First Time on the Big Stage
Jul 09, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
It's 7:18 a.m. and a large steel overhang blocks the sunlight from a 78-degree Wednesday morning, as a black, 10-passenger van steers toward the elaborate front glass doors to the Omni Frisco Hotel at The Star. Less than one football field away, inside the multi-purpose, 12,000-seat Ford Center, which is connected to the World Corporate Headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys, the school colors and banners of Big 12 Conference schools sway to either the side of "the big stage," elevated on a large platform, where today eight Big 12 head coaches, one by one, will take turns sitting behind a table, flanked by his team's football helmets, surrounded by large screens displaying the school logo, and he'll discuss anything and everything regarding the state of his team, the state of the Big 12, and at times, the state of college football.
Wednesday morning, it was wheels up from Manhattan Regional Airport at 5:20 a.m., and less than two hours later, new Kansas State head coach Collin Klein holds his lavender necktie as he slides and ducks his 6-foot-5 body out of the passenger van and onto the earth in Frisco, Texas. He purchased his gray suit a few years ago in Texas. His white Air Force Ones were delivered not too long ago. As for the lavender tie? A friend gave it to Klein, and he proudly displays it today for this first-in-a-lifetime occasion.
At the moment, Klein, toting a black, leather satchel, and hoisting the strap of another black bag over his right shoulder, stands at the rear of the passenger van, and in a fatherly fashion, he pulls open the rear door, and he carefully pulls out long suit garment bags and hands one to quarterback Avery Johnson, running back Joe Jackson, safety Wesley Fair and linebacker Rex Van Wyhe, who were chosen by Klein to represent K-State at the 2026 Big 12 Football Media Days.
"How are we doing?" Klein asks, smiling, and shaking hands with an awaiting friend, as nearby video cameras roll.
We are doing just fine. And now we are doing even better because Klein, from his very first interview at Big 12 Media Days as K-State head coach with 810 WHB radio at 8:15 a.m. to his final television interview with FOX at 3:15 p.m., emphatically makes a statement. The 36-year-old native of Loveland, Colorado, who preaches the phrase "we expect to win" at every radio, TV and reporter scrum, makes his presence felt, and he shines on "the big stage," and he wins the day at Big 12 Football Media Day. Klein was a familiar face to many in Big 12 circles who saw him claw and bleed and will K-State to 10- and 11-win seasons and emerge as a 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist, and who after two ultra-successful seasons as offensive coordinator for a Texas A&M program that posted a 11-2 record and advanced to the 2025 College Football Playoff, returned home to become K-State head coach on December 4, 2025 — thus following his college coach in Hall of Famer Bill Snyder and former boss in Chris Klieman. On Wednesday, Klein authors an exciting foreward to one of the most unique coaching stories in history heading toward the 2026 college football season.
"I still remember running onto the field for that first time against North Texas as a K-State player, and I still get chills down my spine," Klein says. "This is going to be an unbelievable experience."
Crowds of suit-wearing national reporters and national personalities smile, glad-hand, and small talk with Klein at every stop along the way at the Ford Center, as Klein is swept from door to door from ESPN to Sports Illustrated to FOX. It's a far different reception than the one that met Klein, who represented K-State at the 2011 Big 12 Media Days as a first-year starting quarterback for a Snyder-led squad that was a perceived underdog. That day, Klein stood virtually alone, but he politely grinned, shook hands, and spoke to those writers who did approach him to inquire about his skills as a quarterback and his thoughts on the Wildcats' prospects for the 2011 season.
Klein, the guy nobody talked to at 2011 Big 12 Media Day, in his first year as a starting quarterback, went on to help K-State win 10 games in 2011.
On Wednesday, Klein is alone no longer. Everyone wants a moment of his time. And when it's Klein's time to take "the big stage" at Big 12 Media Days at 12:15 p.m., and as he climbs those steps in his lavender tie and white Air Force Ones, he sits in front of a packed gallery of a few hundred reporters along with an ESPN+ television audience, and for a few seconds, he gazes around the spacious Ford Center, as all eyes are on him.
