Chris Klieman
Chris Klieman went 126–47 as a head coach, 2005–2025, at Loras, North Dakota State and Kansas State. Share
Six seasons our game records don’t credit to him come from the coach’s Wikipedia article: 2005 at Loras; 2014–18 at North Dakota State. They’re marked in the table.
- Record
- 126–47 career
- Seasons
- 13
- Schools
- 3
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Sep 27, 1967
- Alma mater
- Northern Iowa 1990
- Best season
- 2022 10–4, No. 14
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Loras * | 3–7 | 7th | |||
| 2006–13: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2014 | North Dakota State * | 15–1 | T–1st | NCAA Division I Championship W | 1 | |
| 2015 | North Dakota State * | 13–2 | T–1st | NCAA Division I Championship W | 1 | |
| 2016 | North Dakota State * | 12–2 | T–1st | NCAA Division I Semifinal L | 3 | |
| 2017 | North Dakota State * | 14–1 | 1st | NCAA Division I Championship W | 1 | |
| 2018 | North Dakota State * | 15–0 | 1st | NCAA Division I Championship W | 1 | |
| 2019 | Kansas State | 8–5 | T–3rd | Liberty Bowl L | ||
| 2020 | Kansas State | 4–6 | 7th | |||
| 2021 | Kansas State | 8–5 | T–5th | Texas Bowl W | ||
| 2022 | Kansas State | 10–4 | 1st | Sugar Bowl L | 14 | |
| 2023 | Kansas State | 9–4 | T–4th | Pop-Tarts Bowl W | 18 | |
| 2024 | Kansas State | 9–4 | T–8th | Rate Bowl W | ||
| 2025 | Kansas State | 6–6 | T–7th | |||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table. * A season our game records don’t credit to him; its record is the article’s.
Players he coached
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 20 | 8–12 | 40% |
| Against top-10 teams | 9 | 5–4 | 56% |
| Against rivals | 22 | 15–7 | 68% |
| Conference games | 65 | 37–28 | 57% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 5 | 3–2 | 60% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 39 | 18–21 | 46% |
| At home | 45 | 31–14 | 69% |
| On the road | 35 | 18–17 | 51% |
| At neutral sites | 8 | 5–3 | 63% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 56 | 38–18 | 68% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 32 | 16–16 | 50% |
His own 88 games on file, 2019–2025, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Campbell 2019–2025 | 2–5 | Iowa State | 7 | |
| Mike Gundy 2019–2024 | 2–4 | Oklahoma State | 6 | |
| Lance Leipold 2021–2025 | 5–0 | Kansas | 5 | |
| Neal Brown 2019–2024 | 3–2 | West Virginia | 5 | |
| Dave Aranda 2020–2025 | 2–3 | Baylor | 5 | |
| Sonny Dykes 2022–2025 | 3–1 | TCU | 4 | |
| Gary Patterson 2019–2021 | 3–0 | TCU | 3 | |
| Matt Wells 2019–2021 | 3–0 | Texas Tech | 3 | |
| Lincoln Riley 2019–2021 | 2–1 | Oklahoma | 3 | |
| Joey McGuire 2022–2025 | 2–1 | Texas Tech | 3 |
Chris Klieman’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Kansasseries | 7 | 7–0 |
| TCUseries | 7 | 6–1 |
| Oklahoma Stateseries | 7 | 3–4 |
| Iowa Stateseries | 7 | 2–5 |
| Texas Techseries | 6 | 5–1 |
| Baylorseries | 6 | 2–4 |
| West Virginiaseries | 5 | 3–2 |
| Texasseries | 5 | 0–5 |
How he was hired
- Hired by Kansas State for the 2019 season from North Dakota State, where he was head coach.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–92 | Northern Iowa | Graduate assistant | |
| 1993 | Northern Iowa | Defensive backs coach | |
| 1994–96 | Western Illinois | Defensive backs coach | |
| 1997 | Kansas | Graduate assistant | |
| 1999 | Missouri State | Defensive backs coach | |
| 2002–04 | Loras | Defensive coordinator | |
| 2005 | Loras | Head coach | |
| 2006–07 | Northern Iowa | Defensive backs coach | |
| 2008 | Northern Iowa | Co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| 2009–10 | Northern Iowa | Defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| 2011 | North Dakota State | Defensive backs coach | |
| 2012–13 | North Dakota State | Defensive coordinator | |
