TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — About the one factor the soccer packages at Kansas and Kansas State have had in frequent a lot of the previous three many years is the usually desolate stretch of Interstate 70 that connects them.
The Jayhawks have the proud custom of John Riggins and Gale Sayers, but current success has been so scant that they’ve churned by way of 5 coaches previously 10 years. The Wildcats had nearly no custom till Invoice Snyder arrived, and he constructed a constant winner tucked away within the Flint Hills.
Is smart the 2 colleges would take vastly totally different approaches to hiring new head coaches.
Kansas settled on 65-year-old Les Miles, the ”Mad Hatter” with Massive 12 success at Oklahoma State and a nationwide title at LSU on his resume. The quirky, defensive-minded coach recognized for nibbling grass and his current foray into movies has character, power and expertise on his aspect.
Kansas State went with Chris Klieman, the 51-year-old former North Dakota State coach whose solely expertise on the Soccer Bowl Subdivision degree got here 22 years in the past – a single season as an assistant at Kansas. But the blue-collar, hard-working Klieman proved his teaching chops at North Dakota State, the place in 5 seasons he went 69-6 and gained 4 Soccer Championship Subdivision nationwide titles.
Flashy and acquainted.
Down-to-earth and largely unknown.
”I do not know what it was like a yr in the past. All people asks me about what it was,” Klieman instructed The Related Press in a wide-ranging interview. ”I do know what we’re attempting to instill right here. Guys taking possession of this system, guys getting invested in this system. It is their program. We’re simply guiding them. I would like them to have enter. I would like them to have possession. What was, I do not know.”
So perhaps Klieman and Miles aren’t fairly polar opposites.
The brand new Kansas coach stated mainly the identical factor.
”I feel our gamers anticipated there being a brand new feeling,” Miles stated. ”I feel it will be a problem to win video games and win championships, however yeah, we’re prepared for that problem.”
To make certain, Miles understands the gargantuan job forward of him.
Kansas hasn’t been to a bowl sport since 2008, the penultimate season of Mark Mangino’s stunningly profitable tenure. That was additionally the final time the Jayhawks gained greater than 5 video games, not to mention had a profitable season. 4 instances within the intervening years they’ve gained two video games or fewer.
With losses alongside the best way to the likes of Nicholls State, South Dakota State and seemingly each college within the Mid-America Convention, the Jayhawks had turn into not simply the laughingstock of the state or the Massive 12, they have been the butt of jokes nationwide. Not often did greater than 15,000 followers present as much as Memorial Stadium for dwelling video games, and much more not often did anyone stick round for the second half.
Kansas has tried nearly each avenue to land a profitable coach, too.
There was Turner Gill, the previous Massive 12 quarterback who had rotated lowly Buffalo. There was the well-known Charlie Weis, who as soon as led Notre Dame to back-to-back BCS bowl video games. There was David Beaty, the profession assistant with ties to the profitable Mangino period.
So when athletic director Jeff Lengthy went trying to find the following coach, he settled on an previous pal with a report of success within the Massive 12 and the sort of gravitas it takes to recruit to Kansas.
”He is constructed packages previously. So once you’re out and also you need again in, you’ll be able to really feel the fervour within the dialog,” Lengthy stated. ”From my view, for Les at this level in his profession, the chance to step in and construct a program – and rebuild us – and take us to a degree of profitable soccer was thrilling to him and made a whole lot of sense for me to decide on him.”
Very similar to Lengthy tapped a longtime pal, so did Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor. Solely he wasn’t changing a string of failed head coaches. As an alternative, he was changing the winningest coach at school historical past, one whose statue stands outdoors the stadium that bears his identify.
Klieman understands the magnitude of what faces him, too. It might be a distinct sort of strain from what Miles is below at Kansas, however it’s no much less pervasive and certain simply as suffocating.
”It is nonetheless about folks. It is nonetheless about blocking and tackling and understanding your assignments,” stated Klieman, who simply over a decade in the past was teaching Loras, a Division III college. ”I do not care in case you’re that division or the NFL, what you are attempting to do is get guys in place to achieve success.”
Klieman did that with aplomb at North Dakota State, the place the expectation each fall was to win the nationwide championship. He did that 4 instances, shedding within the nationwide semifinals the opposite yr, and alongside the best way beat Energy 5 colleges Iowa and Iowa State on the highway.
In a scrumptious little bit of irony, the yr earlier than he took over Klieman was on Craig Bohl’s workers when the Bison rolled into Manhattan and beat Snyder’s group to open the 2013 season.
But in some ways Klieman is the right match at Kansas State, the place arduous work and perseverance are valued greater than most locations. These are traits Snyder instilled in this system when he first arrived in 1988, and set about rebuilding arguably the worst program in school soccer historical past.
”Essentially there’s extra similarities between them than variations,” stated quarterback coach Collin Klein, a Heisman Trophy finalist below Snyder. ”I feel the type and group of conferences and walkthroughs throughout our camp, getting our guys bodily prepared, that is all very related.
”I do know Coach Klieman’s strategy is being 1-Zero in the present day,” Klein continued, ”and stacking good days on high of one another is one thing that has been preached right here a very long time.”
There have been extra good days than unhealthy at Kansas State currently, and Klieman’s job is to maintain and construct upon Snyder’s success: 215 wins, 18 bowl video games, not often a shedding season.
It is a a lot totally different problem than the brand new coach at rival Kansas faces, however one no much less daunting.
”There’s nothing that surprises me anymore with the variety of years and the pinnacle teaching alternatives I’ve had,” Miles stated. ”I do know what’s coming. I do know what to anticipate from my gamers and coaches. I sort of anticipated the place we’d be, and to be sincere, to this point I have been happy.”