…by hiring Chris Klieman of North Dakota State. I’ve been watching North Dakota State for several years now and have lots of notes from some of their showdowns with FBS schools, rival South Dakota State, and their title game bouts with James Madison.
I broke down some of Klieman’s strategies and how they translate to Kansas State over at Football Study Hall so read up.
The theme of the article is this: Much of the concentration of the coverage and the consternation amongst frustrated K-State fans centers around whether Klieman will be able to recruit Texas, Missouri, etc and get skill athletes that he didn’t really have at North Dakota State. That is exactly the wrong question.
The real question is whether he can recruit the same caliber of 6-5, 300 pound OL and tireless, 6-2, 290 pound DTs he was finding in North Dakota or Minnesota from Manhattan. The Bison had better OL than K-State some years and certainly better relative to their competition. If he does that, the skill players will come and take the opportunity to play off those big boys.
The offensive and defensive schemes are all either fine or good in terms of translating to the B12, it’s all about finding the big boys that can make it a winning strategy to move the schwerpunkt of Big 12 battles back to the trenches.