More Than Just X’s and O’s

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Van Malone enters his sixth season as cornerbacks coach and fifth season as assistant head coach and defensive passing game coordinator at Kansas State. The native of Houston, Texas, has helped the Wildcats rank in the top four of the Big 12 in both total yards and points allowed each of the last three seasons.

But Malone's importance goes beyond numbers.

Malone is an avid believer and developer of leadership while producing great young men who improve themselves as football players in Manhattan.

Malone spoke with K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen about the 2024 football team, Avery Johnson, and the leadership within the Wildcats' program as the team prepares to embark upon spring football practice.

D. Scott Fritchen: Can you give me a thumbnail sketch of what you've been up to these past few weeks?

Van Malone: I was in Las Vegas for the Johnnie Cochran Awards, which is an awards event for the NFL. Johnny Cochran was locked in with the Rooney Rule. Basically, the event is a salute to diversity in the NFL, and I was invited to the event. That was week one. Week two, I was invited to speak at the National Coalition for Minority Football Coaches at a convention. Week three, our defensive staff flew over to Vegas and we visited with the UNLV defensive staff and the North Carolina State defensive staff. We normally get with teams and exchange ideas and find better ways to do things and share our thoughts on different formations that offenses have presented to us throughout the season. We look ahead and say, "This is probably going to be the flavor of the month." That's been a fruitful thing for our defensive staff.

Fritchen: When you talk about the "Flavor of the Month" do you notice if there are more flavors of the month with offenses these days?

Malone: You know what, because of the athleticism of the quarterback and skill players, there is a whole lot of variance when it comes to the offenses that we face. You think about Avery Johnson, and Avery can throw it but he's also very talented with his legs. When it comes to doing things even in the passing game, his ability with his feet is a challenge for defenses. His attack, his methods to be able to attack you, he has a lot more options at his disposal. The flavor of the month for offenses, they continually grow.

Fritchen: Tell me more about Avery Johnson. What concerns you most about Avery Johnson as a defensive coach?

Malone: First of all, Avery is a very competitive kid. We had our leadership teams, and Avery is on my leadership team. So, I really get a great opportunity to know him. What's really been cool for me is on my leadership team, I had Will Howard, and Adrian Martinez, and this is Avery's second time on my leadership team. I know he's a competitive dude, but he's a big-time leader. On the field, his speed, his ability to extend plays and make plays with his feet, he's exceptional. He can throw the ball as well. When you talk about younger, athletic quarterback who has his speed, from a defensive standpoint, if you can only focus on stopping him from running and making him one dimensional, you can give yourself a shot. I don't think you can do that. I just think Avery, when he's running the ball, he's electric. He's electric when he has the ball in his hands. It just feels a lot scarier when he takes off.

Fritchen: Every K-State defensive position coach is back for another year. Can you describe that synergy you feel in that defensive room and what you like best about this defensive coaching staff?

Malone: We have a lot of professional coaches in there, guys who've coached for a long time at a very high level. Coach Buddy Wyatt and I have been together. This is our third time being together, so that chemistry and relationship stretches outside of the room, and same thing with Mike Tuiasosopo, Steve Stanard and Joe Klanderman. The fact that we've been together for a while, it's taken our performance as coaches and as an entire defensive staff to another level. Continuity is a big thing in this profession, and when it comes to players that you recruit and when it comes to players who are on your team, they want to know who's going to be coaching. They want to get to learn your personality. I think when you think about our staff, we have a couple of guys who are high energy, we have a couple guys who are much more settled in their presentation, and a few guys who present with a little humor in the way that they deal with the players. There comes a moment in each day and in each workout that you need each of those different facets. Our varying personalities have lent to us having good relationships with our players.

We've done a good job as a staff to reach across our position group lines, especially with the leadership groups, which allows us the opportunity as coaches across the staff to have relationships like myself with Avery Johnson, myself with DJ Giddens, and myself with Jadon Jackson, or Andrew Leingang — guys who are offensive players who I'd never really encounter. That has helped us as a staff but our personalities from a defensive standpoint and continuity have helped us over these last few years. The graduate assistants came in the other day and said something about they wanted to give myself and Coach Wyatt a plaque because these are the longest tenures we've had at a certain institution. That says something about this place and about Coach Chris Klieman and the rest of the staff.

Fritchen: What first comes to mind when you think of Chris Klieman?

Malone: I've worked with him closely as the assistant head coach, and what I've learned most is how to handle difficult situations. I've been in many situations and inside many rooms with him where I might have handled it a little bit more emotionally than he did. So, over these years, what I've learned to do is to really think about really seeing the bigger picture as the head coach, and that's something that I continue to work on in all kinds of situations with staff, with players, where he's handled difficult situations really well. Sometimes that requires facing the conflict and sometimes it requires letting cooler heads prevail. That's been the most impressive thing. That's what I've learned most from him over the years.

Fritchen: It's been two months since the bowl win. Could you give me some bullet points on things that the program has accomplished over these past two months?

