For Those Wanting Chris Klieman Fired, Think Again

Kansas State head football coach Chris Klieman will not be relieved of his coaching duties for many reasons, and here is why.

Kansas State Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman | Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Here are multiple reasons why the Widcats will not relieve Klieman of his coaching duties after a 2-4 start to the 2025 season.

His recent program success and stability to the Kansas State football program.

Klieman has delivered significant and consistent success for the program in recent years, and the numbers and accomplishments during his tenure as the head coach of the Wildcats back it up.

• He brought the Kansas State program a Big 12 Championship. He led the Wildcats to the 2022 Big 12 Championship with a 10-4 record, the school's first Big 12 conference championship since 2012, when they were co-champions with Oklahoma.
• Consistent winning seasons during his coaching tenure. After a 4-6 season during the COVID year-shortened season of 2020, Klieman has consistently led the team to winning records, including the 2023 season with a record of 9-4 and a Pop-Tarts Bowl win. Then the following season of 2024, with another 9-4 record with a Rate Bowl victory. Going back to 2022, as mentioned earlier, that included a conference championship and 10 wins that were highlighted by a 31-28 overtime win over TCU. The season before that, in 2021, he led the Wildcats to an 8-5 record with a Texas Bowl and a 22-point victory over LSU. Finally, in his first season as the head coach of Kansas State in 2019, he led the Wildcats to an 8-5 record.

For the first time since 2011–2012, the K-State football program has finished the season ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll in both 2022 and 2023. Since taking over, Klieman's teams have defeated five AP Top 10 teams, which is more than any other active Big 12 program during that same time. This shows that his team has been able to not only compete but also win against highly ranked opponents.

Even if some fans got their wish and he was relieved of his coaching duties, it would not make financial sense, thus making it a near impossibility.

After winning the Big 12 Championship, Klieman inked a huge contract extension, which makes a buyout unfeasible and highly unlikely, as it would be financially risky for the university's athletic department budget. Klieman agreed to a new eight-year contract extension with K-State in May 2023, which will last until the 2030 season. Under the terms of the new contract, he will get an average base income of $5.25 million annually, or roughly $44 million.

The university would be heavily financially impacted if a coach were fired with seven years remaining on a significant contract. In other words, if the school fires Klieman without cause, he would be set to receive $29,625,000.

This season looks worse on paper and it can still be turned around.

Even though the Wildcats' current record is 2-4, the games have often been very close, suggesting the team is competitive rather than fundamentally unfixable, and more importantly, the players have not quit on the season.

For example, a look at the losses this season, the Wildcats' losses were often decided by a single score. Klieman himself noted that the difference between a winning and losing record has been the inability to "win those one-score games," indicating a small margin for error cost them the possibility of being 5-1 and not 2-4, which does not constitute a total collapse of the program, as a small portion of the fanbase may be suggesting.

This is not the same situation as Oklahoma State where they recently let go of their legendary head coach Mike Gundy. The Kansas State football program is healthy with its coach, Klieman and he deserves the opportunity to turn this season around and led the Wildcats to a bowl game this season.

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