Settling into his fifth year as head coach of the Wildcats, Chris Klieman has already tasted success in the Big 12 conference, taking his 2022 team to become Big 12 champions over then-No. 3 TCU in a thrilling matchup. But that only came after nearly 30 years of coaching trials and tribulations.
Klieman began his coaching career at his alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa, after playing in the defensive secondary for the football team all four years of college. The Iowa native worked for the Panthers as a graduate assistant and defensive backs coach until 1993, when he received an offer from Western Illinois, but only stayed there for three seasons.
Moving around a bit during the years following his departure from Western Illinois in 1996, Klieman held similar coaching positions at Kansas and Missouri State before securing his first head coaching job at Loras College in 2005. Things didn’t go too well, as his efforts led the Loras Duhawks to a 3–7 finish as a Division Ⅲ team. Klieman cut his time short, leaving the program after two years as defensive coordinator and one year as head coach to return to Northern Iowa as a defensive backs coach once again.
Klieman served as a defensive backs and co-defensive coordinator for the Panthers until 2011, when former head coach of North Dakota State Craig Bohl hired Klieman as a defensive backs coach for the Bison. He was quickly promoted to defensive coordinator the following season and stepped up to be head coach in 2014 after Bohl announced his departure to become head coach of Wyoming, where he still currently holds the position.
At North Dakota State, Klieman had big shoes to fill: the Bison had won the past three consecutive national championships and were riding on a 43-2 record since 2011, not to mention the team lost their starting quarterback and 30 senior players prior to the 2014 season.
However, Klieman surprised everyone when he led the Bison to a fourth national championship game after ending the season with only one loss to their name. Alongside future second-round NFL draft pick quarterback Carson Wentz, Klieman continued to prove himself as an experienced coach, leading North Dakota State to another almost-perfect record in 2015 at 13–2, sending his team to its fifth national championship, the most by any NCAA football program in recent history.
From then on, it was nothing but success for Klieman and the Bison, as they won their conference title again in 2016, 2017, and 2018, ending his last season with the team at a perfect 15-0 record. Klieman had three national championship victories across the four seasons he was head coach at North Dakota State.
In 2019, Klieman signed a $16.8 million contract with Kansas State, where he currently resides. Since then, he has racked in 30 wins throughout four seasons with the Wildcats, the fifth most total wins in program history. Klieman coasted through the 2019-2021 seasons with some highs and lows, but it wasn’t until most recently in 2022 that Kansas State truly saw a breakout season under Klieman.
The team started the season at 2–1 in nonconference play, losing to Tulane before kick-starting their Big 12 tour with an upset win over Oklahoma. The Wildcats only saw two more losses on the season, one from TCU and one from Texas, but ultimately reached the Big 12 Championship game, where they would have an upset win over then-No. 3 TCU to receive the title.
