Chris Klieman hopeful K-State football can return to pre-COVID ‘normalcy’ by summer
Chris Klieman couldn’t have asked for much more from his players during spring practice.
The Kansas State football coach filled a 25-minute news conference almost exclusively with positive comments on Tuesday as he reflected on how much the Wildcats improved over the past month. Not only does he think they are a more talented group than they were at the end of last season, he is also confident that they have matured into a closer group in the locker room.
He will never again underestimate the importance of spring practice after missing out on it entirely last year at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Still, he does have one more request for K-State players as they prepare for the 2021 season. He wants them to get vaccinated.
“Everybody wants to get back to some normalcy,” Klieman said during a video call with reporters, “and the best way to get back to normalcy is to get everybody vaccinated. So if you have a chance — everybody out there — to get a shot, boy, please take it. Let’s get this COVID behind us and keep moving forward.”
When spring practice began in early March, Klieman dodged a question about how soon he could see the K-State football team being able to put an end to COVID-19 staples like weekly testing, social distancing and mask wearing. That’s a question for medical experts, he said at the time. But he is starting to see light at the end of pandemic tunnel.
Klieman now thinks the Wildcats may be able to return to something resembling a normal routine by the time summer workouts begin.
New vaccine regulations in the Sunflower State are the main reason why. Young, healthy college students were originally at the end of the line when it came to the state’s vaccine distribution plan. But that changed last week when everyone 16 years or older was made eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot. There is now nothing preventing anyone associated with the K-State football team from protecting themselves against the coronavirus by getting vaccinated.
The state of Kansas currently has one of the most inclusive distribution plans available across the country, and that could give the Wildcats a head start on moving past COVID.
When asked if he wants his players to schedule vaccination appointments in the near future, Klieman responded emphatically.
“We absolutely do,” Klieman said. “We’d like them vaccinated before summer. We don’t know how that’s going to look. I know that (Kansas State’s health center) is starting to put out some things to vaccinate a lot of the students on campus, or have the ability to. We are encouraging our kids to go get a vaccine.”
Klieman said the vast majority of K-State’s coaching staff has already received two shots and is fully vaccinated.
He will encourage K-State players to do the same before the spring semester comes to an end. He can’t require them to do so, per university policy, but he will make sure they understand the potential advantages that come from the vaccine.
“We know the value we know how important it is,” Klieman said. “We’re going to keep pushing it. We hope there’s not anybody that doesn’t want to get vaccinated. We need to do a great job educating our players on the benefits of, you know, maybe eliminating some social distancing and eliminating some mask wearing and eliminating some quarantines, all those things, so that we can get herd immunity and we can keep pushing past this COVID phase.”