It's 12:20 p.m. It's game time.
"It's good to be back in the Big 12," Klein says. "I grew up as a Big 12 kid and to be a part of it as a fan, a coach and now to help move our game and conference forward is absolutely tremendous. I thank the Lord every day that I get to come to work every day at a place that has impacted my life tremendously. My two predecessors have meant so much, and it's been so much bigger than the game of football.
"This is home for me and a dream come true. The four players we brought today, they've led our team and have bought into what we're doing and building is absolutely tremendous and incredibly exciting for the future of Kansas State football. I'm excited for the season to get started."
It's 59 days before it all really begins, of course, the day — September 5 — that Wildcat Nation has counted down for many months. It'll be one of the most highly anticipated coaching debuts in the history of K-State athletics when Klein leads the Wildcats out of the tunnel prior to facing Nicholls at a sellout Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
"I just hope I don't trip with all the smoke and fancy stuff they have going on," Klein says, chuckling.
The bells and whistles of the Klein offensive attack coupled by the multiplicity of the Jordan Peterson defense should provide plenty of fireworks in the fall.
Klein pays homage to Snyder and Klieman, whose relationships remain dear to Klein and who are each a phone call away.
"It's an incredible situation top to bottom," Klein says. "My relationship with Coach Klieman is very unique and genuine and what's best for the other person. That's something I don't take for granted. He's been there every step of the way.
"Coach Snyder has been tremendous. I'd be here all day if I was to go through all the ways his fingerprints have been on my life. The growth period and a big part of why I got into coaching was that four or five years as a college football player, the lessons that you learn and the opportunities for genuine, real relationships that you have, is second to none. I didn't know it at the time, and Coach Snyder was doing it because it's the only way that he knows how to do it, but you're getting prepared for things you don't even know are going to happen in your life. How this has all happened, Coach Snyder was preparing me in an incredible way. That's pretty cool that it worked out that way."
One reporter asks Klein about the "old-school days" and mentions "the 1990s and 2000s," which is very valid, as K-State at the time joined Nebraska and Florida State as the only Division I programs in history to win at least 11 games in six of seven seasons. The Wildcats won at least 10 games two more times, under Snyder, including twice with Klein at quarterback in 2011 and 2012 — campaigns headed by a no-nonsense mantra and bent upon the 16 Wildcat Goals for Success that were legendary throughout the tenure of one of the greatest head coaches in the history of college football.
Now Klein has devised what is called the "New Old School" approach — a throwback of sorts to the discipline and hard work Klein and his coaching staff believes will be necessary for the Wildcats to go places they've never gone before in the 2026 season — and beyond.
"From the jump, it's really the only way I know," Klein says. "I've been very, very fortunate to be around coaches and mentors that have lived that out. There's a level of investment, sacrifice, toughness and grit that sometimes can be unpopular from a culture standpoint or sometimes people don't like it because it's uncomfortable. That mantra for me is that's a place that we're going to live. If there are people who might not like that or it might make them uncomfortable, there's plenty that'll embrace it and embody that and they'll represent the Powercat and be willing to make the sacrifices at the level that we need to work to become everything they can be."
The work of Klein and his coaching staff seemingly have already paid potential dividends for the future. The Class of 2027 could become the best recruiting class in K-State history.
"We'll know how well we do in three or so years when we see how many of these recruits get NFL Combine invitations and how many get drafted," Klein says. "That's going to tell ultimately how well we did or didn't do. Like-minded people attract like-minded people. The competitive edge, the family atmosphere, when we get them to Manhattan and show them the intentional plan that we have to develop them better than anyone in the country, it resonates with the ones that that's important to, and those are going to be the good fits and the guys who've caught that vision. We don't shy away from it.
"I tell them it's going to be hard. I tell them it's a badge of honor to wear that Powercat. I tell them that the most valuable things in life, you're going to have to pay the most for. We're going to make that price really freaking high to play at Kansas State. The right guys will be attracted to that, and I'm excited about it."
