Kansas State football set to hire Missouri QB coach as its next OC
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MANHATTAN — Collin Klein has reportedly found the final piece of his coaching staff, naming Sean Gleeson as Kansas State football’s next offensive coordinator.
ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel was the first to report on Saturday, Jan. 10, that the Missouri quarterbacks coach will take on the role. He’s been with Eli Drinkwitz and the Tigers since 2024.
Gleeson has been an offensive coordinator at Fairleigh Dickinson (2011-12), Princeton (2017-18), Oklahoma State (2019) and Rutgers (2020-22). At Missouri, he started as an offensive analyst and quarterbacks coach in 2024, before only holding the quarterbacks coach title in 2025.
Mizzou QBs have been successful under Gleeson in recent seasons. Brady Cook led the Tigers to a 9-3 record in 2024, throwing for 2,535 yards, 11 touchdowns and a pair of interceptions, before being an undrafted free agent pickup by the New York Jets and eventually starting four games this past season.
In 2025, Beau Pribula ranked among the nation’s leaders in completion percentage, completing 67.4% of his passes. He averaged 194.1 passing yards per game, throwing for 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Gleeson’s most recent stint as offensive coordinator at Rutgers ended with his firing during the 2022 season. Rutgers had dropped to 3-3 and was averaging 334 yards, 22.8 points and ranked No. 118 in the country in team passing efficiency.
That doesn’t mean Gleeson didn’t have success at Rutgers, as he helped produce NFL Draft picks Isaiah Pacheco and Bo Melton. The Scarlet Knights had one of the more improved offenses in the country upon his arrival, adding 13.4 points per game in 2020 than it had the year before.
In 2019 at Oklahoma State, the Gleeson’s offense averaged 32.5 points and 453.9 yards. The unit featured Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year Chuba Hubbard.
Gleeson’s time at Princeton saw him tutor the running backs from 2013-15 and then take on a special teams coordinator role in 2016. From 2017-18, he was the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Princeton’s offense exploded under Gleeson, leading the Tigers to an undefeated season in 2018, with Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year John Lovett completing 66.1% of his passes with 18 touchdowns, while leading the league with 303 yards of total offense per game.
In Gleeson’s six years on Princeton’s staff, the Tigers won three Ivy League titles and averaged 36.9 points per game.
The next question now becomes whether Gleeson or Klein will call plays for the Wildcats, though the latter is a safe bet to have his hands in it one way or another. Filling the offensive coordinator role wasn’t a top priority for Klein, who took a month to do so. Instead, he prioritized his defensive staff.
Gleeson becomes another voice in the quarterbacks’ room, where Klein has excelled. Christian Ellsworth is K-State’s new quarterbacks coach, who will lead Avery Johnson in 2026 and others in future years.
Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Sean Gleeson to be named Kansas State football offensive coordinator
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