Chris Klieman, Kansas State Head Football Coach

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Listen and subscribe to Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. Well, it was great resolve by our guys. I don't think we ever panicked early in the season. We've got a lot of new players and knew we'd have some ups and downs. Nobody wants to lose a game, but that's what happened. And so, you know, the big thing we talked about is how do you respond?

When adversity strikes, how do you respond? And that was the challenge all week for the guys. And we knew we were going into a great environment at Oklahoma and playing the top 10 team that has tremendous personnel on both sides of the ball.

But it kind of focused on us and what we needed to do to get better and play more aggressive on offense. And it kind of was a perfect storm for us. We had a great start to start the game and then weathered the storm, so to speak, when they tied it. But we never trailed.

And I thought our guys, you know, kind of stayed in the fight through the full 60 minutes and found a way. Do you guys start to have a confidence? You always said the game against Oklahoma is going to be tough, but this is now your third victory in four tries up against them.

You know, that's a good question. I wish I knew I'd bottle it up and have it every week. But our players, you know, feel they can compete with anybody. But in the same respect, we're smart enough to realize in college football is kind of has seen the show show itself all year in the first month.

And anybody can beat anybody on any given Saturday. And so we have to have our best, you know, best plans and best execution. And our guys were really focused all week long going into that tough environment. I thought, you know, even though we've made some mistakes, we played really hard and we found a way to make a lot of plays, especially offensively.

Chris Kleiman here with us. You talked about what you sense from your kids throughout the week. Was there ever a moment the last week where you said, okay, we got to reel it back in or is it right to work after that loss? Unfortunately, you guys had two weeks ago.

Yeah, no, you have to go right to work, especially in the fact that you're mid-September. Shoot, there's a lot of football left and we hadn't even started conference play. And ultimately, everybody's goal in their conference and especially for us in the Big 12 is to compete for a conference title.

So, you know, in order to do that, you had to get up off the deck and get your best plan together. And guys play the best we can so we can try to start 1-0 in league play. We happened to play a great opponent on the road and found a way. Now, whatever we did last week means nothing this week as Texas Tech looms and comes in here after a big win against Texas.

But I think that's the parity you're seeing right now in college football. Adrian Martinez has been around college football for a while, has had some good moments, had some bad moments like any college player. 21-34, 234 yards against Oklahoma, touchdown and then we know what he did on the ground with the four rushing touchdowns and rushing for nearly 150 yards. Has he been the type of guy that you thought he was? Has he surprised you, impressed you? What about your quarterback? Well, he played exceptionally well and he's had some ups and downs, but I don't know if anybody gets ridiculed more for the downs than Adrian Martinez has for four years. And the kid's a rock.

He's very mature, doesn't listen to the outside noise, although it's been around him for so long that I think he's probably numb to it. He's shown that around us. And bottom line is, even after the Tulane game, I visited with him quite a bit on Sunday and just told him, hey, we believe in you. And we know that your best football is in front of you. And all I want you to do is cut it loose and let it rip like I know you can. Like I've seen you in practice, like I've seen you through fall camp and what a great state to do it on, on a nationally televised game at OU. We got nothing to lose.

You just go let it rip and play. And he had that mentality all week and saw it in practice. And then, you know, I thought the first drive was really important. We won the toss and took the football, which is something we typically don't do, but we did it to try to get him on the field and run the football with him to get him into the flow of the game, make some big time throws down the seam, get a touchdown. And I think that just increased the confidence of not just Adrian, but the entire football team. And he played as good a football game as a quarterback as I've ever had a guy play for us. And we've coached a lot of great quarterbacks in our system between Carson Wentz, Trey Lance, Easton Sticks, Tyler Thompson, and that was the best performance I've seen. Wow. Those are some big time words.

For you, it takes two to tango. Transferring happens all the time now in the sport. What really drew you guys to him and had that kind of go down where you got him to come to your program?

One, the proximity. You know, we were able to get him down here a couple times because linking to Manhattan isn't a very long trip. It's only a couple hours, so we were able to get him around here and around our players. And, you know, he's as many games as he played at Nebraska. You know he's a good football player.

You know the stage isn't going to be too big for him. And he had such great experience. And we were looking for a guy that would be a dual-threat guy that could run it around it and use his legs to beat you, but also push the ball downfield and make some explosive plays in the pass game.

