For K-State, It’s Time to Fight Back After ‘Getting Punched in the Mouth’

Wildcats get back to basics, hitting with pads on during bye week

Kansas State coach Chris Klieman talked about his team practices and prepared during its bye week. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Kansas State is reeling, with a 1-3 record in a season that started with the Wildcats ranked 17th in the AP Preseason Top 25 Poll.

The record sounds disastrous, but K-State has been in every game, each contest decided by one score.

Still, 1-3 is 1-3.

At his Monday news conference, K-State coach Chris Klieman talked about some of his team’s problems and how to address them.

“It’s not just the defense, it’s the offense, it’s everything. We just got to get better,” Klieman said. "Some of it is just getting punched in the mouth and fighting back. Rather than, ‘OK, I’m just getting punched in the mouth.’ I think that’s collectively. I think that’s our team.

"Some of it is our coaches getting punched in the mouth as far as, ‘Boy, that didn’t work.’ OK, now we got to find something else and get these kids believing in what we’re doing is the right thing.”

Back to basics for K-State

Kansas State went back go to the drawing board during last week’s bye week. In football lingo, that means putting on the pads and getting after each other.

That’s what the Wildcats did as they began preparation for Saturday’s 11 a.m. CDT kickoff against 3-0 UCF in a Big 12 matchup.

🚨 KICK TIME ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨

🗓️ SEP 27 | 🆚 UCF
⏰ 11 AM CT | 📺 @FS1
📍 Bill Snyder Family Stadium pic.twitter.com/h515zngmez

— K-State Football (@KStateFB) September 15, 2025

“Last week we did some really good things we thought at practice,” Klieman said. “It’s still got to carry over to a game and game week, but we had a good week of practice.

“Went hard Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday with pads on, trying maybe do some things, simplify some things, get a little bit more physical at the point of attack. I thought it was a good week."

WEEK 5

🔗 https://t.co/rkkdJJWfio pic.twitter.com/7XGUeoWetG

— K-State Football (@KStateFB) September 22, 2025

“There was good energy," Klieman said. "But in the same respect, we got to carry it over to this week and play really good football on Saturday. We’re excited about the opportunity. It’s a really good football team.”

Tragedy for UCF

UCF lost one of its own over the weekend with the unexpected death of offensive line coach Shawn Clark. He was 50. Klieman spoke about Clark at his news conference and offered his condolences.

Our condolences to the @UCF_Football family pic.twitter.com/yInIoM9dUS

— K-State Football (@KStateFB) September 22, 2025

UCF is coming off an impressive, 34-9 victory over Bill Belichick-coached North Carolina.

“It's a really good football team,” Klieman said. “Scott [Frost, former Nebraska quarterback and head coach] has done a really good job there, which I knew he would. I’ve known Scott for a long time. He and I were on the same staff at Northern Iowa for three years, so I've known Frosty for a long time.


“I know he’s a really good coach, but they’ve got really talented guys. They’re playing at a really high level, and they’re playing with a lot of confidence.”

K-State’s numbers 

All four of K-State’s games have been decided by one score, the only team in the nation to have that distinction. During its 9-4 season in 2024, K-State was 4-2 in one-score games.

Reversing their 2025 trend in that category would help get the Wildcats back on the right track.

The Wildcats are in elite company the past three seasons. They are one of only 10 Power 4 schools that have won at least nine games in each of the last three seasons.

The prestigious list:

• Alabama
• Clemson
• Georgia
• LSU
• Notre Dame
• Ohio State
• Oregon
• Penn State
• Tennessee

Looking ahead for Wildcats

The Wildcats’ mindset is to look at everything and emphasize what needs tweaking. The goal is better results.

“We looked at everything while giving our players some time [off during the bye week],” Klieman said.

K-State coach Chris Klieman: We gotta dig deep.' | Kansas State Athletics

“Some of things we’re doing we’ve got to tweak from a coaching standpoint, technique, whatever it may be. And some of it is personnel.

“There’s good football teams out there and we’ve got a bunch of them that were going to play including this week. Always in this league you’re going to be in dogfights with a lot of one-score games. We gotta dig deep and find a way to win these one-score games.”

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