There's fire in Klein's eyes. The eyes that have seen so much through the years burn with competitive spirit. Over the past six months, in speaking with K-State assistant coaches and players, the No. 1 thing they've noticed about Klein has been his quiet competitiveness, and how he's one of the most competitive individuals they've ever met.
"That's a learned trait, and it's something you absolutely cultivate on your team and in the locker room," Klein says. "Since we got here in January, we've tried to make the fire hot enough to draw that out of our players. They're embracing that. We're going to do it the right way and that fire is going to be really, really freaking hot."
Klein's offense figures to bring the heat in the fall as well.
With Klein in control between K-State and Texas A&M, his offenses averaged 32.3 points (2022 at K-State), 37.1 (2023 at K-State), 30.4 (2024 at Texas A&M) and 33.8 (2025 at Texas A&M). His offenses also produced 418.8 total yards (2022 at K-State), 445.2 (2023 at K-State), 405.8 (2024 at Texas A&M) and 444.5 (2025 at Texas A&M). Klein's offenses consistently ranked in the top 25 in several statistical categories.
Klein has reunited with Johnson, who Klein recruited for three years before Johnson signed with K-State, and who now is connected at the hip with the 6-foot-3, 200-pound senior superstar, who is tied for the K-State all-time record with 48 touchdown passes, ranks sixth all-time with 5,576 passing yards, fourth among all K-State quarterbacks with 1,378 rushing yards, third all-time in being responsible for 70 touchdowns, and fifth all-time with 6,954 total offensive yards.
"We have to build around the quarterback," Klein says. "The identity of our offense is going to take shape in training camp, which is very vigorous in building the pieces of it. We're going to build it around him.
"Avery and I's relationship goes back a long way. It's incredibly special to me. I'd argue that some of his best attributes aren't physical. I know everyone sees how fast he is and how well he can run, but he has the arm talent, the spin on the football, and he's one of the best competitors I've been around. He works hard at his craft, and he's a very stoic, laid-back guy, but his motor is going hard in there. That's why Avery and I got so close and why we fit. That gives me energy every day working with him, and I know that's what he gets from me, too. We both love football and competing and winning, and we love team, and that's a great combination. With the history we have, it gives us a head start to be on the same page to do what we want to do."
Klein didn't have to go far to find his K-State defensive coordinator. Jordan Peterson sat in the same staff meeting room as Klein at Texas A&M for two seasons. The 38-year-old Peterson guided defenses that boast multiple looks and a bevy of adjustments and that seemingly learns and corrects and executes and at times dominates as the game wears on, only becoming stronger by the quarter, helped guide Texas A&M to an 11-2 record last season, and the Aggies led the nation in third-down defense (22.9%), and they ranked second in sacks (3.31 per game) and tackles for loss (8.5), eighth in first down defense (205), 16th in passing yards allowed (176.6), 18th in total defense (307.4) and 19th in fourth-down defense (41.2%).
Peterson brings five years of defensive coordinator experience and has spent six years with Big 12 Conference teams. Klein and Peterson know what they want the identity of the Wildcats' defense to be during their years together in Manhattan.
"In today's world of college football, something that's very, very important to me as I was putting our staff together, Jordan and I when talking about this position in general, is that in today's world you have to be multiple and present different pictures and fronts, so our ability to be multiple was important," Klein says. "With Jordan's experience level at places where he's been, I feel very, very confident we can put the package together to fit our personnel."
Questions for Klein and K-State? For sure. But Klein is excited.
"From a big-picture standpoint, I'm very excited about the competition we have at many spots," Klein says. "There are a lot of position groups that are very untested at Kansas State. We had to rebuild our offensive line, our receiver room, our defensive line for the most part, and find pieces in the secondary. That's a lot, right? But a lot of the guys we brought in have game experience and production. Getting those groups to gel together is going to be the final process of it. Because of the competition we have at a lot of spots, I'm not worried. It'll be very interesting to see how they take shape."
