The Passing of the Torch

By: D. Scott Fritchen

After dinner had been devoured and the outgoing Kansas State football senior class had been formally indoctrinated into the Golden Cats fraternity, and after a few outgoing senior speeches, and after a six-minute video of players from the seven-year Chris Klieman era thanking and praising their former head coach for making them better men, the teary-eyed 58-year-old native of Waterloo, Iowa, donned in a purple quarter-zip and gray slacks crept from the shadows inside the Shamrock Zone on Friday night, and stood in front of a podium, as more than 100 former players from across the country and spanning different decades stood, applauded and cheered.

Klieman had done many great things during his time at K-State. Replacing a legend, Klieman helped devise the Four Core Values, and he led the Wildcats to bowl wins, and he led them to the 2022 Big 12 Championship, and during one stretch only six teams in America had won at least nine games in three consecutive seasons: Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and K-State. Five years ago, Klieman did something else that was special: He began this grand ceremony to welcome the outgoing seniors into the Golden Cats fraternity, which includes the names of 1,400 former players in its database.

So, it was thunderous applause, some cheers from the back of the Shamrock Zone, its rear windows backed up against the beautiful sight evening sky above Bill Snyder Family Stadium, as Klieman made his way to center stage at the grand event. There they stood — Skylar Thompson, Cooper Beebe, Jordy Nelson, Marcus Watts, Josh Freeman, Brooks Barta, VJ Payne, Taylor Poitier and so many more — paying respects to a guy who left North Dakota State after leading the Bison to four national championships, and who was hired by K-State athletic director Gene Taylor on December 10, 2018, and who then announced his retirement from the game after a 35-year career on December 3, 2025 with one of the highest career winning percentages among current FBS coaches who had led programs for least 10 seasons.

"I've been blessed in this business to be a part of a lot of team championships," Klieman said. "Seven national championships, bowl wins, the Big 12 Championship — that wasn't a career, that was a dream, and I get to live it. I get to live that dream and pinch myself every day with the amount of success that our teams had. What I'm most proud of is watching all these guys become great fathers, great husbands, great community members, great leaders. It proves to me that we did things the right way.

"Here's a challenge to the 2026 class, and I've seen it with everybody I've met in the last five years doing this event. When you play football, coach football, or are a part of a team, you're in the 1% of the world. That's a 1% deal. Everybody wants to do what we do. Everybody wants to be who you are and be that 1%. But when it ends, and it ended for me, and it ended for you guys, how do you make sure you don't go back to mainstream America and be mediocre? That's the challenge. Stay at 1%. That's going to be my challenge as well."

Then Klieman paused as applause reached a crescendo and died down. He looked to his left. About 30 feet away, wearing a lavender quarter-zip, his arms crossed, his back edging against the food bar, stood a 36-year-old man who gently lifted his head and peered into Klieman's eyes.

"CK, you mean the world to me," Klieman said. "I asked Gene Taylor if I could stay involved in some capacity. I don't know what that's going to be, I really don't, I don't want to step on your toes, but I want to stay involved, because this place is special, and it means an awful lot to my wife and I, and it means a ton to my family."

Klieman paused.

"I love this guy and I'll always, always have his back," Klieman said, "so Collin, come on."

Klein slowly ambled onto stage. At exactly 8:53 p.m. on Friday, April 3, 2026, in front of the K-State Football Golden Cats fraternity, its members standing and applauding and cheering on the moment, Klieman met Klein with a tight, prolonged embrace.

Moments earlier, Klieman recalled how he interviewed Klein in 2018 upon his arrival at K-State and thought, "That kid is special. I have to keep him on staff." He recalled many long talks with Klein and the decision to make Klein interim offensive coordinator — "and he killed it," Klieman said. And Klieman recalled how he and Klein, who grew so close during Klein's successful two-year run as offensive coordinator at K-State, both knew "it was best for him to leave to come back," so Klein moved to Texas A&M and served as a highly successful offensive coordinator in 2024 and 2025. Finally, Klieman recalled how, upon his decision to retire in December, he phoned Klein, and he told Taylor, "I'm out, and you better call CK, because he's your next football coach."

Now there they were, Klieman and Klein, in their embrace on stage for everyone to see, as we witnessed a rarity in college athletics: The official passing of the torch between two men who genuinely love each other.

"Coach, thank you. This is why you coach," Klein said, looking at Klieman as he left the stage. "In 2019 when we had that conversation in the office, you sparked that belief in me again, and you sparked that joy and passion for people again, and I can't thank you enough for the impact you've had on my life. You are one of the most genuine people I've ever met. And the ability to love people to the highest degree and still hold them accountable and still challenge them — you looked at a kid who'd never been an offensive coordinator before and said, 'I believe in you,' I believed it."

In Klein's first full season as K-State offensive coordinator in 2022, Klein's offense ranked top 10 in school history in 11 categories, including No. 2 all-time with 5,863 offensive yards and 958 plays, and fourth with 2,916 rushing yards, and fifth with 418.8 yards per game.

In Klein's second season as K-State offensive coordinator in 2023, the offense finished No. 2 all-time with 445.2 total yards per game and ranked 10^th in the FBS and sixth in school history with 37.1 points per game — its highest scoring average since K-State averaged 38.9 points per game in 2012 — the season that Klein captained a team that reached No. 1 in the national rankings, and that he finished one of the finest careers by a K-State quarterback in history with a trip to New York City as a 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist.

"The times that we had on the practice field, in the locker room and after games, I wouldn't trade those for the world," Klein said, looking at Klieman. "Our relationship has always been special, it's always been genuine and it's always been honest. And I love you, I love you, and thank you so much for what you've done for the place I care about greatly, and from all of us former players, thank you, because you embody what it means to be a K-State Wildcat, and you carried the tradition on, and set the bar really freaking high, because I have to follow a legend. I hope you're around a long freaking time, and I'll need all the help I can get and help us continue this thing and move this forward to where this place deserves to be, and we're in great position because of you. I love you. Thank you."

Klein played and coached under one legend in Bill Snyder, and coached under another legend in Kleiman, and now Klein has his own staff, and his players, and he's in the midst of his first spring practice season, and he's about 150 days from jogging onto the field as head coach for the first time.

At about the time that Klein offered some parting words, the stadium lights lit up, illuminating Bill Snyder Family Stadium in all of its brilliance and quietness — the place where nearly every man in attendance at the Golden Cats ceremony once played under the 16 Goals for Success or under the Four Core Values. Now K-State has Klein, who epitomizes both perhaps better than any player to come through the Vanier Family Football Complex.

"That tradition we get to carry on is special," Klein said. "You go around the country, and I've had an opportunity the last couple years to get around a see what people are doing out in the world and what other places are like, and I learned a lot of new things, but I was also convicted even more about the K-State brand, K-State relationships and what this place stands for, because it is unique, it is special, and if you've coached at this place or you've played at this place, you're built different. Every single one of us is built different. This place has a championship lens that is different.

"I just can't thank you enough for laying that foundation for us, and we're going to continue to move it forward. Go Cats."

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Players Mentioned

VJ Payne

Taylor Poitier

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