Malone: One thing that we've really focused on as a program is growing in regard to relationships, player-to-player and player-to-coach relationships. I speak on these leadership teams, and that's one of my main things is developing that relationship. Over the course of time and even really before the bowl game — before the bowl game is when we found a new team. That's when we figured out who was not going to play in the bowl game and who wasn't going to be on our team. Since that moment, different guys have stepped into roles of leadership like Avery, so what I've seen and we've focused on is developing more leaders and really locking in our core values of discipline, a commitment, a toughness, and being selfless, and we've grown in those ways. I've seen over the last few months that we've really done a good job as a team of paying attention to the details in our workouts, class attendance, and those are things that may not seem like big things to players at the moment that we're holding them accountable to it, but they've always shown to our program to pay off when we get to the fall. I think this moment our guys understand – we have a lot of guys who are on our team from the Big 12 Championship run, and they have really locked in on the fact that those are some of the keys to our success in the past and to our consistency over these years.

Fritchen: You already mentioned Avery Johnson, but I'm curious which other players you've seen step up as leaders?

Malone: Jacob Parrish is becoming more vocal. He's always been a lead-by-example guy, but he's becoming more vocal. DJ Giddens has been more vocal. When he came here, he didn't say a word, but he's been more vocal in moments when we need somebody to step in and step up. Then there's Andrew Leingang and Garrett Oakley, who've done a good job in those moments. Keenan Garber is a guy who doesn't say much but has stood up and out for his leadership. Marques Sigle has stepped up. Austin Moore has been, since he's been here, one of the more consistent guys on the defense, but he's done a good job of taking even more of a leadership role on our team. Some of these guys, which has been gratifying as coaches, some of these guys are in leadership positions and some of them are not, but what we've begun to grow in our team is you don't have to have the title of leader in order to be a leader. That's what we've seen. We've seen guys who've had conversations as they hold one another accountable and to be better. That's what leadership is. It's not always the guy who steps in the middle of the circle and gives a rah-rah speech. Sometimes it's behind the scenes.

Fritchen: What kind of momentum or energy do you feel this team has coming off a nine-win season and a bowl win?

Malone: We understand that was a great season, but nobody cares about 2023, and we have to create our own energy going into this next season. Our guys are excited when you talk about the energy, they're excited about getting back and what's happening this spring. We spoke this morning that we still have some work to do before we enter into spring practice. It's an attitude of let's take care of business each day before you worry about the next day. It's taking care of your business in that moment, which has been cool to watch, and that they've had that mindset. The energy we have is based off newer guys, younger guys, getting opportunities that they really hadn't before — a Justice James. Justice had been down on the depth chart, and now you've earned the right to advance yourself to move into a role where you get more responsibility. Keenan Garber, he got a little bit of playing time last season, but now, man, it's an opportunity for him to get even more. Joe Jackson is a younger guy, and man, we've seen great potential in him, but now is an opportunity for Joe Jackson. There's no more redshirting, now he's going to get his opportunity. Those are kinds of excited guys I've seen, guys who know that they're getting their opportunity, and it's coming, and it's right in front of them. They just want to make the most of the opportunities.

Fritchen: Coaching is a 365-day job. Exactly how exciting is this time of the year for you as a coach?

Malone: You spend a lot of time going different places and trying to learn and put yourself into a better position from a schematic standpoint, from a staff standpoint, but this time, as you start gearing back up, you get with your players — we've spent a lot of time recruiting — and you're around your guys, and then when we spend practice time with them, that's why we do it. The other part, the recruiting and speaking at different clinics, that's a cool addition to it, but you also want to be on the grass. We all as a staff are excited about that. Then you go specifically to our team and this moment we're excited to see those younger dudes in the position to step up and get more opportunities and see how they've developed over a season of being here and through redshirting.

Fritchen: You mention you've been on the road, and so I'm curious, when you're on the road, what is the sense of pride you feel in representing the Powercat brand?

Malone: I've been around the block a few times, and the respect that Kansas State has across the nation is not only from K-State fans but from other fans as well. It's huge and it's kind of cool no matter where you are because somebody understands we are K-State. I take a lot of pride in that, of course. We've been in this place for five years, and so some of the things that have happened, they've been because of some of the work that we've done. We're following a great tradition of coaches and teams that have been here before us, but in the recent past, the success that people recognize across the country, it's been some of the work that we've done. That's a cool thing. Really good players have had opportunities to go on and play in the NFL, and that's always cool. More than anything, it's just been the consistency of this program and with the coaches and the style of play and that's cool to be able to represent that as you travel in and out of airports around the country.

In this age of recruiting, the kids and parents of recruits, the NIL space is big, and that's what's in the media, and that's the overwhelming thought, would be that recruits and their families are saying, 'Give me, give me,' but it's not like that. A lot of recruits want to go to a program that they know how things are going to be there, what the fan support and what the community is about, and they want to know about the personality and consistency of the staff and support staff. I think as I've gone out and have spoken with recruits and their coaches, that's one of our biggest selling points, and people point to it. There's kids in Florida who watched the Pop-Tarts Bowl and they watched the Sugar Bowl and they watched the Texas Bowl and the things that they comment on is that our players play hard. The whole time, the media, as they're covering the game, they're talking about the culture of our program. It's been a very welcoming situation when I go into homes and into high schools to be able to recruit for us here at Kansas State.

