Having Discipline During the Process
Feb 12, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
One month to the day that Sean Gleeson was hired as offensive coordinator under first-year Kansas State head coach Collin Klein, the 41-year-old former Missouri quarterbacks coach, who previously had never been to Manhattan prior to his arrival in January, stood inside the team theater room at the Vanier Family Football Complex, which has become his home.
The coaching veteran, whose previous stops included Princeton, Oklahoma State, Rutgers and Missouri, has gained footing in the Little Apple. Amid meetings with Klein, the coaching staff and players, Gleeson buzzes with excitement over the future of the Wildcats in the Klein era.
"There's great soil here," Gleeson said, "and this thing is built to win."
During his 15-minute meeting with reporters on Wednesday, Gleeson did not break down individual position groups, but he watches the players inside the Shamrock Indoor Practice Facility. Many players are new arrivals through the transfer portal.
"I told them in one of the first meetings we had together, I do think that with the portal it refreshes every year, but you have to keep your discipline about going about this process," Gleeson said. "You have to first come together as a group before you can learn how to win and before you can learn to handle winning after that. During the year you're definitely learning how to handle winning, hopefully, if things are going well."
Gleeson looks around in team meetings and likes what he sees.
"The come-together part, especially with a bunch of new portal faces, is so pivotal for all of us in college football now," he says. "You ask about meeting the guys, they've just been awesome, super receptive, very attentive, they take great notes, they work hard when you ask them to work hard, and there's less policing than maybe some other stops to make sure they're going to meals and going to class. They're all good citizens that way. They're fun as a coach because when you ignore having to deal with some of those other things, you can really get down to development, which is what we all like to do, and a little less babysitting."
Development is one of Gleeson's strengths.
In six years at Princeton, serving almost all six years as offensive coordinator, Gleeson helped Princeton to three Ivy League titles, including a 10-0 mark in 2018, and their 36.9 points per game was the program's best six-year stretch in program history.
Spending the 2019 season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma State, Gleeson oversaw a unit that ranked 17th in rushing, 21st in total offense and 35th in scoring offense. With Gleeson calling the plays, Consensus All-America running back Chuba Hubbard led the nation with 2,094 rushing yards before going in the fourth round of the 201 NFL Draft.
At Rutgers, the Gleeson-led offense had the fourth-best improvement in the FBS by scoring 13.4 more points per game in 2020 than prior to his arrival. The Scarlet Knights were also the most improved offense in the Big Ten in total offensive touchdowns. Gleeson was a 2020 candidate for the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach, and he mentored two NFL Draft picks in Bo Melton (Seattle) and Isaiah Pacheco (Kansas City).
"Working and coaching in different offensive schemes, you're a little bit tied sometimes to the things that you grew up around," Gleeson said. "One of the things that I felt like going back to Princton days, we had a really tough vertical inside run offense at that point with complementary plays in the run game that flowered around that, but we always had a tough run game, especially when we need the yards, as a go-straight-ahead type team. Certainly, we had moments where when we threaten the defense with the ability to run the ball between the tackles and safeties came up in support, we were able to get the ball over their head in play-action on first and second down."
The meeting of the offensive minds between Gleeson and Klein must be thick with possibilities and ideas.
Klein, one of the best quarterbacks in K-State history, a 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist, then a K-State quarterbacks coach who spent 2022 and 2023 guiding a couple of the most productive offenses in K-State history, comes off two ultra-successful seasons as Texas A&M offensive coordinator, culminating in his inclusion as a 2025 Broyles Award Semifinalist.
"In my conversations with Collin and watching their film at Texas A&M as an opponent the past couple years, they always had that utensil in their back pocket, where they could run the ball straight ahead when they needed to," Gleeson said. "There's a level of detail there in learning the schematic now that I think contributes to creating players who are really aggressive up front, because they know where they're going. It was kind of cool to turn on the tape and see that vision of what I've had in my mind since being a young buck in coaching of guys coming off the ball and moving people vertically but also being able to target the ball down the field on base downs throwing it vertically over people's heads at the correct amount of proportion relative to what you want to do in college football with some of those deep targets."
Gleeson continued.
"There's the excitement in being in a tough, detailed run game," he said, "but also having the play-action shots at your disposal at any time."
