Why K-State football coach Chris Klieman was emotional about Skylar Thompson’s injury
The look on Chris Klieman’s face said it all.
Moments after Skylar Thompson collapsed with a knee injury last week, Klieman sprinted onto the field to check on one of his favorite players. The Kansas State football coach then dropped to his knees, wiped away tears and reacted as if he was watching a horror movie as trainers evaluated the Wildcats’ starting quarterback.
Klieman was scared. So much so that he followed Thompson into the team’s sideline injury tent and checked up on him the moment Saturday’s 31-23 victory over Southern Illinois came to an end.
“It’s kind of like deja vu,” Klieman said. “I saw that same scenario a year ago in the (third) game, and I thought nobody deserves this.”
Klieman cares deeply for Thompson. There is no doubting that following his emotional reaction to what many feared was a season-ending injury.
But Klieman was equally happy the following day when he learned that Thompson avoided major injury and will have a chance to play again this year after an undetermined amount of recovery. For now, he says Thompson’s health status is week-to-week.
“I was thrilled for him personally,” Klieman said. “Life’s not fair, and we all know that sometimes you’re dealt those hands that you don’t typically deserve. So, when I learned on Sunday that he wasn’t going to be gone for the season, I reached out to him and talked to him at length and just said, ‘You have to keep getting your body ready. You have to keep preparing. You have to keep doing the things nutrition wise. You have to do the best you can to keep your cardio up, which is going to be difficult, but you have to stay sharp and in meetings,’ so that when that time comes, whenever that is, he’s ready to go.”
Klieman was quick to pass along the good news.
“It gave a little bit more of a lift in life to our players,” Klieman said, “to say, ‘We’re going to get this guy back at some point.’”
Klieman cares about all of his players. He promises their parents that he is going to coach them hard, but also love them while they are on campus.
Still, he seems to have a soft spot for Thompson.
No one was more disappointed than Klieman when Thompson suffered a season-ending injury to his throwing arm last season. No one showed more concern over Thompson when he got hurt again on Saturday.
Before the season began, Klieman said he was “blessed” to get an extra year with Thompson as a “super senior.”
“There’s something about him,” Klieman said. “He is one of my son’s best friends, so I see him a lot. We have just always clicked. We had conversations before I was at K-State when I was coaching at North Dakota State. I have known a lot about him. I recruited the Kansas City area when he was a younger player and I was an assistant. I have just always clicked with him.”
The feeling is mutual.
Few K-State players have blossomed under Klieman more than Thompson. The veteran quarterback seemed low on confidence during his sophomore season under former coach Bill Snyder, but he emerged as an alpha dog as a junior and led the Wildcats to an 8-5 season that featured an upset victory over Oklahoma. Thompson seemed poised for more when he beat the Sooners again last season, but he was unable to play in the final seven games.
Thompson credits Klieman for much of his progress. His is now striving to become the next Carson Wentz, Trey Lance or Easton Stick -- NFL quarterbacks who Klieman coached in college.
Klieman is doing everything he can to help Thompson reach that goal, and to go out on a high note with the Wildcats.
The thought of him missing out on those opportunities with a knee injury was very difficult for Klieman to handle.