‘It has meant everything’: Klieman shows love for K-State’s first seniors after Snyder
Last year’s seniors went out in one of the more heartbreaking football losses in Kansas State history.
Up 17 points in the fourth quarter at Iowa State, K-State was closing in on six wins and bowl eligibility in Bill Snyder’s final season as head coach.
“What bowl do you guys think we’re going to go to,” then-junior receiver Dalton Schoen asked his teammates.
Instead, K-State gave up 21 unanswered points. The Wildcats lost 42-38 on Iowa State’s senior night. The Wildcats’ season was over. The KSU seniors’ careers were over. A few months later, legendary coach Snyder said his career was over, too.
On Saturday, K-State plays Iowa State again to end the regular season. The Wildcats aren’t fighting for bowl eligibility like last year. This year’s seniors are already guaranteed another game.
But their new coach has plenty of motivation for this one.
“It has meant everything to me,” coach Chris Klieman said. “A lot of these kids have already graduated, and you’re allowed to grad-transfer. They did not grad-transfer because of Coach (Snyder) leaving or because of me coming in. I think they all stuck together for each other, and that’s the neatest thing for me.”
Klieman will hug 27 seniors at K-State’s Senior Night ceremony Saturday. This is the Wildcats’ biggest graduating senior class since 2013. And as Klieman noted, 10 of those seniors could have gone elsewhere with one final year of eligibility.
Senior tight end Blaise Gammon among them. But he said leaving Manhattan never crossed his mind.
“I was all-in at K-State and on finishing my career here,” Gammon said. “It says a lot that all these guys wanted to be here, wanted to be committed to the program and really have such togetherness and a tight bond.”
Senior defensive tackle Trey Dishon said this week that leaving KSU was not what he thought of when he heard the news about Snyder. But he had questions, too.
“I was nervous,” Dishon said. “I remember calling my parents and saying, ‘What am I going to do?’ I had no idea who Klieman was. I didn’t know anything. The biggest thing was staying close to home.
“Everything has been injected into me here. How I go about my day, my morals, my goals, I learned that here. I was bleeding purple, so I couldn’t leave like that, especially when you have seniors who have been starting beside you for years.”
Instead of losing grad-transfers, Klieman gained some.
Running back James Gilbert transferred to K-State after four years at Ball State. Gilbert is the Wildcats’ leading rusher with 704 yards on 125 carries. He has scored six touchdowns.
Fellow running back Jordon Brown came to K-State after time at North Carolina. He is the Wildcat’s third-leading rusher with 297 yards and three scores.
Gilbert said he is thankful to K-State and Klieman for the opportunity.
“I really felt the family atmosphere; I really felt the brotherhood,” Gilbert said. “Everybody’s so welcoming in the community, the fans, everybody. It’s been fun. I’m glad I did it. I want to go out with a bang this week.”
Each of K-State’s 27 seniors took a different path to Saturday night’s game against Iowa State. Players like linebacker Elijah Sullivan and defensive end Reggie Walker were highly recruited out of high school. Schoen, meanwhile, had to practically beg for a spot as a preferred walk-on.
Dishon will made his 48th straight start with the Wildcats while offensive lineman Hayden Perry, of Emporia, will leave without seeing any meaningful game action.
Klieman said it’s important that 2019 marks his first set of seniors at K-State, but the group’s brotherhood is even more valuable to him.
“Whether there was difficult times, great times, those guys said, ‘We’re going to go out together,’” Klieman said. “You don’t see that in college football, as many fifth-year seniors as we have here. Let’s credit those kids, because they’re the ones that stuck together.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 3:54 PM.