MANHATTAN, Kan. — Chris Klieman’s office is still nearly bare after two months on the job.

A signed Carson Wentz jersey hangs on the wall next to a framed photo from the 2016 NFL Draft. His collection of North Dakota State championship rings are on display, along with a national championship game ball. He’s not sure how he wants to decorate the rest. Those are details for another day.

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It’s National Signing Day, but Kansas State’s new staff isn’t gathered in a war room on this Wednesday morning, nervously awaiting faxes and high-fiving over new signees. The day’s first three NLIs were sent to K-State director of recruiting Taylor Braet via Snapchat. The offensive and defensive staffs are busy diving into tape of the 2020 class. Now that they’re finally off the road, they’ve just begun talking scheme.

Klieman, meanwhile, also is finalizing his last assistant hire, defensive ends coach Buddy Wyatt. He takes time for congratulatory phone calls with his seven new signees, then a news conference, then a reception with season-ticket holders.

The next four days will provide a chance to recharge. When signing day is all over, some of his assistants will make eight-hour, overnight drives north to go see their families. Klieman has promised his wife Rhonda he’ll finally be able to help unpack their new home.

“You just keep plugging away,” he said. “I knew when I took the job it was gonna be like this for an extended period of time. Just have great support at home and great support around here and just keep attacking each day.”

After seven titles in eight years with North Dakota State, Klieman left the throne of FCS for a chance to scrap in the Big 12 and prove the way he does things can win at college football’s highest level. He’s walked away from a dynasty to face and embrace the unenviable task of succeeding not just a Hall of Famer but also a program-saving legend in Bill Snyder, the only head coach in the modern era to leave K-State with a winning record.

As Klieman gets settled into this office and gets this new era for Kansas State football rolling, he has a clear vision. And he’s appreciative of all those who are believing in him and believing in that vision.

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“And believing,” he said, “that what we had done at NDSU was not a fluke. It can translate to Kansas State.”

To Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor, the transition from Snyder to Klieman has gone as smooth as he could have hoped with one memorable exception: the night of the hire.

“It was pretty ugly,” Taylor said. “When it was pretty well out there that we were gonna go with Chris, from the phone call on, the pendulum swung unbelievably in less than 24 hours.”

On the night of Dec. 10, word of Kansas State’s coaching hire leaked out an hour before the school made its announcement, and it evoked starkly different reactions. There was praise from national media and there was anger from a faction of the fan base. Not long after revealing Klieman was his choice, Taylor says his email inbox had about 350 new messages.

“I’m looking at them on my phone,” he said, “and it’s, ‘Oh, man. Oh. Ooh. Uh, he’s pissed.’ There were some interesting ones. One guy threatened to buy a moving van and pull it up to my house.”

They were angry that Taylor had hired his close friend, angry he hired an FCS coach, angry he didn’t hire Seth Littrell or Neal Brown or Jim Leavitt or anyone else. And they loudly let the AD know.

The next day, Klieman flew in from Fargo and held his first team meeting. He urged his players to “win the dang day” in everything they do and promised them “if we all do that together, there ain’t anybody stopping our ass.” K-State shared a two-minute clip of his address on social media late that night.

Character.
Work Ethic.
A burning desire to compete.

🎙 Coach Klieman | #KStateFB

— K-State Football (@KStateFB) December 12, 2018

“My first 220 emails after that were all, ‘Great hire!’ ” Taylor said with a laugh. “A few of them were saying, ‘Hey, do you mind ignoring my earlier email?’ ”

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All that feedback underscores the inherent nervousness that comes with this coaching change. Only one man has won big at Kansas State, and the last time he left, the Wildcats hired Ron Prince and botched it. Snyder came back and made Kansas State a more attractive job today than it was in 2005 when he first exited. The Wildcats have the facilities and infrastructure necessary to sustain success. But aside from Snyder, success has been fleeting. Klieman only needs 40 victories to become the second-winningest football coach in school history.