| 2014–18 | North Dakota State | Head coach | |
| 2019–25 | Kansas State | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Terry AllenNorthern Iowa, Kansas
- Ardell WiegandtNorthern Iowa
- Randy BallWestern Illinois, Missouri State
- Craig BohlNorth Dakota State
Assistants who became head coaches
- Jeremiah JohnsonCoastal Carolina
- Matt EntzFresno State, North Dakota State
- Tim PolasekNorth Dakota State
- Courtney MessinghamUpper Iowa
- Collin KleinKansas State
- Van MaloneHampton
- Steve StanardNebraska Wesleyan
- Matt WellsUtah State, Texas Tech
Worked under (4)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terry Allen | Northern Iowa | 1991–93 | 1991–92: graduate assistant; 1993: defensive backs coach | |
| Ardell Wiegandt | Northern Iowa | 1991–93 | 1991–92: graduate assistant; 1993: defensive backs coach | |
| Randy Ball | Western Illinois | 1994–96 | Defensive backs coach | |
| Terry Allen | Kansas | 1997 | Graduate assistant | |
| Randy Ball | Missouri State | 1999 | Defensive backs coach | |
| Craig Bohl | North Dakota State | 2011–13 | 2011: defensive backs coach; 2012–13: defensive coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (8)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeremiah Johnson | Loras, 2005: wide receivers and secondary coach | Coastal Carolina | |
| Matt Entz | North Dakota State, 2014–18: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | Fresno State, North Dakota State | |
| Tim Polasek | North Dakota State, 2014–16: offensive coordinator and running backs coach | North Dakota State | |
| Courtney Messingham | North Dakota State, 2017–18: offensive coordinator and running backs coach; Kansas State, 2019–21: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | Upper Iowa | |
| Collin Klein | Kansas State, 2019–21: quarterbacks coach; 2022–23: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Kansas State | |
| Van Malone | Kansas State, 2019: cornerbacks coach; 2020–25: assistant head coach, passing game coordinator and cornerbacks coach | Hampton | |
| Steve Stanard | Kansas State, 2020–25: linebackers coach | Nebraska Wesleyan | |
| Matt Wells | Kansas State, 2024: assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; 2025: assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Utah State, Texas Tech |
Other assistants under him (6)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Conor Riley | North Dakota State, 2014–18: offensive line coach; Kansas State, 2019–23: offensive line coach; 2024: offensive coordinator and offensive line coach | |
| Jamar Cain | North Dakota State, 2014–16: defensive line coach | |
| Joe Klanderman | North Dakota State, 2014–18: defensive backs coach; Kansas State, 2019: safeties coach; 2020–25: defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Tyler Roehl | North Dakota State, 2014–18: running backs and tight ends coach | |
| Scottie Hazelton | Kansas State, 2019: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Nate Kaczor | Kansas State, 2024–25: special teams analyst |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
How he coached
Klieman’s teams went for it on 24% of fourth downs and on 42% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 45% of plays and took 27.7 seconds a play, 2019–2025.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 13 g | 15 of 91 16% | 38% | 39% | 29.8 | +0.07 | |
| 2020 10 g | 10 of 79 13% | 22% | 44% | 28.0 | −0.02 | |
| 2021 13 g | 20 of 79 25% | 45% | 45% | 30.0 | +0.12 | |
| 2022 14 g | 28 of 115 24% | 44% | 43% | 27.2 | +0.10 | |
| 2023 13 g | 25 of 91 27% | 43% | 47% | 25.5 | +0.14 | |
| 2024 13 g | 26 of 93 28% | 41% | 47% | 26.2 | +0.12 | |
| 2025 12 g | 32 of 95 34% | 53% | 48% | 27.1 | +0.05 | |
| All 88 g | 156 of 643 24% | 42% | 45% | 27.7 | +0.09 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.