Kansas State University Athletics
‘We’ve Got to Dig Ourselves Out of It’
Sep 23, 2025 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Coming off a bye week that began when Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and his coaching staff "dissected everything" and made some adjustments while the team practiced on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week, Klieman and the Wildcats are attempting to hit reset on an unfortunate start to their season.
K-State is 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the Big 12 Conference after losses to No. 22 Iowa State (24-21), Army (24-21) and most recently at Arizona (23-17) on September 12 in Tucson, Arizona.
It's a stark difference from recent history at K-State, as the Wildcats entered 2025 as one of 10 Power 4 schools to win at least nine games in each of the last three seasons.
Klieman, in his seventh season as K-State head coach, won Division I National Championships at North Dakota State prior to arriving in Manhattan and establishing four core values — Discipline, Commitment, Toughness and Be Selfless — that beam across the videoboards at Bill Snyder Family Stadium daily. K-State, coming off a 9-4 season and seemingly carrying an abundance of talent, in the preseason was a popular pick among college football experts to make a run at representing the Big 12 in the College Football Playoff.
Virtually nobody in college football saw this coming.
"It sucks," Klieman said at his weekly news conference on Monday. "Let's be honest. We all know it does. We've got to dig ourselves out of it. There's no reason for me to point fingers. I mean, it is what it is. We've got to figure this out."
Now K-State prepares for its Big 12 home opener Saturday at 11:00 a.m. against UCF, 3-0, which rides a 16-game winning streak with head coach Scott Frost on the sideline, and that most recently throttled Bill Belichick and North Carolina, 34-9, last Saturday in Orlando, Florida.
"There's good football teams out there, and we've got a bunch of them we're going to play, including this week, and always in this league you're going to be in dogfights, and it's going to be a lot of one-score games," Klieman said. "We have to dig deep and find a way to win those one-score games."
K-State's four one-score games this season currently lead the FBS.
Ten of K-State's last 16 games dating back to Week 2 of the 2024 season have been decided by just one score.
The difference between 2024 and the start of 2025 is striking.
Last year, K-State went 4-2 in one-possession games. All four of the victories were fourth-quarter comebacks, which ranked second in the nation.
This year, K-State has played in four one-possession games but has only come out on the winning side once — in a 38-35 win over North Dakota.
"The optimism would say, 'We've been within a score of every loss we have,'" Klieman said. "That's easy to say, but we're not playing well enough to win those games. We haven't earned those wins. We've earned the loss. Because we haven't played well enough, we lose by three points or six points. We have to do some things and find some things to win those games and earn those wins.
"That's where we're all — meaning fans, players and coaches — are frustrated, because we all feel we're better than what we're showing. But you better act upon it. Words are one thing, but you have to act upon it. You have to go whip that guy across from you one-on-one, and that's what we're not doing right now."
Klieman lamented how K-State, which ranks 131st in time of possession, has been unsuccessful in areas on both sides of the ball. K-State ranks 122nd in first downs and 96th in preventing opponent first downs. K-State also ranks 120th in third-down conversion percentage and 76th in third-down defensive conversion percentage.
"We're not winning on early downs on defense, and we're not winning on early downs on offense," Klieman said. "We've got to win on early downs. That's the emphasis we talked about last week and that we're putting in this week with even some good-on-good first-down competition. Let's see who can win and get it to second-and-long or second-and-manageable. Those are things collectively we're not doing on either side."
Klieman said that he kept first-year offensive coordinator Matt Wells and sixth-year defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman in Manhattan when coaches left to recruit last weekend.
"Friday, Saturday and Sunday, some of (the coaches) were out recruiting, but I kept Coach Klanderman and Coach Wells around because I wanted those guys to continue to meet with me and with the quality-control staff," Klieman said, "because some of the things we're doing we need to tweak from a coaching standpoint, technique, and whatever it may be, and some of it is personnel."
Klieman said: "The guys have to dust themselves off and get off the deck and play better football. Some of it is us as coaches trying to simplify some things."
On the field, Klieman expects better enthusiasm as well.
"When you look at the film, regardless of the outcome, we played with our hair on fire against Iowa State, and they got us by a field goal," Klieman said, "but I didn't see that same fire the (other) weeks, and we need to get back to that, and we need to emphasize it and do it at practice.