As for two perhaps relatively unheralded players in particular to watch out for in the fall?
"Elijah Hill, a defensive end, is going to do some really, really good things," Klein says. "Joe Jackson might be known by some, but Jay Harris around him is going to some really, really nice things. Also, it'll be interesting to see who rises out the secondary with Zashon Rich and Donovan McIntosh back there."
Somebody asks Klein if he ever thinks about the possibility of underachieving in his first season as head coach. Klein swats away that thought.
"High expectations are a big thing," Klein says. "Every one of our staff and our players — nobody wants to win more than them. If something doesn't go well, nobody wants to get it fixed more than them. It's a part of this football mindset and Coach Snyder in laying that foundation. We expect to win, we're going to prepare hard, and we're going to take care of the things that'll lead to success, and when that happens and where that happens, that's the beauty of the journey, that you don't know what that's going to look like, but that's the mindset I've had my whole football life."
If there's a part to this football life that most glaringly defines Klein's rise to this spot as one of the most intriguing coaching stories in college football, perhaps it goes back to the 2011 Big 12 Media Days, when Klein entered his first year as K-State starting quarterback. There weren't a ton of eyes on him back then.
Reminded of that day, Klein grins as he recounts his journey to this day, sitting at "the big stage," and looking out over hundreds of reporters inside the Ford Center.
"It's been a humbling journey, and I'm just very grateful and I thank the Lord every day all the relationships, opportunities, the guiding of my career journey, my family journey, my wife's journey, and it's been an unbelievable ride so far," Klein says. "But the mission and the whole reason behind that isn't for any of those reasons but to truly impact and serve other people. Our players in our program are first and foremost the most important piece of that. Our staff's families and staff are right after that. Kansas State University and the state of Kansas, and beyond — that's the mindset of myself and our program and it's been that way for a long time."
He pauses.
"It feels like yesterday, and it feels like a different life," Klein says. "The journey prepared me for this next step. This is the next step, and we're ready to go."
It's 7:18 a.m. and a large steel overhang blocks the sunlight from a 78-degree Wednesday morning, as a black, 10-passenger van steers toward the elaborate front glass doors to the Omni Frisco Hotel at The Star. Less than one football field away, inside the multi-purpose, 12,000-seat Ford Center, which is connected to the World Corporate Headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys, the school colors and banners of Big 12 Conference schools sway to either the side of "the big stage," elevated on a large platform, where today eight Big 12 head coaches, one by one, will take turns sitting behind a table, flanked by his team's football helmets, surrounded by large screens displaying the school logo, and he'll discuss anything and everything regarding the state of his team, the state of the Big 12, and at times, the state of college football.
Wednesday morning, it was wheels up from Manhattan Regional Airport at 5:20 a.m., and less than two hours later, new Kansas State head coach Collin Klein holds his lavender necktie as he slides and ducks his 6-foot-5 body out of the passenger van and onto the earth in Frisco, Texas. He purchased his gray suit a few years ago in Texas. His white Air Force Ones were delivered not too long ago. As for the lavender tie? A friend gave it to Klein, and he proudly displays it today for this first-in-a-lifetime occasion.
At the moment, Klein, toting a black, leather satchel, and hoisting the strap of another black bag over his right shoulder, stands at the rear of the passenger van, and in a fatherly fashion, he pulls open the rear door, and he carefully pulls out long suit garment bags and hands one to quarterback Avery Johnson, running back Joe Jackson, safety Wesley Fair and linebacker Rex Van Wyhe, who were chosen by Klein to represent K-State at the 2026 Big 12 Football Media Days.
"How are we doing?" Klein asks, smiling, and shaking hands with an awaiting friend, as nearby video cameras roll.