Still, in coaching, you don’t want to be the guy who replaces the legend. Taylor needed a coach who was cool with driving down Bill Snyder Highway, going to work at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, walking past Bill Snyder’s statue and existing in his sizable shadow. Snyder’s successor would need to show the utmost respect to how the previous staff successfully ran this operation while doing his best to improve upon it. As Klieman has been saying from the start: This program is not broken.

“I’m just gonna continue to try to build on his legacy,” he said, “and do it kind of our way, keeping some of his beliefs and culture out in the forefront.”

This isn’t Klieman’s first time replacing a legend. Craig Bohl was just that for North Dakota State, with his 104 wins and three national championships in 11 seasons. When Bohl accepted the head coaching job at Wyoming in December 2013, Taylor — then the athletic director at NDSU — approached Bohl’s defensive coordinator about an interview. Klieman asked Taylor to give him one week to prepare and prove himself.

“He sat in my living room and we interviewed after a playoff game until about 3 in the morning,” Taylor recalled.

He asked Klieman if he was really ready for this. Klieman wouldn’t go so far as to guarantee another national title in 2014. He did guarantee the Bison would keep contending for more. Yes, they would have to do it without 23 seniors, a group that had lost two games in the past three years. Didn’t matter. We’ll continue this, Klieman vowed.

Why, all those years ago, did his boss believe him?

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“Because of the look in his eye,” Taylor said. “He was determined.”

And then Klieman went 69-6 in five seasons and won it all four times. Klieman wasn’t leaving North Dakota State unless he knew the fit and timing was right. He knew, too, that if the K-State job ever opened while Taylor was AD, he’d at least get a conversation. In his interview presentation, Klieman sold the similarities between the programs. He sold his belief that what they built in Fargo absolutely translates here.

New offensive line coach Conor Riley points to their North Dakota State finale as evidence. The championship game MVP, receiver Darrius Shepherd, came from Blue Springs, Mo. Linebacker Jabril Cox, a Kansas City native who went to Raytown South High School, might have been their most talented player. And senior quarterback Easton Stick, the winningest QB in FCS history? They found him in Omaha, Neb. They know they can win big with the kids in this region.

The Bison blueprint for seven national titles was simple: Build the most physical team in the country. Beat people up on offense. Dare teams to try sustaining long drives on your defense. Own third downs on both sides of the ball. Own the red zone, too.

“And when it comes down to it,” director of football operation Hank Jacobs said, “if you have a close game, our kids are tougher than yours. They want to win more. That’s how it’s been at NDSU for years.”

They’re bringing that ideology to a place that gets it, a program that Snyder built on long-term development and discipline and not chasing what everybody else is doing.

Taylor wants Kansas State to win with defense. In Klieman’s five seasons as head coach, North Dakota State allowed an average of 13.9 points per game. With that track record, Taylor trusts he can develop a recipe for slowing down the Big 12. And he’s bringing it to a place that’s been doing so for a long time.

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“You know they were trained by one of the best,” new defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton said. “It’s an easy, seamless transition because you say, ‘Hey, this is how we’re gonna do things,’ and they don’t know any other way but to say OK. Here, we can just worry about ball.”

At North Dakota State, the window for celebrating a national championship closes quickly.

Players are prohibited from wearing their national title gear during workouts and practices. No championship hats in the facility, no national title tees in the weight room.

“Wear that stuff at the mall,” Klieman said. “Take your girlfriend out for dinner and wear that. But around here, we have to focus on what’s next.”

And so does Klieman. He tried to enjoy this last trip to Frisco, Texas, and really soak it in knowing he probably wouldn’t be on that stage at the FCS level again. He sums up his farewell with the Bison, a thrilling 38-24 win against Eastern Washington to cap a 15-0 year, as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the seventh time in eight years.” In his new office, the first six championship rings are encased in a glass display. A new display — the NDSU seven-pack — should arrive later this spring.