"You're not going to turn a switch on Saturday."
Coming off a bye week that began when Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and his coaching staff "dissected everything" and made some adjustments while the team practiced on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week, Klieman and the Wildcats are attempting to hit reset on an unfortunate start to their season.
K-State is 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the Big 12 Conference after losses to No. 22 Iowa State (24-21), Army (24-21) and most recently at Arizona (23-17) on September 12 in Tucson, Arizona.
It's a stark difference from recent history at K-State, as the Wildcats entered 2025 as one of 10 Power 4 schools to win at least nine games in each of the last three seasons.
Klieman, in his seventh season as K-State head coach, won Division I National Championships at North Dakota State prior to arriving in Manhattan and establishing four core values — Discipline, Commitment, Toughness and Be Selfless — that beam across the videoboards at Bill Snyder Family Stadium daily. K-State, coming off a 9-4 season and seemingly carrying an abundance of talent, in the preseason was a popular pick among college football experts to make a run at representing the Big 12 in the College Football Playoff.
Virtually nobody in college football saw this coming.
"It sucks," Klieman said at his weekly news conference on Monday. "Let's be honest. We all know it does. We've got to dig ourselves out of it. There's no reason for me to point fingers. I mean, it is what it is. We've got to figure this out."
Now K-State prepares for its Big 12 home opener Saturday at 11:00 a.m. against UCF, 3-0, which rides a 16-game winning streak with head coach Scott Frost on the sideline, and that most recently throttled Bill Belichick and North Carolina, 34-9, last Saturday in Orlando, Florida.
"There's good football teams out there, and we've got a bunch of them we're going to play, including this week, and always in this league you're going to be in dogfights, and it's going to be a lot of one-score games," Klieman said. "We have to dig deep and find a way to win those one-score games."
K-State's four one-score games this season currently lead the FBS.
Ten of K-State's last 16 games dating back to Week 2 of the 2024 season have been decided by just one score.
The difference between 2024 and the start of 2025 is striking.
Last year, K-State went 4-2 in one-possession games. All four of the victories were fourth-quarter comebacks, which ranked second in the nation.
This year, K-State has played in four one-possession games but has only come out on the winning side once — in a 38-35 win over North Dakota.
"The optimism would say, 'We've been within a score of every loss we have,'" Klieman said. "That's easy to say, but we're not playing well enough to win those games. We haven't earned those wins. We've earned the loss. Because we haven't played well enough, we lose by three points or six points. We have to do some things and find some things to win those games and earn those wins.
"That's where we're all — meaning fans, players and coaches — are frustrated, because we all feel we're better than what we're showing. But you better act upon it. Words are one thing, but you have to act upon it. You have to go whip that guy across from you one-on-one, and that's what we're not doing right now."
Klieman lamented how K-State, which ranks 131st in time of possession, has been unsuccessful in areas on both sides of the ball. K-State ranks 122nd in first downs and 96th in preventing opponent first downs. K-State also ranks 120th in third-down conversion percentage and 76th in third-down defensive conversion percentage.
"We're not winning on early downs on defense, and we're not winning on early downs on offense," Klieman said. "We've got to win on early downs. That's the emphasis we talked about last week and that we're putting in this week with even some good-on-good first-down competition. Let's see who can win and get it to second-and-long or second-and-manageable. Those are things collectively we're not doing on either side."
Klieman said that he kept first-year offensive coordinator Matt Wells and sixth-year defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman in Manhattan when coaches left to recruit last weekend.
"Friday, Saturday and Sunday, some of (the coaches) were out recruiting, but I kept Coach Klanderman and Coach Wells around because I wanted those guys to continue to meet with me and with the quality-control staff," Klieman said, "because some of the things we're doing we need to tweak from a coaching standpoint, technique, and whatever it may be, and some of it is personnel."
Klieman said: "The guys have to dust themselves off and get off the deck and play better football. Some of it is us as coaches trying to simplify some things."
On the field, Klieman expects better enthusiasm as well.
"When you look at the film, regardless of the outcome, we played with our hair on fire against Iowa State, and they got us by a field goal," Klieman said, "but I didn't see that same fire the (other) weeks, and we need to get back to that, and we need to emphasize it and do it at practice.
"You're not going to turn a switch on Saturday."
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