Rapid Recap: Chris Klieman defends his Kansas State team

We share what we heard from Chris Klieman following another Kansas State loss.

Excuses for Kansas State

I didn’t love what I heard from Klieman after the game if I’m being completely honest. He seemed to defend his team and say they were just unlucky and just got dealt a bad hand, when to me, it was the farthest thing from it.

They lost because they were not tough enough, physical enough or disciplined enough yet again. That’s the bad theme about the 2025 Kansas State team, and those principles are what needs to be attacked and solved before anything gets better.

Instead, Klieman said there wasn’t a lot the offense could do (aside from being critical a bit about the running game) because they didn’t have the ball. And he said there wasn’t a lot the K-State defense could do because they got tired.

I disagree with that, wholeheartedly. The defense is tired and the offense isn’t on the field because neither side of the ball was good enough. They had their chances early. Instead, they kicked two field goals, punted on the 50 once and punted from inside Army territory once.

And there were plenty of third and fourth downs for the defense to capitalize as well.

No clear answer on toughness

Where Klieman was a bit more transparent and genuine, in my eyes, was when he was asked about being tough enough. Is Kansas State tough enough? And the most revealing thing about this year so far is that he couldn’t say yes.

The answer was, “We’re about to find out.”

Fourth down decision-making

Another item Klieman was confronted with and had to address Saturday night after the second loss of the season was his decisions on fourth down. He was not nearly as aggressive as usual. He kicked two field goals, punted from the 50 and punted with the ball on Army’s side of the field.

He made clear what his thoughts were and the rationale behind each move, only really insisting he would make the same choice on the first one of the game where they just chose to take points on fourth and short on the first drive of the game.

Squabble over the accidental onside kick

There was disagreement between Klieman and others on what happened on what appeared to be a surprise on side kick. The K-State head coach insisted the Wildcats knew it was coming and were prepared for it, though the video tells a different picture when Mikey Bergeron and others turned away from the kick.

On the flip side, Army head coach Jeff Monken actually revealed it was not intentional. They were not attempting to kick it as hard as they could at a front line Kansas State player as Klieman suspected. They were just wanting to squib it, keep it away from the returner and it accidentally hit a Wildcat.

So, there’s not a lot of alignment on what occurred.