Andre Coleman - Football Coach - Kansas State University Athletics

Andre Coleman

Title:
Pass Game Coordinator/Wide Receivers
Email:
acoleman@kstatesports.com
Phone:
(785) 532-5876

The Coleman File

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Year at K-State: Sixth
Date of Birth: September 19, 1972
Hometown: Hermitage, Pa.
Spouse: Brandi
Children: Shyla, Kyla, Brielle

EDUCATION

Kansas State (2011)
Bachelor's in Social Science

PLAYING EXPERIENCE

K-State, Wide Receiver (1990-93)
San Diego Chargers, Wide Receiver (1994-96)
Seattle Seahawks, Wide Receiver (1997)
Pittsburgh Steelers, Wide Receiver (1997-98)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2010 Youngstown State (Tight Ends)
2011-12 Youngstown State (Wide Receivers)
2013-15 K-State (Wide Receivers)
2016-17 K-State (Pass Game Coord./WR)
2018 K-State (Offensive Coord./WR)

BOWL EXPERIENCE

1993 Copper Bowl (K-State)*
1994 Super Bowl XXIX (San Diego Chargers)*
2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl (K-State)
2015 Alamo Bowl (K-State)
2016 Liberty Bowl (K-State)
2016 Texas Bowl (K-State)
2017 Cactus Bowl (K-State)
* As a player

A former Kansas State receiving standout, Andre Coleman enters his sixth year tutoring the K-State wide receivers and was promoted to Offensive Coordinator prior to the 2018 season. This is the second promotion for Coleman, who came to Manhattan from Youngstown State, as he was named the pass game coordinator prior to the 2016 campaign.

A dynamic receiver and kick returner during his playing days, Coleman has been instrumental in the growth of the K-State offense and return game.

A four-year letterwinner at wide receiver under Bill Snyder from 1990-93, Coleman coached a position group that recorded the most receptions and yards ever by a Snyder-coached team in 2013 before shattering both those marks in 2014 with 230 receptions for 3,097 yards.

One of Coleman’s top pupils, Byron Pringle, finished his two-year career in 2017 after becoming the 30th Wildcat and the seventh former community-college player to top 1,000 career receiving yards. The Tampa, Florida, native set the school record for single-season yards per catch (24.13) – a mark that ranked third nationally – while his career mark of 19.64 yards per catch ranks second in K-State history. Pringle’s average was boosted by a four-catch, 166-yard, three-touchdown performance in the Wildcats’ victory at No. 10 Oklahoma State, a game in which he tied the school record for receiving touchdowns and also returned a kickoff 89 yards for a score.

Coleman also helped guide Pringle in returns as he finished sixth in school history in career kickoff-return yards (1,076) and average (27.6), while he returned two in his career for touchdowns to tie for fourth in K-State history. Pringle earned Honorable Mention All-Big 12 honors as a kick returner.

A former NFL kick returner who returned a kickoff for a touchdown in Super Bowl XXIX, Coleman also helped develop D.J. Reed in the return game en route to Second Team All-America honors from the Walter Camp Football Foundation, while he earned First Team All-Big 12 honors and earned votes for the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year award. Coleman helped guide Reed to No. 2 national rankings in both kickoff returns (34.2) and punt returns (14.9), while he returned each for a touchdown during the season.

Coleman also recruited and helped develop Isaiah Zuber, who has placed in the top five in school history in both freshman (5th; 24) and sophomore (51; 3rd) catches during his first two years. Zuber led the Wildcats in 2017 with 51 catches, just 13 shy of the school’s top-10, while he is closing in on the career top-10 list and is less than 300 yards shy of a 1,000-yard career.

Tutoring a young position group in 2016, the top two receivers – Pringle and Dominique Heath – were both sophomores, while Zuber, a redshirt freshman, was fourth on the squad. Pringle’s season totals were buoyed by a 126-yard performance in the regular-season finale at TCU and a 107-yard outburst against Texas A&M to help K-State win the 2016 Texas Bowl. Each of those contests featured one of the longest receptions in school history as he had an 83-yard touchdown against the Horned Frogs and a 78-yard score against Texas A&M, the latter setting a K-State bowl record.

Pringle finished seventh nationally in kickoff-return yards in 2016, while his 659 kickoff-return yards ranked fifth in school history. Pringle, who had a 99-yard kickoff return touchdown against Texas Tech, went on to earn First Team All-Big 12 honors, the fourth-straight year K-State had the first-team honoree at returner.

The 2014 season proved to be the best year for Wildcat wide receivers in school history as the 1-2 punch of All-American Tyler Lockett and All-Big 12 performer Curry Sexton became the first duo in school history to go over 1,000 yards in the same season and were the top receiving duo in the nation during that season. Lockett, a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, finished third in the country and tops in the Big 12 with 1,515 receiving yards to go along with 11 touchdowns, another top mark in the league. Lockett also hauled in the second-most receptions in a season in school history with 106.