We are doing just fine. And now we are doing even better because Klein, from his very first interview at Big 12 Media Days as K-State head coach with 810 WHB radio at 8:15 a.m. to his final television interview with FOX at 3:15 p.m., emphatically makes a statement. The 36-year-old native of Loveland, Colorado, who preaches the phrase "we expect to win" at every radio, TV and reporter scrum, makes his presence felt, and he shines on "the big stage," and he wins the day at Big 12 Football Media Day. Klein was a familiar face to many in Big 12 circles who saw him claw and bleed and will K-State to 10- and 11-win seasons and emerge as a 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist, and who after two ultra-successful seasons as offensive coordinator for a Texas A&M program that posted a 11-2 record and advanced to the 2025 College Football Playoff, returned home to become K-State head coach on December 4, 2025 — thus following his college coach in Hall of Famer Bill Snyder and former boss in Chris Klieman. On Wednesday, Klein authors an exciting foreward to one of the most unique coaching stories in history heading toward the 2026 college football season.
"I still remember running onto the field for that first time against North Texas as a K-State player, and I still get chills down my spine," Klein says. "This is going to be an unbelievable experience."
Crowds of suit-wearing national reporters and national personalities smile, glad-hand, and small talk with Klein at every stop along the way at the Ford Center, as Klein is swept from door to door from ESPN to Sports Illustrated to FOX. It's a far different reception than the one that met Klein, who represented K-State at the 2011 Big 12 Media Days as a first-year starting quarterback for a Snyder-led squad that was a perceived underdog. That day, Klein stood virtually alone, but he politely grinned, shook hands, and spoke to those writers who did approach him to inquire about his skills as a quarterback and his thoughts on the Wildcats' prospects for the 2011 season.
Klein, the guy nobody talked to at 2011 Big 12 Media Day, in his first year as a starting quarterback, went on to help K-State win 10 games in 2011.
On Wednesday, Klein is alone no longer. Everyone wants a moment of his time. And when it's Klein's time to take "the big stage" at Big 12 Media Days at 12:15 p.m., and as he climbs those steps in his lavender tie and white Air Force Ones, he sits in front of a packed gallery of a few hundred reporters along with an ESPN+ television audience, and for a few seconds, he gazes around the spacious Ford Center, as all eyes are on him.
It's 12:20 p.m. It's game time.
"It's good to be back in the Big 12," Klein says. "I grew up as a Big 12 kid and to be a part of it as a fan, a coach and now to help move our game and conference forward is absolutely tremendous. I thank the Lord every day that I get to come to work every day at a place that has impacted my life tremendously. My two predecessors have meant so much, and it's been so much bigger than the game of football.
"This is home for me and a dream come true. The four players we brought today, they've led our team and have bought into what we're doing and building is absolutely tremendous and incredibly exciting for the future of Kansas State football. I'm excited for the season to get started."
It's 59 days before it all really begins, of course, the day — September 5 — that Wildcat Nation has counted down for many months. It'll be one of the most highly anticipated coaching debuts in the history of K-State athletics when Klein leads the Wildcats out of the tunnel prior to facing Nicholls at a sellout Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
"I just hope I don't trip with all the smoke and fancy stuff they have going on," Klein says, chuckling.
The bells and whistles of the Klein offensive attack coupled by the multiplicity of the Jordan Peterson defense should provide plenty of fireworks in the fall.
Klein pays homage to Snyder and Klieman, whose relationships remain dear to Klein and who are each a phone call away.
"It's an incredible situation top to bottom," Klein says. "My relationship with Coach Klieman is very unique and genuine and what's best for the other person. That's something I don't take for granted. He's been there every step of the way.
"Coach Snyder has been tremendous. I'd be here all day if I was to go through all the ways his fingerprints have been on my life. The growth period and a big part of why I got into coaching was that four or five years as a college football player, the lessons that you learn and the opportunities for genuine, real relationships that you have, is second to none. I didn't know it at the time, and Coach Snyder was doing it because it's the only way that he knows how to do it, but you're getting prepared for things you don't even know are going to happen in your life. How this has all happened, Coach Snyder was preparing me in an incredible way. That's pretty cool that it worked out that way."
