third national title in 2017.

Klieman holds an 80-18 record in his seven seasons overall as head coach, including a 69-6 mark at North Dakota State and 8-5 at K-State. His 81.6 winning percentage as a head coach is the ninth-highest mark by an active coach among all NCAA Divisions at the end of the 2019 season, while it was the top mark among current FBS coaches.

Klieman’s record is even more impressive considering 39 of his 69 wins at North Dakota State (56.5 percent) came over ranked opponents, while he had two wins in two tries over FBS competition – a 34-14 victory at Iowa State in his first game at the helm of NDSU and a 23-21 triumph at 11th-ranked Iowa in 2016. His teams were also stellar in protecting home field as evidenced by his 43-3 home record at NDSU, which includes winning each of his last 19 games at the FargoDome.

The Bison won the Missouri Valley Football Conference each of his five years as head coach and put together a collective 36-4 (90.0 percent) record against conference foes during that time. He was named the Bruce Craddock MVFC Coach of the Year in 2017, while he was the 2014 Rawlings Football/American Football Monthly FCS Coach of the Year and the 2018 AFCA Region 4 FCS Coach of the Year.

Klieman’s teams were a model of success at NDSU, ranking highly in many of the key statistical categories throughout his tenure. The Bison scoring offense ranked in the top 10 each of his final three seasons in Fargo, including a 41.5-points-per-game mark to rank sixth in 2018, and their total offense mark ranked in the top 20 the final two years, including a 271.7-yard mark in 2018 to rank 14th in the nation.

Klieman, who came up through the coaching ranks on defense, has always produced on that side of the ball as NDSU finished his final season ranked in the top 15 in red zone defense (1st), scoring defense (3rd) and total defense (5th). The Bison ranked in the top six in scoring and total defense in four of his five seasons as head coach, including a No. 1 national ranking in total defense in 2017 (237.4). Elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach at NDSU on December 15, 2013, Klieman’s defensive units during his two-year run as coordinator each included top-10 rankings in scoring defense, total defense, rushing defense and passing defense. Highlighting that run were No. 1 rankings in scoring defense in both 2012 and 2013, and total defense in 2012, the latter when he was named the Football Scoop FCS Coordinator of the Year. NDSU also led the nation in scoring defense when he was the defensive backs coach in 2011.

Klieman began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Northern Iowa, in 1991 and 1992 before being promoted to an assistant coach in 1993. He went on to Western Illinois as an assistant coach from 1994 to 1996 before serving as a graduate assistant at Kansas in 1997 and an assistant coach at Missouri State in 1999.

Klieman then moved on to Division III Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, where he was the defensive coordinator from 2002 to 2004 before taking over as head coach for the 2005 season. He returned to Northern Iowa in 2006 as an assistant coach before being elevated to defensive coordinator for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Klieman was a three-time All-Gateway Conference defensive back at Northern Iowa and four-year letterwinner from 1986-90. He graduated from UNI in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in health education and a master’s degree in physical education in 1992.

Klieman and his wife, Rhonda, are parents of two sons, Devin and Colby, and one daughter, Haley.