Thanks in large part to Coleman’s tutelage, Lockett left K-State as the all-time leader in career receptions (249), yards (3,710) and touchdowns (29), just three of the 17 school records he set in his four-year career. Lockett, who went on to become an NFL Pro Bowler and finalist for NFL Rookie of the Year in his first season with the Seattle Seahawks, also earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year honors for a second-straight season and was a Consensus All-American as a returner due to the coaching of Coleman, an All-American returner at K-State by his own right. A mastered kickoff returner, Lockett excelled in punt-return duties as a senior by leading the nation with a 19.1-yard average, while he returned two for touchdowns.

Sexton ranked 25th nationally and fourth in the conference with 1,059 yards. He recorded the two best seasons of his career under Coleman as he had a three-year total of just 564 yards entering his senior season, 446 of which came as a junior, Coleman’s first season on staff. Sexton teamed with Lockett to record five of the school’s double 100-yard games while he finished fourth in school history in single-season receptions (79) and seventh in yards.

The 2013 group was paced by Lockett, who ranked 11th nationally with 105.2 receiving yards per game and 19th in the NCAA with 11 touchdown receptions en route to All-America honors. Lockett, who was a candidate for the Biletnikoff Award, set the school’s single-game receiving yardage record at Texas (237) before smashing his own mark later in the season against Oklahoma (278). He also tied the single-game school record with three receiving touchdowns on three occasions. The 2013 Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year thanks in part to Coleman, Lockett obliterated the school’s single-game all-purpose yardage record with 440 against Oklahoma, a mark that ranked as the fifth-most in FBS history.

Although Lockett was the driving force behind Coleman’s successful receiving corps in 2013, he was hardly the lone threat as Sexton and senior Tramaine Thompson gave the Wildcats solid No. 2 and 3 options for Coleman. Thompson, who left K-State No. 12 on the all-time receiving list, was an Honorable Mention All-Big 12 kick returner thanks to Coleman’s tutelage.

With heavy positional losses from a historic unit the year prior and helping break in a new quarterback, the overall wide receiver production in 2015 was unable to be matched by the year prior. However, the group came through in the clutch over the final three regular-season contests – all wins – to help the Wildcats climb out of a 3-6 hole and earn their sixth-straight bowl trip. The stretch was headlined by Deante Burton, who hauled in five receptions for 135 yards – including a 77-yard touchdown strike – in K-State’s 24-23 victory over West Virginia in the final game of the year en route to Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors. Burton, who finished his career in 2016, became the school’s 29th career 1,000-yard receiver and went on to earn a spot on the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad in 2017.

Coleman was also instrumental in helping coach a third-straight Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year honoree in kick returner Morgan Burns, who also went on to earn First Team All-America honors. The latest in a long line of dynamic kick returners – which, for all intents and purposes, began with Coleman himself in the early 1990s – Burns ranked first in the nation with four kickoff-return touchdowns and third with a 33.5-yard average.

Prior to returning to K-State, Coleman spent the previous three seasons at Youngstown State. In 2011 and 2012 at Youngstown State, Coleman worked with no seniors and only one junior as he coached multiple freshmen and sophomores who were called into action early in their careers to the tune of 109 total receptions by underclassmen. He helped YSU post a 7-4 record, including a 31-17 victory at Pittsburgh, which served as the school’s first-ever victory over a BCS opponent.

During his first season as the receivers coach in 2011, Coleman guided a group that caught 22 of a school-record 27 touchdown passes, while the Penguins’ 227.5 passing yards per game were the second most in school history and the highest since 1972. Christian Bryan set school freshman records in receptions (46) and yards (722) under Coleman’s watch, while his yardage total was the most by a freshman at the FCS level that season. Coaching the tight ends in his first season on the staff in 2010, Coleman’s group hauled in 17 receptions and two touchdowns, helping YSU’s offense set a then-school record at 412.0 yards per game.

A 1993 All-America and All-Big Eight performer, Coleman left his mark at K-State during his four years by accumulating 3,443 all-purpose yards, including 1,556 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns on 95 receptions and 1,458 kickoff-return yards on 60 returns. He still sits in K-State’s top 10 in 12 offensive or return categories, including top marks in both single-game all-purpose yards per play (27.0 vs. Missouri in 1993) and career all-purpose yards per play (18.2), a third-place ranking in career kickoff-return attempts and a fourth-place mark in kickoff-return yards.

The Hermitage, Pennsylvania, product was drafted in the third round of the 1994 NFL Draft by San Diego and put together a solid five-year professional career playing for the Chargers, Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers. A two-time Pro Bowler and 1994 NFL All-Rookie squad honoree, Coleman helped the Chargers win the 1994 AFC Championship and earn a trip to Super Bowl XXIX in which he established eight Super Bowl records at the time, including a then-record 98-yard kickoff return touchdown as he became the first Wildcat football player to score a touchdown in a Super Bowl.

Coleman completed his degree in social sciences from Kansas State in the summer of 2011. He and his wife, Brandi, have three daughters, Shyla, Kyla and Brielle.