One reporter asks Klein about the "old-school days" and mentions "the 1990s and 2000s," which is very valid, as K-State at the time joined Nebraska and Florida State as the only Division I programs in history to win at least 11 games in six of seven seasons. The Wildcats won at least 10 games two more times, under Snyder, including twice with Klein at quarterback in 2011 and 2012 — campaigns headed by a no-nonsense mantra and bent upon the 16 Wildcat Goals for Success that were legendary throughout the tenure of one of the greatest head coaches in the history of college football.
Now Klein has devised what is called the "New Old School" approach — a throwback of sorts to the discipline and hard work Klein and his coaching staff believes will be necessary for the Wildcats to go places they've never gone before in the 2026 season — and beyond.
"From the jump, it's really the only way I know," Klein says. "I've been very, very fortunate to be around coaches and mentors that have lived that out. There's a level of investment, sacrifice, toughness and grit that sometimes can be unpopular from a culture standpoint or sometimes people don't like it because it's uncomfortable. That mantra for me is that's a place that we're going to live. If there are people who might not like that or it might make them uncomfortable, there's plenty that'll embrace it and embody that and they'll represent the Powercat and be willing to make the sacrifices at the level that we need to work to become everything they can be."
The work of Klein and his coaching staff seemingly have already paid potential dividends for the future. The Class of 2027 could become the best recruiting class in K-State history.
"We'll know how well we do in three or so years when we see how many of these recruits get NFL Combine invitations and how many get drafted," Klein says. "That's going to tell ultimately how well we did or didn't do. Like-minded people attract like-minded people. The competitive edge, the family atmosphere, when we get them to Manhattan and show them the intentional plan that we have to develop them better than anyone in the country, it resonates with the ones that that's important to, and those are going to be the good fits and the guys who've caught that vision. We don't shy away from it.
"I tell them it's going to be hard. I tell them it's a badge of honor to wear that Powercat. I tell them that the most valuable things in life, you're going to have to pay the most for. We're going to make that price really freaking high to play at Kansas State. The right guys will be attracted to that, and I'm excited about it."
There's fire in Klein's eyes. The eyes that have seen so much through the years burn with competitive spirit. Over the past six months, in speaking with K-State assistant coaches and players, the No. 1 thing they've noticed about Klein has been his quiet competitiveness, and how he's one of the most competitive individuals they've ever met.
"That's a learned trait, and it's something you absolutely cultivate on your team and in the locker room," Klein says. "Since we got here in January, we've tried to make the fire hot enough to draw that out of our players. They're embracing that. We're going to do it the right way and that fire is going to be really, really freaking hot."
Klein's offense figures to bring the heat in the fall as well.
With Klein in control between K-State and Texas A&M, his offenses averaged 32.3 points (2022 at K-State), 37.1 (2023 at K-State), 30.4 (2024 at Texas A&M) and 33.8 (2025 at Texas A&M). His offenses also produced 418.8 total yards (2022 at K-State), 445.2 (2023 at K-State), 405.8 (2024 at Texas A&M) and 444.5 (2025 at Texas A&M). Klein's offenses consistently ranked in the top 25 in several statistical categories.
Klein has reunited with Johnson, who Klein recruited for three years before Johnson signed with K-State, and who now is connected at the hip with the 6-foot-3, 200-pound senior superstar, who is tied for the K-State all-time record with 48 touchdown passes, ranks sixth all-time with 5,576 passing yards, fourth among all K-State quarterbacks with 1,378 rushing yards, third all-time in being responsible for 70 touchdowns, and fifth all-time with 6,954 total offensive yards.
"We have to build around the quarterback," Klein says. "The identity of our offense is going to take shape in training camp, which is very vigorous in building the pieces of it. We're going to build it around him.
