Collin Klein's Kansas State coaching staff in awe of his leadership

MANHATTAN — Sitting in a Northern Iowa quarterbacks room as a young player, Christian Ellsworth had the chance to watch Collin Klein venture into his first-ever role as a playcaller.

The 2016 Panthers weren’t having their best season. Starting the year as the No. 5 team in the country, UNI defeated Iowa State in Ames, only to lose four of its next five. Entering the seventh week of the season, the Panthers felt the need to change quarterbacks and have Klein call plays.

Despite the rough start to the year, Ellsworth recognized Klein’s ability to get the team to believe. He wasn’t a stranger to the quarterback’s legendary play on the field, having heard Klein tell stories about his Heisman candidacy season while on dorm duty as a young coach. Klein, then 27 years old, walked into his first meeting and handed the players a book on leadership.

“It was like ‘OK, this guy’s built to be a leader,'” Ellsworth said. “This guy is built to get people to follow him.”

Northern Iowa won Klein’s first game as a play-caller 61-7, while putting up 556 total yards of offense. The Panthers won three of their last five games, averaging 34.8 points per contest. He left UNI after that season to become Bill Snyder’s quarterbacks coach at Kansas State, where he eventually became his alma mater’s offensive coordinator and, now, head coach.

Ellsworth, now Klein’s quarterbacks coach, was one of many assistants to speak of Klein’s ability to lead. It’s why many of them moved to Manhattan and share the same belief as the Northern Iowa quarterbacks had in that 27-year-old coach: that following Klein will lead to success.

“He’s a winner,” defensive backs coach Jeremiah Johnson, who was on the same Northern Iowa staff a decade ago, said. “He’s got that quiet confidence about him that is infectious; it’s really hard to explain. He’s just one of those people who is easy to follow because he has that belief in himself, but people will believe in him. I think even way back 10 years ago, that was very easy to see that he was going to be a really good football coach.”

Collin Klein demanded respect from opponents

Jordan Peterson saw firsthand what Klein meant to Kansas State about 14 years before he followed the coach to Manhattan to become the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator. Peterson was on the opposing sideline at Bill Snyder Family Stadium when Klein scored six touchdowns in a four-overtime win over Texas A&M. Watching Klein carry the Wildcats on his back, Peterson already had tremendous respect.

Coincidentally, Klein and Peterson were on the same staff at Texas A&M when the former was named the Aggies’ offensive coordinator in 2024. Peterson observed Klein’s day-to-day work ethic and came to understand what made him successful.

“You get to kinda see that, that quiet confidence… like, Collin’s a dawg,” Peterson said. “He’s a competitor, but he’s also got this humble confidence about him that he stands on. He knows the culture that he’s trying to build, so when you’re around somebody like that, it’s the right kind of leadership.”

Buddy Wyatt was on staff at Texas A&M and Kansas throughout Klein’s playing career. Long before Wyatt joined Chris Klieman’s staff alongside Klein, the defensive line coach thought the Wildcats quarterback legend was capable of anything he set his mind to.

Klein didn’t have the biggest arm, nor was he the fastest, but he could just beat you. He saw the same thing when Klein became K-State’s offensive coordinator.

“I was just really impressed with the relationships he had with his players, not only quarterbacks, but all the positions,” Wyatt, who was retained by Klein to serve as K-State’s defensive line coach, said. “He wasn’t flashy; he was just himself. The kids really respected that in Collin and wanted to play for him. I thought that was really impressive for a young coach.

“It wasn’t just because he was young and he was relating to them, it was because they respected him for his knowledge of the game and how he coached the game. They respected him as a coach, and he’s obviously a bright and intelligent young man.”

Collin Klein had a positive reputation from outsiders

Coaches didn’t have to play or work with Klein to respect him, either. Cory Patterson was looking for a new job after Oklahoma State changed coaching staffs. He was a proven running backs coach, hoping to land on Klein’s staff. He reached out to a few on the K-State staff and confirmed what he already believed: Klein is a good man with elite organizational skills.

Wildcats general manager Trey Scott told him to pursue a spot on the staff. Patterson called every day, finally got on the phone with Klein and is now the Wildcats’ running backs coach. He said Klein attracted like-minded individuals with Kansas State on their hearts and the goal of moving the program forward.

It’s how he would pitch a recruit on joining what the Wildcats are building.

“Coach Klein is something that we can sell,” Patterson said. “If you’re around that guy, you know what you’re getting. I think all young players want an opportunity to play in the offense that’s as potent as the one that he’s been able to put out.”

Offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson went head-to-head with Klein on several recruits over the years. They had also talked on the field pregame while coaching against each other and met at a convention outing in 2022.

A mutual friend, Charlie Dickey, K-State’s offensive line coach from 2009-18, always had great things to say about Klein, too. The pair will work side by side when leading the offense.

“He’s a tremendous human being, and I kinda sniffed that when I first met him,” Gleeson said. “It’s just integrity, hard worker, family person. Those terms get thrown out a lot in these environments, but he lives it, you know? I think the thing I’ve learned about great coaches and great leaders is that they report to work the same person every day and I think our players feed off of that, too.”

Collin Klein’s Kansas State peers saw his coaching potential early on

Those who played and coached alongside Klein saw firsthand what the Wildcats meant to him.

Stanton Weber spoke with a bit of giddiness when describing a time Klein walked into the locker room, battered and bruised after carrying the ball 30 times in the 2011 Cotton Bowl. The then-K-State-fan-favorite wide receiver and special-teams star, now the program’s special-teams coach, didn’t see Klein complain once, despite barely being able to walk.

“It became clear that he was excellent, and with his skill level, in what he was doing and whatever he was going to do, he was going to be excellent,” Weber said. “But he was unselfish and tough and going to do whatever it takes to get the job done in the highest integrity way.

“That is when it became clear to me that this guy is unique and special, and we were gonna go far as a football team. Exchange those 30 carries for whatever it’s going to be to be a great head coach, and people are going to be attracted to that.”

Thad Ward, the Wildcats’ wide receivers coach in 2022 who is now back in the same role, jumped at the chance to coach alongside Klein again when it arose.

“I think every player deserves a coach who believes in them, and I really feel like Collin believes in me,” Ward said. “I really feel like we have some unfinished business and stuff to do here, and I want to be a part of that. Just the kind of man that he is, I wanted to be around that.”

Klein’s return also helped some decide to stay in Manhattan when they might otherwise have left for elsewhere. Brian Lepak, for one, had opportunities after a rough season, but he already had a relationship with Klein prior to his departure for College Station.

Back as the program’s tight ends coach, Lepak has seen Klein thrive in a leadership position, but he’s never seen him like this. It took him aback at first to see Klein speak at a Kansas coaches clinic, but it also felt natural. Since watching Klein step into the lead role, he’s been impressed with how he’s taken on the challenge, while also representing the university.

Because of who Klein is and what Kansas State means to him, Lepak is one of many who believe he will take the program to another level.

“There’s a heightened sense of responsibility,” Lepak said. “It’s because of how much he cares about this place and how special it is to him, and he wears it every single day in a positive way, to the point where he doesn’t wear it like it’s stress. He wears it like he’s got a highly motivated intensity for us to be elite at everything that we do.”

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: Collin Klein coaching staff at Kansas State football praise leadership