Why Chris Klieman is making a change to Kansas State’s offensive coaching staff
A change is coming to Kansas State’s coaching staff.
Even though Chris Klieman has retained all 10 of his full-time football assistants from last season, he will ask two of them to coach different positions in 2021. After much thought, he his hopeful that shuffling their duties will provide a much-needed boost for the Wildcats on offense.
Offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham will coach K-State’s wide receivers and position coach Jason Ray will handle fullbacks and tight ends. Messingham will continue calling plays for the Wildcats on game days, but he has switched daily position duties with Ray.
“The main reason that I did that was I want the play caller to be more actively involved in the passing game,” Klieman said. “That was something we talked about before Christmas as an offensive staff. We sat on it, came back after Christmas and had more lengthy conversations. It had nothing to do with personnel or anything like that. I just want the play caller to be more involved on a daily basis and practice with the passing game.”
Time will tell if this coaching staff shuffle will play dividends, but it seems like a good time for a fresh perspective at the receiver position.
K-State’s passing attack was a disaster last season. The Wildcats ranked ninth in the Big 12 with an average of 185.7 passing yards per game. Their leading receiver was running back Deuce Vaughn (25 catches for 434 yards) and their second-leading receiver was tight end Briley Moore (22 catches for 338 yards).
Chabastin Taylor led the receiver position with 19 catches for 293 yards and a touchdown. Malik Knowles was next with 13 catches for 204 yards and three touchdowns. And Phillip Brooks added 15 catches for 155 yards and two scores.
Outside of that, K-State quarterbacks had much more success throwing to tight ends, running backs and even full backs than they did receivers.
Perhaps Messingham can provide a fresh perspective with Skylar Thompson returning for an extra season as K-State’s quarterback. Messingham has previously served as a receivers coach at Missouri State, Southern Mississippi and Iowa State.
Ray has never coached tight ends or full backs before, but he got his start coaching running backs at Wyoming in 2010.
K-State adds two on signing day
It was a relatively quiet signing day for the Wildcats, as they landed the bulk of their records in December and added a handful of transfers in January.
But they did announce the addition of two new high school recruits to the program.
They were both in-state products -- Manhattan defensive tackle Damian Ilalio and Hayden (Topeka) defensive back Desmond Purnell.
Klieman called Ilalio “a flat-out winner” that dominated the line of scrimmage a year ago. He referred to Purnell as “a guy that will hav ean impact on our program.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 12:12 PM.