The Kansas State Wildcats have been a solid and consistently successful program for much of this century thanks to the hard work from Bill Snyder and his coaching staffs and teams. And that’s a difficult thing to do.
Chris Klieman took over and it seemed like Big 12 fans and Kansas State football fans thought he might have a shot to elevate the Wildcats this season.
That didn’t happen through the first few games of the year as the Wildcats started things off with a 1-3 record. But Kansas State quickly turned that around and has managed to win three of their last four games this season.
That’s not bad! And so much of that credit should go to Klieman for the way he’s worked to salvage this season.
“I have a lot of respect for Coach Klieman,” Joey McGuire, the head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, explained in a recent press conference. “I think he is one of the best coaches in the country. [Kansas State has an] absolutely incredible culture, they’re hard nosed.”
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire sure seems impressed with Chris Klieman and the Kansas State Wildcats
In addition to noting how Kansas State has a good coach and culture, McGuire also made sure to note how very quickly improved throughout the most recent few weeks of this season for Klieman and the Wildcats.
“They’re playing their best football right now,” McGuire continued. “They started off not the way they wanted to, they started off 1-3, and then you turn around and you look up. In the last four games, they’re 3-1.”
And yeah, Kansas State is on a hot streak right now. They’ve managed to beat UCF by 14 points, lost a close game against Baylor in Waco, beat TCU by 13 points, and then beat Kansas by 25 points. The Wildcats are certainly moving in the right direction right now.
That should be a little concerning for McGuire, the Red Raider football team, and Texas Tech football fans.
“[They’re] playing really well on offense, if you look at the numbers just in conference, they’re playing better on offense than what they did overall,” Texas Tech’s head coach said.
Against Big 12 teams, Kansas State is averaging 34.4 points per game (which is good to hold the No. 4 spot in the conference in scoring offense). Overall, the Wildcats have the Big 12’s No. 8 scoring offense at 31 points per game.