Kansas State University Athletics
Raising the Stakes
Oct 28, 2025 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
When Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman pulled open the doors to the Vanier Family Football Complex on Sunday morning — less than 24 hours after the Wildcats pounded Kansas, 42-17, in Lawrence — there were no victory laps, no day-after fist pumping, and no hootin' and hollerin' from the coaching staff as it met inside the team theater room.
"It was the same as any other Sunday," Klieman said, "whether we win or lose."
First, Klieman and special teams coordinator Nate Kaczor combed through all the special teams units, discussed personnel, things that went well in the game and things that didn't go so well. Then focus shifted to offensive coordinator Matt Wells and the offense, and then defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman and the defense. Then the coaches discussed injuries.
"Then I went up (to my office) from there from noon to 5:00 p.m. and watched the game with the defense, and then I watched the game with the offense," Klieman said. "Then I got a quick workout in, went back in and watched film."
The day after K-State's big win hardly lacked energy, though. That's human nature after beating the in-state rival and keeping the Governor's Cup Trophy in Manhattan for another year. Seventeen wins in a row for K-State in the Sunflower Showdown. It's the longest active winning streak in the FBS in an uninterrupted series.
That energy from Saturday and Sunday? It could still be felt inside the Vanier Family Football Complex on Monday prior to Klieman's weekly news conference.
"There's a lot more juice and energy when you play good football and it shows and you win a few games, then you go on the road like we did at KU in a game that not a lot of people thought we were going to win, and then we dominated that game," Klieman said. "Yeah, it brings a lot of energy to the team, and it brings a lot of energy to the program."
After starting the season with a 1-3 record, K-State has won three of its last four games with victories over UCF (34-20), TCU (41-28) and Kansas (42-17). K-State's lone loss in the month of October was a 35-34 defeat at Baylor on October 4.
All of the sudden, K-State, 4-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12, is within two games of conference-leading BYU and Cincinnati in the league standings with one month remaining in the regular season.
Asked immediately after K-State's win over Kansas about the Wildcats' in-season turnaround, Klieman indicated that the team went back to fall camp following its 23-17 loss at Arizona on September 12.
That's right. K-State returned to fall camp mode.
Klieman explained the process on Monday.
"(After the loss at Arizona) we didn't work a snap on UCF, nothing (during the bye week). We just went back to what we do in fall camp, which is K-State against K-State, good against good, our best against our best," Klieman said. "(We drilled) in all different situations — from choice downs to third downs to inside run to red zone to 7-on-7, to everything, and then evaluated it like we were in the middle of August.
"We weren't a good football team and needed to go back to what we missed in fall camp by flipping the script because of how the schedule was dictated by going to Ireland, and we had to move into game planning (for the August 23 season opener against Iowa State in Ireland). We needed another week of fall camp, and it came at the right time (after the Arizona game) because I didn't think our guys' bodies were beat up because it was still early enough on the season."
Klieman continued.
"We weren't playing very well, and the guys, and coaches owned it, that we weren't a very good football team," he said. "That's half the battle. We weren't coaching very well, and it starts with me, and we weren't playing very well, so we had to go back to square one."
And now K-State is playing its best football of the season as No. 13 Texas Tech, 7-1 and 4-1, visits for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
"Our guys had a really good week of preparation, had good focus, and played their best when we needed to have their best (against Kansas)," Klieman said. "I told them early in the week that average wasn't going to be good enough and we needed to raise our level of play, and they did that. It was fun to see us put together a game like that and get a big win.
"Now it just raises the stakes, and it gets tougher and tougher. We have a really good football team coming in here with Texas Tech, and we're excited to have them at home. We have to come up with great plans and have great focus because it's going to be a heck of a battle here at The Bill."
Offensively, K-State has averaged 37.8 points over its last four games and is tied for third in scoring among Power 4 schools since September 27. To put it into perspective, only Utah (41.0 points per game) and Pittsburgh (38.4) have averaged more points than the Wildcats over that span.
Defensively, K-State ranks No. 1 among Power 4 schools in turnovers forced (17). That's head of BYU (16), Louisville (16), Maryland (16) and Michigan (15).
K-State has nine fumble recoveries and eight interceptions in eight games.
"I'm really proud," Klieman said. "Credit Coach Klanderman and that defensive staff of emphasizing that. Sometimes it comes in bunches. We're doing turnover circuits all the time, stripping our running backs, and you see that in practice as well, trying to attack the football when it's in the air. That's been a big part of our success is we have not turned the ball over on offense and we've gotten those turnovers on defense. That's been a huge factor for us as we've played better."
K-State has played better in all three aspects — offense, defense and special teams — throughout the month of October, capped by a blowout win over the Jayhawks.
For Klieman, it's business as usual. The hunger to achieve and excel remains ever present for a head coach whose 73.4% career winning percentage ranks fourth among current FBS coaches that have completed at least 10 seasons.
"This week, you have to talk about that was a great win, but we have to move forward," Klieman said. "We can play better. I know we can play better. We did some really good things, but we have to play better."
When Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman pulled open the doors to the Vanier Family Football Complex on Sunday morning — less than 24 hours after the Wildcats pounded Kansas, 42-17, in Lawrence — there were no victory laps, no day-after fist pumping, and no hootin' and hollerin' from the coaching staff as it met inside the team theater room.
"It was the same as any other Sunday," Klieman said, "whether we win or lose."
First, Klieman and special teams coordinator Nate Kaczor combed through all the special teams units, discussed personnel, things that went well in the game and things that didn't go so well. Then focus shifted to offensive coordinator Matt Wells and the offense, and then defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman and the defense. Then the coaches discussed injuries.
"Then I went up (to my office) from there from noon to 5:00 p.m. and watched the game with the defense, and then I watched the game with the offense," Klieman said. "Then I got a quick workout in, went back in and watched film."
The day after K-State's big win hardly lacked energy, though. That's human nature after beating the in-state rival and keeping the Governor's Cup Trophy in Manhattan for another year. Seventeen wins in a row for K-State in the Sunflower Showdown. It's the longest active winning streak in the FBS in an uninterrupted series.
That energy from Saturday and Sunday? It could still be felt inside the Vanier Family Football Complex on Monday prior to Klieman's weekly news conference.
"There's a lot more juice and energy when you play good football and it shows and you win a few games, then you go on the road like we did at KU in a game that not a lot of people thought we were going to win, and then we dominated that game," Klieman said. "Yeah, it brings a lot of energy to the team, and it brings a lot of energy to the program."
After starting the season with a 1-3 record, K-State has won three of its last four games with victories over UCF (34-20), TCU (41-28) and Kansas (42-17). K-State's lone loss in the month of October was a 35-34 defeat at Baylor on October 4.
All of the sudden, K-State, 4-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12, is within two games of conference-leading BYU and Cincinnati in the league standings with one month remaining in the regular season.
Asked immediately after K-State's win over Kansas about the Wildcats' in-season turnaround, Klieman indicated that the team went back to fall camp following its 23-17 loss at Arizona on September 12.
That's right. K-State returned to fall camp mode.
Klieman explained the process on Monday.
"(After the loss at Arizona) we didn't work a snap on UCF, nothing (during the bye week). We just went back to what we do in fall camp, which is K-State against K-State, good against good, our best against our best," Klieman said. "(We drilled) in all different situations — from choice downs to third downs to inside run to red zone to 7-on-7, to everything, and then evaluated it like we were in the middle of August.
"We weren't a good football team and needed to go back to what we missed in fall camp by flipping the script because of how the schedule was dictated by going to Ireland, and we had to move into game planning (for the August 23 season opener against Iowa State in Ireland). We needed another week of fall camp, and it came at the right time (after the Arizona game) because I didn't think our guys' bodies were beat up because it was still early enough on the season."
Klieman continued.
"We weren't playing very well, and the guys, and coaches owned it, that we weren't a very good football team," he said. "That's half the battle. We weren't coaching very well, and it starts with me, and we weren't playing very well, so we had to go back to square one."
And now K-State is playing its best football of the season as No. 13 Texas Tech, 7-1 and 4-1, visits for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
"Our guys had a really good week of preparation, had good focus, and played their best when we needed to have their best (against Kansas)," Klieman said. "I told them early in the week that average wasn't going to be good enough and we needed to raise our level of play, and they did that. It was fun to see us put together a game like that and get a big win.
"Now it just raises the stakes, and it gets tougher and tougher. We have a really good football team coming in here with Texas Tech, and we're excited to have them at home. We have to come up with great plans and have great focus because it's going to be a heck of a battle here at The Bill."
Offensively, K-State has averaged 37.8 points over its last four games and is tied for third in scoring among Power 4 schools since September 27. To put it into perspective, only Utah (41.0 points per game) and Pittsburgh (38.4) have averaged more points than the Wildcats over that span.
Defensively, K-State ranks No. 1 among Power 4 schools in turnovers forced (17). That's head of BYU (16), Louisville (16), Maryland (16) and Michigan (15).
K-State has nine fumble recoveries and eight interceptions in eight games.
"I'm really proud," Klieman said. "Credit Coach Klanderman and that defensive staff of emphasizing that. Sometimes it comes in bunches. We're doing turnover circuits all the time, stripping our running backs, and you see that in practice as well, trying to attack the football when it's in the air. That's been a big part of our success is we have not turned the ball over on offense and we've gotten those turnovers on defense. That's been a huge factor for us as we've played better."
K-State has played better in all three aspects — offense, defense and special teams — throughout the month of October, capped by a blowout win over the Jayhawks.
For Klieman, it's business as usual. The hunger to achieve and excel remains ever present for a head coach whose 73.4% career winning percentage ranks fourth among current FBS coaches that have completed at least 10 seasons.
"This week, you have to talk about that was a great win, but we have to move forward," Klieman said. "We can play better. I know we can play better. We did some really good things, but we have to play better."
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