Upon his arrival at K-State, Gleeson, when asked whether he or Klein would handle play-calling duties on gameday, replied, "It's his show." Gleeson reconfirmed that notion on Wednesday and seems uncertain whether he will be on the field or in the coach's booth in games.
"He's going to be on the field, and he's going to call the plays," Gleeson said. "I don't know if I'll be downstairs or upstairs, we haven't talked about that. I do think that him moving from the booth to the field, he's going to be fine, but having someone that he trusts in the booth to be able to communicate some things from a defensive identification standpoint, I'd see some value in me being up there, but I'm really kind of going to be plug and play with whatever helps our offense."
Gleeson went to Missouri after spending one year as senior offensive analyst at Northwestern. In 2024, Missouri ranked fifth in fewest passes intercepted, 10th in red zone offense, and 16th in third down conversions. In 2025, Gleeson kept together an offense that experienced its ups and downs while playing quarterbacks Beau Pribula and true freshman Matt Zollers due to injury.
The quarterback status is vastly different in Manhattan.
Gleeson inherits stability at the quarterback position in senior Avery Johnson, who is one of three signal callers in K-State history with 5,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards, and who is tied for the all-time record with 48 touchdown passes, and who ranks No. 4 all-time with 1,378 rushing yards as a quarterback, No. 5 with 6,954 yards of total offense, No. 5 with 210.7 total offensive yards per game, No. 5 with 5,576 passing yards, and No. 7 with 159.0 passing yards per game.
Johnson's 26 career starts are tied for sixth by a K-State quarterback since 1990, and his 16 victories as a starting quarterback ranks eighth.
"Obviously, I worked with a bunch of different run-pass slow-fast tall-short guys," Gleeson said. "He's unique because he's one of the fastest that I've ever coached, just watching him run around with the weight room staff and watching some of the tape from prior years. When you're in a bunker like we all are during the year, sometimes you'll catch a game in the hotel, but he's always had my eye, just because of some of the big plays he can create with his feet. He's a great Swiss army knife in that he's a great thrower in this league, too.
"I'm excited to work with a guy who's had that much experience."
As for Johnson's potential his senior season?
"The sky's the limit for him," Gleeson said.
One month to the day that Sean Gleeson was hired as offensive coordinator under first-year Kansas State head coach Collin Klein, the 41-year-old former Missouri quarterbacks coach, who previously had never been to Manhattan prior to his arrival in January, stood inside the team theater room at the Vanier Family Football Complex, which has become his home.
The coaching veteran, whose previous stops included Princeton, Oklahoma State, Rutgers and Missouri, has gained footing in the Little Apple. Amid meetings with Klein, the coaching staff and players, Gleeson buzzes with excitement over the future of the Wildcats in the Klein era.
"There's great soil here," Gleeson said, "and this thing is built to win."
During his 15-minute meeting with reporters on Wednesday, Gleeson did not break down individual position groups, but he watches the players inside the Shamrock Indoor Practice Facility. Many players are new arrivals through the transfer portal.
"I told them in one of the first meetings we had together, I do think that with the portal it refreshes every year, but you have to keep your discipline about going about this process," Gleeson said. "You have to first come together as a group before you can learn how to win and before you can learn to handle winning after that. During the year you're definitely learning how to handle winning, hopefully, if things are going well."
Gleeson looks around in team meetings and likes what he sees.
"The come-together part, especially with a bunch of new portal faces, is so pivotal for all of us in college football now," he says. "You ask about meeting the guys, they've just been awesome, super receptive, very attentive, they take great notes, they work hard when you ask them to work hard, and there's less policing than maybe some other stops to make sure they're going to meals and going to class. They're all good citizens that way. They're fun as a coach because when you ignore having to deal with some of those other things, you can really get down to development, which is what we all like to do, and a little less babysitting."
Development is one of Gleeson's strengths.
In six years at Princeton, serving almost all six years as offensive coordinator, Gleeson helped Princeton to three Ivy League titles, including a 10-0 mark in 2018, and their 36.9 points per game was the program's best six-year stretch in program history.
Spending the 2019 season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma State, Gleeson oversaw a unit that ranked 17th in rushing, 21st in total offense and 35th in scoring offense. With Gleeson calling the plays, Consensus All-America running back Chuba Hubbard led the nation with 2,094 rushing yards before going in the fourth round of the 201 NFL Draft.
