In case you may have missed it, on Tuesday morning, On3’s Ari Wasserman released his picks for the Top 25 coaches in college football.
The list generated significant backlash for multiple reasons, but when discussing the best coaches in the Big 12, Wasserman left off one of the Big 12’s best coaches, Kansas State’s Chris Klieman.
Wasserman listed a total of six Big 12 coaches on the list, including Colorado’s Deion Sanders (No. 7), Utah’s Kyle Whittingham (No. 8), Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham (No. 13), Kansas’ Lance Leipold (No. 14), BYU’s Kalani Sitake (No. 24), and Iowa State’s Matt Campbell (No. 25).
Despite being listed inside the Top 20 on 247Sports’ list ranking the nation’s best college football coaches, Wasserman excluded Klieman for coaches like Kyle Whittingham and Lance Leipold, who earned Top 15 placements despite combining for an overall record of 10-14 in 2024.
Since taking over for legendary head coach Bill Snyder in Manhattan, Kansas, Klieman has become one of the nation’s best program builders. In his six years at the helm, he’s led Kansas State to an overall record of 48-28 and a conference record of 31-21.
While coaches like Deion Sanders, Kyle Whittingham, and Lance Leipold being featured among the nation’s best is incredible for the Big 12 Conference, to leave Klieman out of the conversation after being one of the only coaches in college football with four-straight seasons of eight or more wins is ridiculous.
