Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman: Wildcats' offense will look different in 2024

MANHATTAN — The changing of the guard on Kansas State football's offense did not take place overnight.

It started last December, when starting quarterback Will Howard opted out of the Pop-Tarts Bowl to enter the transfer portal and offensive coordinator Collin Klein left for a similar position at Texas A&M.

That led to offensive line coach Conor Riley taking over as coordinator and freshman phenom Avery Johnson claiming the starting quarterback job in Orlando. Shortly after Johnson was named most valuable player in the Wildcats' 28-19 victory over North Carolina State, head coach Chris Klieman promoted Riley full time.

Klieman's next step was adding old friend Matt Wells, a former head coach at Utah State and Texas Tech, as quarterbacks coach with the additional titles of associate head coach and co-offensive coordinator, to help Johnson transition into a starting role.

Now, after all the pieces have been in place through a complete spring which is as good a time as any to examine how the Wildcats' offense will look going forward. With new assistants running the show, there are sure to be tweaks, and the word simplify has been bandied about as well.

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Riley and Wells have downplayed the changes, as has Johnson as the trigger man, but Klieman hinted after the Wildcats' final spring practice session on April 13 that things might look quite different come fall.

"A lot, but we're not going to go much further than that," Klieman said when asked about the changes. "We're doing a lot of similar things, but a lot of different things as far as some run scheme stuff. But then again in the pass game, we're doing some things to get the ball on the perimeter a little bit more and taking some shots downfield.

"Once again, we were down some numbers at wide receivers (with injuries), but just my dialogue with Riles and Wellsey, there's some things that are going to be different that people have not seen here."

Riley, who is leading an entire offense for the first time, said he has tapped into Wells' experience for ideas to go with his own philosophy.

"He's brought a ton of ideas and a ton of information of me seeing it and us seeing it from a different quarterback perspective," Riley said of Wells. "So, a lot of the nuance things that we are doing that may be different are some things that coach Wells has brought to the table.

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"One of the things I had a conversation with in leaning on his experience from a quarterbacks coach, from coordinator to a head coach is continuing to have a little bit different of a perspective. Maybe that 1,000-yard perspective of the whole thing and challenging myself and challenging other coaches to maybe see some things some different ways."

At the same time, don't look for an air-raid attack with passes flying everywhere out of the new offense.

"I want it to be an offense that plays wide open. They're exciting," Wells said. "I'd like to throw the ball to score, and I'd like to run the ball to win. And nothing is more satisfying than finishing with the ball in your hands at the end of the football game, pounding people and making first downs and then taking a knee.

"And so, that's one thing that this program, from the running back room to the o-line room to the tight end room, that's not going to change here. But throwing the ball to score, and I think an exciting brand, something that puts the ball in the hands of our playmakers out of the perimeter and getting in a numbers game with the defense and trying to outnumber them in a lot of ways."

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Riley has a similar vision for the offense.

"I want to see a team that really plays their (butts) off and plays their (butts) off for one another," Riley said. "I want to see a team that's going to be extremely physical and physical at all points of attack. And then ultimately, we want to be explosive and efficient.

"And if you say that's kind of what you would say about our offense that we're going to have, without getting into much of the schematics, if you say those things about our offense, I know that we're going to win a whole hell of a lot of ballgames."

According to Johnson, who spent most of last season as Howard's understudy, the changes on offense are mostly geared toward maximizing the team's strengths.

"We've added some stuff," he said. "We've taken some stuff out, trying to simplify it and find stuff that we're really good at and pound that type of stuff, and then stuff that we didn't run so much and that we weren't so good at, kind of just taking that out of the playbook and just being excellent at a lot of things."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: How Kansas State football's offense might look different in 2024