Collin Klein has a new vision for K-State’s offense, but it has helped him win before
It is technically accurate to describe Collin Klein as a rookie offensive coordinator, but that doesn’t mean he lacks experience when it comes to calling plays.
Long before he directed Kansas State’s offense to 42 points in a blowout victory over LSU in the Texas Bowl last January as the Wildcats’ interim OC, he strapped on a headset and called five straight games for Northern Iowa in 2016. This was back when he was working as the Panthers’ quarterbacks coach. No one expected Klein to be in charge that season, especially himself. But when the team got off to a 2-4 start, while averaging just 24 points, well, the head coach asked him to give it a try.
Northern Iowa scored 61 points in his debut.
Things almost got even better the following week when Northern Iowa came painfully close to pulling off an upset against FCS power North Dakota State. The Panthers had the ball in NDSU territory in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead before they eventually lost 24-20. Chris Klieman, who was coaching the Bison at the time, breathed a sigh of relief.
“That was the first time I ever met Coach Klieman in person,” Klein says now. “I will never forget the conversation we had on the sideline before the game. He was awesome. But they were really good. Calling my second game ever against them was not fun. Oh my goodness.”
Still, it was impossible to ignore what Klein was doing with the offense. The Panthers made sure he finished out the season in his new role, and positive results kept coming. They went on to average 34.8 points and 392.6 yards in their final five games, resulting in three wins.
“It was a whirlwind,” Klein said, “an absolute whirlwind in kind of a crazy situation with a bunch of moving parts. But it was an unbelievable opportunity and I learned a ton.”
Klein’s stint as interim play-caller at Northern Iowa was not well publicized. Few outside the UNI locker room probably realized it happened. There is no mention of it in Klein’s bio inside the K-State media guide. He has never previously mentioned it interviews. Neither has Klieman.
Nevertheless, Klein did enough that season to launch his coaching career on an upward trajectory. Bill Snyder hired him the following year as K-State’s quarterbacks coach. Returning to his alma mater was a dream come true for Klein. The only downside: it meant he would have to wait six years before he got another chance to call a game.
Now that he has been promoted to K-State’s full-time offensive coordinator, some may think Klein is nervous about calling his first home game with the Wildcats. That is also technically true. As Klein gazes out the windows of his office on the north end of Bill Snyder Family Stadium and sees the field below, he admits that Saturday’s opener against South Dakota may have a surreal feel.
Heck, it wasn’t that long ago that he was playing quarterback for the Wildcats.
But he’s not worried about his play-calling abilities or the K-State offense. This isn’t new for him.
“I could tell he was going to be a great coach”
Dana Dimel had a feeling that Klein would make a good football coach shortly after his playing career came to an end.
Klein had hoped to become a NFL quarterback after he led K-State to 10 wins as a junior and then a Big 12 championship as a senior. He was a Heisman finalist and a Johnny Unitas Award winner. His football future seemed on the field rather than in the press box. But the skills that made him an elite college player didn’t translate to the pro level. He went undrafted in 2013 and never made a NFL roster. He gave the CFL a try but couldn’t catch on with a team there either.
Disappointed and not sure what to do next, he returned to Manhattan with his wife (former K-State basketball player Shalin Spani), and accepted a job working as a quality control coach under Snyder.
Dimel was curious to see how Klein would handle the position. Going from Big Man on Campus to the lowest paid member of K-State’s coaching staff was not an easy transition.
“You can learn a lot about a guy when he has that job,” Dimel said. “That is the hardest job there is in college football. You get nothing but told to do horrible tasks. You have to run the scout team everyday, and that can be brutal.”
And yet, none of that seemed to bother Klein. Dimel, who was K-State’s offensive coordinator at the time and is now the head coach at UTEP, said watching his former quarterback coach the scout team’s defensive secondary was one of his favorite parts of practice that year.
“He was so good at it,” Dimel said. “I could tell he was going to be a great coach. Here is a guy who used to be a Heisman finalist and now he’s the low man on the totem pole. He handled it extremely well and coached those players up pretty darn good.”
As Klein moved up the coaching ladder, it made sense that he would be groomed as an offensive coordinator.
He showed too much talent calling his own plays as a quarterback to remain a position coach forever. Snyder put a great deal of trust in him after he mastered K-State’s offense as a junior. He had the freedom to change plays at the line of scrimmage in any situation, and he directed the offense all by himself in two-minute drills.
Dimel loves to tell stories about the time Klein beat Texas while only attempting four passes or the time he out-shined Geno Smith at West Virginia or the time he refused to let K-State lose to Miami or Texas A&M.
But the stuff Klein did behind the scenes was just as impressive.
“He was a great player and a great processor,” Dimel said. “In our system you want a quarterback that can change plays and read a defense. He was very good at that. He could understand what a defense was doing and recognize blitzes. When he left the game as a player, and left behind an unbelievable legacy at K-State, he put himself in a position to be a very successful coach because he worked hard, had mental toughness and just loves the game of football.”
