More context on Kansas State hiring Chris Klieman, plus 2 other college football coach notes

The school announced that Monday night.

A source told us a few hours before K-State announced the hire that the Wildcats were leaning toward hiring Klieman. He’s been with the Bison since 2011, when they started their run of six FCS national titles in seven years. He’s been the head coach for the last three and has NDSU in the national semifinals again this year.

He beat out Troy’s Neal Brown for the gig. Brown’s been in the running for his fair share of jobs the last couple years, including Texas Tech and Louisville this cycle. Brown is a young guy (38) with bonafides at the Group of 5 level. He’s gone into one Death Valley and beaten LSU after losing to Clemson by 6 in the other Death Valley the year before. The guy can coach and at some point will get his Power 5 shot.

A legend’s exit rarely goes as scripted, but Snyder’s from K-State’s has been odd in its own way. The news was scooped and reported the Friday after the 5-7 regular season ended. Kansas State then actually announced the news on one of the most crowded news days of the college football year, with Playoff and bowl announcements flying around the day after Championship Saturday.

With Snyder’s name on the stadium, and his contractually stipulated role as a “special ambassador” in place, it is hard to get away from his influence.

One easy way to do that is to let his successor hire his own coaching staff. It seems like there had been some hangup on Kansas State’s end about whether the school would actually let that happen. It’s reportedly one of the reasons why North Texas coach Seth Littrell took his name out of the running in Manhattan.

A name to look for Klieman to bring with him will be Wyoming defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton. The two briefly overlapped on Craig Bohl’s NDSU stuff, and Hazelton eventually joined Bohl in Laramie.

It was more about hiring your own guys as a concept than anything to do with the coaches Kansas State has in place now, specifically. If you were a potential K-State head coach, you already know how hard it is to replace The Guy. Why do it if you don’t have as much carte blanche as possible to form your own program?

Whatever the resolution there, Klieman’s taking it on.

A name often linked to the Kansas State program in the past, Leavitt missed out on that job as well as others this cycle, including Texas Tech and Colorado. We’re told he interviewed at Tech, echoing other reports on the Red Raiders’ search.

It remains to be seen if Leavitt will return to Eugene for another season with current head coach Mario Cristobal. Cristobal didn’t hire Leavitt; Willie Taggart did, and Leavitt stayed on after Cristobal replaced Taggart following 2017.

The combination of Leavitt’s aggressive courting of open jobs with him not being chosen by the current Ducks head coach could mean a transition is happening either way.

Temple has quietly become one of the best springboard jobs in the Group of 5, as the formerly moribund program has pushed its last four head coaches, all assistants when originally hired, to Power 5 head coaching gigs.

Miami defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and Mississippi State DC Bob Shoop are names that fit the mold. SB Nation can confirm Temple has communicated with Diaz.

Current interim head coach Ed Foley is interviewing for the job, too.

Another career assistant is Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko, who Football Scoop reports is on the Owls’ radar.

While it’s been reported that Alabama co-OC and receivers coach Josh Gattis is interested in the job, we’re told the Owls haven’t reached out for an interview. Former Alabama offensive coordinator Mike Locksley is courting Gattis to join him at Maryland.