WIBW TV's Marleah Campbell
MANHATTAN, Kan. (WIBW) - Kansas State head football coach Chris Klieman met with media members Tuesday for the first time during preseason camp — and the first time in person since February 2020.
“Crazy how far we’ve come and where everything’s at and we’re all still masked up,” Klieman said. “It’s good to have everybody here, not doing this all over Zoom.”
Twenty-five days out from the Wildcats’ season opener, Klieman says more than 80% of the team is vaccinated.
“We’re not out of the woods, as everybody else isn’t,” Klieman said. “We’re masked up in here for meetings. We’re masked up when we go through the line to get our food and in the training room and stuff. Then we don’t have them on for practice, but we still want to make sure we don’t have any kind of an outbreak.”
Tuesday also marked Klieman’s first time at the podium since Texas and Oklahoma accepted invitations to join the SEC in 2025, leaving eight teams including K-State in the Big 12.
“Kansas State is still going to play football, and we’re still going play Power 5 football, and we’re going to have a great schedule,” Klieman said. “I’ll let the people that are above me figure out how that’s all going to happen. I don’t think it’s going to happen very quickly. I think this is something that all of us in the profession as coaches saw coming, probably three years ago, even five years ago I saw it coming, that there’s going to be some drastic changes in the landscape of college football over the next three to five years, but it doesn’t happen overnight.
Regardless of the timeline, Klieman said he feels K-State is positioned well moving forward.
“The fact that we’re committed,” Klieman said. “The administration is committed. The fanbase is committed. The program is committed. That we’ve got a new indoor coming. We have some of the best facilities in college football. So, once again, trying to get our guys ready to go in fall has been more of my main emphasis right now. Let the other people handle that stuff, but we’ve got great tradition here, a tradition of excellence, of top-notch, top-25, top-15, sometimes top-10 teams.”
In other major Wildcat off-season news, star quarterback Skylar Thompson is back on the field after suffering a season-ending injury against Texas Tech last season. The Lee’s Summit, Missouri-native announced he’d return to Manhattan in December.
Through five days of fall camp, Klieman is impressed with his QB, who has made some “pretty special” plays.
“The game has just slowed down so much for him, and he feels comfortable with the offensive line,” Klieman said. “He feels comfortable knowing where certain guys are going to be, between Phillip (Brooks) and Malik (Knowles) in particular, and Landry (Weber) and Seth (Porter), guys that he’s worked with for a long time. Nick Lenners is healthy this year and playing at a nice level. I just see a comfort level out of him (Thompson), and a confidence level that I’m excited to see what he’s going to do.”
True freshman Will Howard stepped in for Thompson last season. The week after Thompson’s injury, Howard was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week after leading K-State to a win over TCU.
With Thompson back, Howard’s snaps will likely be limited in 2021 — but, Klieman says, he’ll be ready if his name is called.
“Knock on wood that Skylar stays healthy so he can have a great senior year, but we have the utmost confidence to play Will at any time, whether that’s Skylar is nicked up or a situation dictates that,” Klieman said.
“It’s one of those things that if Will can help us, we’re going to play him the whole dang year,” he continued. " If we feel that Skylar is playing at such a high level that we have in our back pocket that he (Howard) could play four games, and still get that year back, that’s something that we have to continue to evaluate as a staff.”