"Avery and I's relationship goes back a long way. It's incredibly special to me. I'd argue that some of his best attributes aren't physical. I know everyone sees how fast he is and how well he can run, but he has the arm talent, the spin on the football, and he's one of the best competitors I've been around. He works hard at his craft, and he's a very stoic, laid-back guy, but his motor is going hard in there. That's why Avery and I got so close and why we fit. That gives me energy every day working with him, and I know that's what he gets from me, too. We both love football and competing and winning, and we love team, and that's a great combination. With the history we have, it gives us a head start to be on the same page to do what we want to do."
Klein didn't have to go far to find his K-State defensive coordinator. Jordan Peterson sat in the same staff meeting room as Klein at Texas A&M for two seasons. The 38-year-old Peterson guided defenses that boast multiple looks and a bevy of adjustments and that seemingly learns and corrects and executes and at times dominates as the game wears on, only becoming stronger by the quarter, helped guide Texas A&M to an 11-2 record last season, and the Aggies led the nation in third-down defense (22.9%), and they ranked second in sacks (3.31 per game) and tackles for loss (8.5), eighth in first down defense (205), 16th in passing yards allowed (176.6), 18th in total defense (307.4) and 19th in fourth-down defense (41.2%).
Peterson brings five years of defensive coordinator experience and has spent six years with Big 12 Conference teams. Klein and Peterson know what they want the identity of the Wildcats' defense to be during their years together in Manhattan.
"In today's world of college football, something that's very, very important to me as I was putting our staff together, Jordan and I when talking about this position in general, is that in today's world you have to be multiple and present different pictures and fronts, so our ability to be multiple was important," Klein says. "With Jordan's experience level at places where he's been, I feel very, very confident we can put the package together to fit our personnel."
Questions for Klein and K-State? For sure. But Klein is excited.
"From a big-picture standpoint, I'm very excited about the competition we have at many spots," Klein says. "There are a lot of position groups that are very untested at Kansas State. We had to rebuild our offensive line, our receiver room, our defensive line for the most part, and find pieces in the secondary. That's a lot, right? But a lot of the guys we brought in have game experience and production. Getting those groups to gel together is going to be the final process of it. Because of the competition we have at a lot of spots, I'm not worried. It'll be very interesting to see how they take shape."
As for two perhaps relatively unheralded players in particular to watch out for in the fall?
"Elijah Hill, a defensive end, is going to do some really, really good things," Klein says. "Joe Jackson might be known by some, but Jay Harris around him is going to some really, really nice things. Also, it'll be interesting to see who rises out the secondary with Zashon Rich and Donovan McIntosh back there."
Somebody asks Klein if he ever thinks about the possibility of underachieving in his first season as head coach. Klein swats away that thought.
"High expectations are a big thing," Klein says. "Every one of our staff and our players — nobody wants to win more than them. If something doesn't go well, nobody wants to get it fixed more than them. It's a part of this football mindset and Coach Snyder in laying that foundation. We expect to win, we're going to prepare hard, and we're going to take care of the things that'll lead to success, and when that happens and where that happens, that's the beauty of the journey, that you don't know what that's going to look like, but that's the mindset I've had my whole football life."
If there's a part to this football life that most glaringly defines Klein's rise to this spot as one of the most intriguing coaching stories in college football, perhaps it goes back to the 2011 Big 12 Media Days, when Klein entered his first year as K-State starting quarterback. There weren't a ton of eyes on him back then.
Reminded of that day, Klein grins as he recounts his journey to this day, sitting at "the big stage," and looking out over hundreds of reporters inside the Ford Center.
"It's been a humbling journey, and I'm just very grateful and I thank the Lord every day all the relationships, opportunities, the guiding of my career journey, my family journey, my wife's journey, and it's been an unbelievable ride so far," Klein says. "But the mission and the whole reason behind that isn't for any of those reasons but to truly impact and serve other people. Our players in our program are first and foremost the most important piece of that. Our staff's families and staff are right after that. Kansas State University and the state of Kansas, and beyond — that's the mindset of myself and our program and it's been that way for a long time."
He pauses.
"It feels like yesterday, and it feels like a different life," Klein says. "The journey prepared me for this next step. This is the next step, and we're ready to go."
Players Mentioned
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