Fritchen: Could you breakdown the leadership and talent that you have returning on defense this season?

Malone: Up front, Cody Stufflebean and Brendan Mott probably contributed the most and even before this moment they've done a good job of being the leaders of that group with Jevon Banks, who's played quite a bit. Sometimes when you transfer in, it takes a minute before you're really comfortable in that leadership role. But I anticipate him continuing to perform. At linebacker, I watch how they continually expand their roles in terms of leadership, and Desmond Purnell, he came here playing safety and now he's taken on the role as a linebacker and he's on my leadership team. Des does a good job of being a proactive leader. He's in situations all the time where he's grabbing dudes before there is an issue. When you talk about leadership, you think of guys who yell when it's not going right, but we talk about being proactive in leadership. When the group comes over to get a group of water you remind them to get back over there to do A, B and C. Des has done a good job of that.

Austin Moore has really taken ahold of not just the leadership role for the defense but really for the whole team. He's the one who stands out in front of the stretch lines. What I like about our team and the leadership and culture we're building is it's not always when things are going bad — a lot of times it's the older guys saying, "Young guys, we're meeting at 2:30 p.m." Before we go to spring practice, these guys have had captain's practices, and they're going to grab the young guys and take them through the protocol and let them know what a day in the life is going to be like. Austin Moore has led that from the linebacker group.

In the secondary, Marques Sigle has done a great job. He did a great job on the sidelines during our last season. A lot of people talked about Kobe Savage, but he was right there with Kobe. Jacob Parrish and Keenan Garber, those guys, neither one of them are very outspoken people. They won't say much, but in these settings, they've taken a much bigger role of leadership. Our cornerback group, those guys from an experience standpoint, I don't have a whole lot of experience in that room, but they've done a great job of just grabbing on and leading verbally, but then also by their actions.

The really good thing when you're building a culture, and over the last few years, it's been great to study this, and watch this, and talk to different leaders on my podcast, and recognize how people who do it the right way do it from a culture and program standpoint, but also from individual leaders and the way that they handle their jobs.

Fritchen: It's projected K-State will enter the 2024 season nationally ranked. Why do you think this will be a good team this year and what are a couple factors that'll determine how good this team can be?

Malone: When it comes to national rankings, we've been ranked, and we haven't been ranked. Going back to the leadership and culture of our team, that's cool to be nationally ranked, but at the end of the day, you must prepare, perform and execute. That's what we talk about with our team. Some people wait for practice, and other people prepare and get ready for practice. It's the same thing as you go through a season. Some people sit around and wait for the season to start and wait for the games to start. Other people prepare for it and spend their time preparing for practice to start and the season to start and they have routines.

You can be a team that prepares for practice or a team that prepares for the season. The people waiting for it to happen are guys who are looking at the rankings. They're looking at the rankings and they want as much love as they can get showered upon them, whereas if you're preparing, you might hear about it in passing, but it does nothing to make you adjust your preparation. In terms of how good this team can be, man, there are injuries that happen all the time, and you have to have a guy in the background step up. Those are indicators that you go through as to how good your team will be. I don't ever make any predictions. I heard that we're predicted here or there. Guess what? We've been predicted to be sixth before. Those predictions, it's pretty nice when you're predicted to be high, and it's no fun when you're predicted low.

Julius Brents said to me a few years ago – I was gathering up the rankings as a coach and I was going to talk about how disrespectful it was that they were picking us in this place and that place. Brents said, "Coach, it doesn't matter. At the end of the season, you put them in the trash, anyway. If they pick you high, you don't ever keep that magazine because your championship trophy sits on top of it. If they don't pick you for anything, you definitely throw that one in the trash." That is very true.

Man, we have a good thing going. Throughout the time we've been here — over the course of my career – I've had some rough patches and some seasons where it was no fun in terms of winning, but, man, we've been very fortunate here. Our players have been very fortunate. We've gone to bowl games every time we've had a true season. We've lost some games that we've wanted to win, but ultimately, we've had seasons that we can be proud of. I don't expect it to be any different just because of the kinds of kids we have on our team and the chemistry we have as a coaching staff. We have continuity and we come into this office every day, and it's not a job for us. We're pouring into young men. That's an incredible blessing, and it's been fun to be a part of over these past years.

Schedule

Players Mentioned

Jevon Banks

Justice Clemons

Keenan Garber

DJ Giddens

Will Howard

Jadon Jackson

Joe Jackson

Avery Johnson

Andrew Leingang

Austin Moore

Brendan Mott

Garrett Oakley

Jacob Parrish

Desmond Purnell

Kobe Savage

Marques Sigle

Cody Stufflebean

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