Kansas State football creates new position to help navigate roster management challenges
Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman has often spoken the last couple of years about the challenges in staying on top of college football roster machinations in the modern era of transfers and name image and likeness, not to mention the lingering fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enter Clint Brown, a veteran college football assistant and for the past two seasons an offensive quality control coach for the Wildcats.
K-State announced Wednesday that Brown has been promoted to the newly created position of director of roster management. There he will oversee the football recruiting staff and manage the composition of the football roster while, in collaboration with Klieman and the assistant coaches determine future team needs.
K-State lost more than a dozen players to the transfer portal between the end of the 2023 regular season and the Pop-Tarts Bowl in late December, including starting quarterback Will Howard and safety Kobe Savage.
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Part of Brown's job description is to help develop a strategy for retaining current players and attracting future prospects, presumably through the transfer portal.
"Clint has been a vital member of our staff since his arrival and has played a big part in the overall success of our program," Klieman said in a statement. "With recruiting, the transfer portal, NIL and overall roster management becoming more and more of a daily function, we wanted to identify an experienced person who was familiar with our program and culture.
"Clint fits that perfectly, and I am excited for his new role and continue impact on our football student-athletes."
Athletes enrolled during the pandemic in 2020 were granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA, which has further complicated roster management with a number of players sticking around for a fifth or sixth season.
Brown joined the K-State staff before the 2022 season after three years as defensive coordinator and linebacker coach at Abilene Christian, and before that spent 10 years as defensive coordinator at South Dakota State.
K-State also announced that Taylor Wenger has been promoted to assistant director of football operations after serving as a football operations assistant in 2022 and 2023.
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: Kansas State football's Chris Klieman names roster management director
