Head Coach: Chris Klieman is entering his 7th season as the head coach of the Wildcats with a 48-28 record. He’s won 1 Big 12 championship with Kansas State and 3 bowl games. Before he took this job he led North Dakota State to 4 National Championships in 5 years. Klieman is one of the best coaches in the Big 12 and you can always expect his Kansas State teams to be good.
Program Outlook: Modern day Kansas State is completely different than historic Kansas State. It was only recently their program saw Iowa State and Kansas surpass them in total losses to avoid being the program in the Big 12 with the most losses. Why lead off with this information? Because most people who will read this article are too young to remember that. Bill Snyder transformed this program into a top Big 12 contender, he briefly retired, the program slipped, he un-retired, instantly got them back into contention including having an extremely good team in 2012, and then retired again, only this time Chris Klieman has maintained it. In this new Big 12 era, Kansas State is one of the most steady programs. It feels like it’s a matter of when, not if for the Wildcats to reach the College Football Playoff.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Kansas State ranks 37th in the country returning 61.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players for the Wildcats starts with QB Avery Johnson, he’s an excellent runner and progressed as a passer in 2024 but he still has the potential to be even better. It will start with decision making, he’s made some great highlights but there’s lowlights that came with it, another year of experience could do the trick. The Wildcats had a ridiculous running attack thanks to Johnson and some really good backs. RB Dylan Edwards is the big play guy, he returns after his 2nd breakout game (everyone remembers the first in Coach Prime’s first game at Colorado) in the Rate Bowl (used to be Guaranteed Rate Bowl but I guess the rate is no longer guaranteed). Joe Jackson and Nebraska transfer Gabe Ervin Jr factor in to bring a power element to their run game. Kansas State’s offensive line lost a lot but they reloaded via the portal to put together what should be a good group. Last years leading WR Jayce Brown is back along with TE Garrett Oakley and there’s going to be a slew of other options thanks to their portal haul, the Wildcats added a lot of experienced receivers who will know how to contribute immediately. The defense has a loaded linebacker group leading the way thanks to Austin Romaine who does it all and Desmond Purnell who is a game wrecker. DT Damian Ilalio leads the defensive line, and in general they have a deep group of massive defensive tackles, you aren’t going to have much success running against this team. The secondary had its challenges at times but it’s looking like a loaded group this year safety VJ Payne is another leader of their defense and Colby McCalister is strong as well, they also brought in Gunner Maldonado from Arizona who was really good before missing all of last year. Corner Amarion Fortenberry was a huge portal pickup from South Alabama. They need a top pass rusher to emerge, the hope is that maybe it will be Alabama transfer Jayshawn Ross.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Kansas State’s schedule is very manageable. Their non-conference schedule starts with a game against North Dakota who went 5-7 at the FCS level last year and has a new head coach. They will face a challenging test against an Army team that was a wagon last year, but Army will be figuring out life after Bryson Daily. Kansas State then gets essentially a 10th Big 12 game when they play Arizona as a “non-conference” game, Arizona is figuring things out but traveling to Arizona on one less day of rest after Army is not easy. Kansas State’s Big 12 schedule will begin week 0 with Farmaggedon in Dublin. They get Texas Tech at home and also avoid Arizona State/BYU which is a nice benefit. The road tests at Baylor and Utah provide the most concern. Overall, if Kansas State makes the right steps forward this schedule does not prohibit them from a playoff run.
Final Thoughts: Kansas State may be able to call last year’s 9 win season mildly disappointing, but it still showed they are really only a few pieces away from the College Football Playoff. They certainly appear to be in position this year and Vegas agrees, the Wildcats haven’t been talked about a ton but Vegas has them as the Big 12 favorite.
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