At Rutgers, the Gleeson-led offense had the fourth-best improvement in the FBS by scoring 13.4 more points per game in 2020 than prior to his arrival. The Scarlet Knights were also the most improved offense in the Big Ten in total offensive touchdowns. Gleeson was a 2020 candidate for the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach, and he mentored two NFL Draft picks in Bo Melton (Seattle) and Isaiah Pacheco (Kansas City).
"Working and coaching in different offensive schemes, you're a little bit tied sometimes to the things that you grew up around," Gleeson said. "One of the things that I felt like going back to Princton days, we had a really tough vertical inside run offense at that point with complementary plays in the run game that flowered around that, but we always had a tough run game, especially when we need the yards, as a go-straight-ahead type team. Certainly, we had moments where when we threaten the defense with the ability to run the ball between the tackles and safeties came up in support, we were able to get the ball over their head in play-action on first and second down."
The meeting of the offensive minds between Gleeson and Klein must be thick with possibilities and ideas.
Klein, one of the best quarterbacks in K-State history, a 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist, then a K-State quarterbacks coach who spent 2022 and 2023 guiding a couple of the most productive offenses in K-State history, comes off two ultra-successful seasons as Texas A&M offensive coordinator, culminating in his inclusion as a 2025 Broyles Award Semifinalist.
"In my conversations with Collin and watching their film at Texas A&M as an opponent the past couple years, they always had that utensil in their back pocket, where they could run the ball straight ahead when they needed to," Gleeson said. "There's a level of detail there in learning the schematic now that I think contributes to creating players who are really aggressive up front, because they know where they're going. It was kind of cool to turn on the tape and see that vision of what I've had in my mind since being a young buck in coaching of guys coming off the ball and moving people vertically but also being able to target the ball down the field on base downs throwing it vertically over people's heads at the correct amount of proportion relative to what you want to do in college football with some of those deep targets."
Gleeson continued.
"There's the excitement in being in a tough, detailed run game," he said, "but also having the play-action shots at your disposal at any time."
Upon his arrival at K-State, Gleeson, when asked whether he or Klein would handle play-calling duties on gameday, replied, "It's his show." Gleeson reconfirmed that notion on Wednesday and seems uncertain whether he will be on the field or in the coach's booth in games.
"He's going to be on the field, and he's going to call the plays," Gleeson said. "I don't know if I'll be downstairs or upstairs, we haven't talked about that. I do think that him moving from the booth to the field, he's going to be fine, but having someone that he trusts in the booth to be able to communicate some things from a defensive identification standpoint, I'd see some value in me being up there, but I'm really kind of going to be plug and play with whatever helps our offense."
Gleeson went to Missouri after spending one year as senior offensive analyst at Northwestern. In 2024, Missouri ranked fifth in fewest passes intercepted, 10th in red zone offense, and 16th in third down conversions. In 2025, Gleeson kept together an offense that experienced its ups and downs while playing quarterbacks Beau Pribula and true freshman Matt Zollers due to injury.
The quarterback status is vastly different in Manhattan.
Gleeson inherits stability at the quarterback position in senior Avery Johnson, who is one of three signal callers in K-State history with 5,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards, and who is tied for the all-time record with 48 touchdown passes, and who ranks No. 4 all-time with 1,378 rushing yards as a quarterback, No. 5 with 6,954 yards of total offense, No. 5 with 210.7 total offensive yards per game, No. 5 with 5,576 passing yards, and No. 7 with 159.0 passing yards per game.
Johnson's 26 career starts are tied for sixth by a K-State quarterback since 1990, and his 16 victories as a starting quarterback ranks eighth.
"Obviously, I worked with a bunch of different run-pass slow-fast tall-short guys," Gleeson said. "He's unique because he's one of the fastest that I've ever coached, just watching him run around with the weight room staff and watching some of the tape from prior years. When you're in a bunker like we all are during the year, sometimes you'll catch a game in the hotel, but he's always had my eye, just because of some of the big plays he can create with his feet. He's a great Swiss army knife in that he's a great thrower in this league, too.
"I'm excited to work with a guy who's had that much experience."
As for Johnson's potential his senior season?
"The sky's the limit for him," Gleeson said.
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