A new offensive vision for the Wildcats
Fans might not recognize Kansas State’s offense this season.
For years, under both Klieman and Snyder, the Wildcats have operated at a methodical pace. They have tried to run the ball, control clock and win games by eliminating mistakes. In other words, they have been the yin to the rest of the conference’s yang. Most Big 12 teams are known for fast, high-octane offenses. K-State has always had a different identity.
But that is about to change. Klein wants to use a more aggressive, no-huddle approach this season that will allow the Wildcats to run 15-20 extra plays per game and keep defenses off balance.
Klieman loves the idea, and K-State players have raved about it all offseason.
“We’re running more plays and we’re getting all our playmakers involved,” K-State receiver Phillip Brooks said. “I have always thought our goal needs to be to try and score on every play. I’m glad we have an offensive coordinator who shares that mindset.”
Still, it’s a surprising strategy given that Klein has never been part of an offense that went pedal-to-the-metal.
Why now?
“When I had an opportunity to call plays as a player, most of the time it was in two-minute type situations,” Klein said. “We were always in no-huddle when Coach Snyder would let me do that. From a quarterback standpoint, you are programmed to see and feel how things work from that perspective. I guess that is just how I think.”
For the record, Klein has no plans to try and emulate Texas Tech. He doesn’t want to call 100 plays in a game, especially if K-State is winning big. The Wildcats will huddle from time to time. They will also use multiple personnel groupings that require mass substitutions and allow them to play at a slower pace.
But he wants his players to think fast.
“We need to change,” Klein said. “I’m trying to grow our mentality as an offense. We need to be on the attack. We need to be more aggressive. We need to dictate the tempo. We are going to create advantages by playing at different speeds. There might be 15 plays a game where we go as fast as we possibly can. There might only be five. That stuff will vary by the week.”
A few other changes Klein has planned: No more scripted plays in the first quarter of games. He would rather plan to use certain formations and adjust on the fly than be married to a call just because he liked it earlier in the week. He also wants players to be more involved with strategy. If a receiver or a tight end sees something they think will work against a particular defense, Klein wants to know about it.
In his mind, a good idea is a good idea. It doesn’t matter where it comes from.
“He is a players’ coach,” K-State running back Deuce Vaughn said. “I talk to him two or three times a week. He just asks me questions about ways he can get me the football or what I think about certain plays. That communication builds a relationship and it makes you feel like he cares about us as players and how we fit in his offense.”
There is one more thing Klein would like to point out about his new offense.
He used a no-huddle offense six years ago at Northern Iowa.
“Am I totally abandoning my roots and where I’ve come from and what I’m used to? Not really,” Klein said. “But we are infusing and taking a mix of two worlds, three worlds that I have been a part of and using that to put our players in a position to do what they can do best.”
Tears of joy
Klein was in tears after K-State dismantled LSU at the Texas Bowl.
The more he watched players dance on the field at NRG Stadium and take pictures with the championship trophy the more emotional he became. They were good tears, happy tears. But he was a mess as well-wishers tried to congratulate him on a job well done.
Apparently he didn’t pick up on it when many of them told him he was a shoo-in for a promotion.
“I was trying to stay completely focused that week,” Klein said. “The only thing I remember thinking was, ‘Hey, we have got to destroy LSU, period.’ That was the only thing on my mind. We needed to go finish that game for our seniors.”
Klein says the thought of taking over as the team’s full-time offensive coordinator didn’t cross his mind until he returned home and began discussing the possibility with Klieman. Even then, he tried not to think much about it, saying that he only wanted what was best for K-State. If that meant bringing in an outside hire, he was all for it.
Much to his surprise, Klieman had already made up his mind. It might have helped that Klein’s former coach put in a good word for him. When Klieman entered his office after the bowl game he found a note on his desk from Snyder.
It read: “He’s the guy.”
Klieman wasn’t about to disagree.
“By the end of bowl prep it was pretty much set in my mind that this was what we were going to do,” Klieman said. “It was just icing on the cake that the kids responded and played pretty well.”
Tears streamed down Klein’s face once again when Klieman offered him the full-time job.
Klieman told Klein that he believed in him. He wanted to be the head coach who gave him his first shot as a full-time coordinator. He told Klein he had earned it.
“That meant the world to me,” Klein said.
Klein was home schooled as a child and grew up valuing God and family above everything else. The vast majority of the pictures on his office wall are of his three sons and his wife. They live on a few acres of farm land just outside of town and are expecting another child in the spring. He loves his life in Manhattan. Coaching at K-State in any capacity is an honor. Offensive coordinator feels like a dream.
One day, Klein would like to be a head coach. He thinks he will be a good one.
If his offenses keep scoring the way they have in his six previous games as an interim play-caller, that very well could be in his future.
This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 5:00 AM.