And all the things, you know, he missed all, even though he was in here in the spring, he missed all of spring ball with an injury. So, you know, he's just six weeks into playing football for us when you start fall camp the first of August. And I knew there would be a transition period for him to continue to learn what Coach Klein and our offense is doing, but it came to fruition and all came together last Saturday night. We just got to build off of it now.

Chris Kleiman here with us. Yeah, what type of team do you think you have the rest of the way? You got to be optimistic with the way the first four weeks have gone. Well, you know, yes, we are. We know we have a good football team. The problem is there's a lot of other really good football teams that are on our schedule.

And so that's everybody. So you have to have your A game every week. And that's not just physically. I think that's as much mentally and emotionally, focus-wise, your preparation. A lot of it's between your ears to make sure that you put your best foot forward because, you know, whether or not you can't turn the ball over, you can't lose on special teams, all that other stuff. But we've seen it in four weeks.

The amount of upsets, the amount of close games. I think that's part of the transfer portal. That's part of the fact that there are a lot of people that are in new programs. And so it's going to potentially be like that. And so we've got to try to continue to be consistent on both sides of the ball. And if we can do that, it gives us a chance each Saturday. Talking to Coach Chris Kleinman for a few more minutes.

It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We know what you did as the head coach at North Dakota State for five years. You only had six losses, a bunch of championships. When you take that job to go to Kansas State, people wonder how you're going to do taking a bigger job in the world of college football. What have you learned, I'm wondering, about yourself in these last three, four years at Kansas State? Well, for starters, what an honor it is to follow Coach Snyder.

Bill Snyder had the greatest turnaround in college football history. And I'm the one that gets to fill his shoes, which I'll never fill his shoes. But I'm the one that gets to build on his legacy.

That's for starters. And I know how blessed I am to have that opportunity that I had a guy, Gene Taylor, believe in myself, believe in our staff, to come from the FCS world and get a chance to come to the Power Five world. And so I kind of have a chip on my shoulder just like a lot of players do that maybe don't get the opportunity or feel like they should play at a higher level or whatever it may be.

Adrian Martinez having a chip on his shoulder wanting to prove himself, I'm no different. And we have a good situation here. And I'm excited about the now and I'm excited about the future at Kansas State.

We're building a lot of new facilities. We have an unbelievable administration that supports football. And the landscape of college football is changing. And we want to make sure that when people think of the haves in college football that Kansas State comes to mind.

And that's our job to make sure that we stay in that top 25, top 30 schools. We talk about Trey Lance a lot on this show. It's just so unfortunate to see the injury when he's finally going to be able to look to be that guy for an entire season.

He hasn't played a full season now at the end of this year, going to be in three years. Just what would be your message to Trey? I don't know if you had any conversations with him.

And what do the 49ers have? It just kills me because I know how hard he works. I was around him. I recruited him. I believe in him. He's going to be a phenomenal NFL player. It's a speed bump right now that he hits. But he's a young player.

That's the great thing. Trey's really young, entered the league really young. He's going to be a star. He has all the attributes, all the intangibles. He's got character. He's got integrity. He's a competitor. The 49ers made a great choice in drafting him.

And yeah, he's got a setback. But I'm excited for Trey and wish him well as he gets a speedy recovery for next year. I know you're locked in and will let you run because you've got to get ready for Texas Tech. I'm a big fan of the story of Joey Maguire. What stands out to you about his football team coming off a big win? Man, finding ways to win. Big win over Houston. They came from behind and won that game. They battled a really good North Carolina State team. And then I knew what a huge signature win it is for Joey.

I've gotten to know him, tons of respect for him. But what a signature win for him in his first season to go beat Texas. And they're playing really well, a really well coached team. And it's going to be another battle in the Big 12 that will come down in the fourth quarter like most of these games in our league do. Well, Coach, good luck this week. We appreciate you carving out some time for us today. And once again, congratulations on the victory against Oklahoma. Appreciate it.

Thanks for having me. And download the free Odyssey app today. Looking for stories about the black community and you don't want to wait until, oh, I don't know, February? Then check out Beyond Black History Month, the podcast that tells inclusive stories year round. Like how today's labor movement is connected to the civil rights movement and why black neighborhoods keep getting hit with water crisis after water crisis.

We're still being charged for water that we can't use. Listen and subscribe to Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. Looking for stories about the black community and you don't want to wait until, oh, I don't know, February? Then check out Beyond Black History Month, the podcast that tells inclusive stories year round. Like how today's labor movement is connected to the civil rights movement and why black neighborhoods keep getting hit with water crisis after water crisis. We're still being charged for water that we can't use. Listen and subscribe to Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from.