“For us to be able to say we won seven of the last eight, it’ll never be done in college football again,” Klieman said. “I firmly believe that.”

Now he’ll try to reach those heights in his new home. His leap from FCS ball will be a test. This move is not all that uncommon — East Carolina, Akron and Charlotte all hired FCS coaches this offseason, too — but moving right into a Power 5 league is an entirely different endeavor. Klieman is going from 63 scholarships to 85. He’s going from an athletic department with a budget of roughly $23.2 million to one at $82.1 million. He’s going from a base salary of $300,000 to $2.3 million, too. More resources and support, sure, but taking command of a larger organization comes with a new level of pressure.

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Hazelton has coached all over the country and posits that, simply put, ball is ball. He left North Dakota State after the 2011 season to coach linebackers at USC for Lane Kiffin, a stint that further opened his eyes to the difference between these levels.

“You get there and say, ‘Wow, we’ve got some really good athletes,’ ” Hazelton said. “But then you turn on the tape and see, ‘Wow, we’re gonna play against some really good athletes.’ I think those things are similar at every level. I’ve been at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and went there from a I-AA and you go, ‘Wow, we have some really bad athletes.’ Then you turn on the tape and say, ‘Oh, we’re still OK!’ It’s all relative, wherever you go.”

When the Bison have had opportunities to take on bigger foes, they’ve punched above their weight class. North Dakota State had a 5-0 record against FBS teams during Klieman’s eight years on staff, and all five were road games. In three of those wins, they outgained their foe by more than 100 yards. After they came to K-State for the 2013 season opener and won 24-21 on an 18-play, 80-yard touchdown drive, Snyder said it himself: “They played harder than we did, they were tougher than we were, they were better coached than we were.” Five games is a tiny sample size, but there was nothing fluky about how North Dakota State controlled those games.

“You don’t walk into places like this and manhandle Power 5 programs if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Taylor said. “They were physically better. You do that through recruiting, coaching, development.”

And you do it over time. For a staff that’s used to winning titles, this process is going to require resolve. They’ll have to endure losses and not deviate from the plan. Taylor says the goal is to win a Big 12 championship every year. You’re not going to build up a roster to meet that goal in just one or two years. But the new staff does feel good about the starting point.

“One of the things you hear too often is some new coaches say the culture is broken and the cupboard is bare,” Riley said. “To me, those are excuses. We’re fortunate enough right now that we’re in a place where neither one of those is remotely true.”

When the coaching change went down, Skylar Thompson had a lot on his mind and wasn’t sure what would come next.

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The Wildcats’ starting quarterback says his three years in the program have been pretty rough at times. Their 5-7 season in 2018 ended with a blown 17-point fourth-quarter lead at Iowa State. Four losses came by a combined margin of 13 points. And then their legendary coach stepped down and most of his assistants left.

“I didn’t really know what was gonna be the best for me,” Thompson said. “I wanted to do what was best for me moving forward. If that was for me to go elsewhere or explore my options, that’s what I was gonna do. I just didn’t know what was gonna happen. I think you’d be surprised by how many people in the locker room were in that mental stage.”

But now? Thompson says he’s all-in. He and his teammates haven’t been around Klieman and the new staff for long, but they’ve seen enough to be enthusiastic about going back to work.

When Klieman got back from Frisco in January, he held three consecutive days of one-on-one meetings with Kansas State players. Every player — the returning starters, the walk-ons, the new enrollees — got 10 to 15 minutes with the head coach.

“That was grueling,” Klieman said. “It was from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on a Sunday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on a Monday and 7 a.m. til 3 p.m. on a Tuesday to get them all through. But I thought that was important. I want those kids to know I’m gonna care.”

Thompson was one of the last to go in for his meeting. Klieman wanted to know all about how he was feeling, how the season went, how his career has gone and what he still aims to accomplish. And then the new coach explained how he does things, how he runs practices, what he expects on a daily basis and where this program is heading.

Thompson watched North Dakota State’s latest championship at Collin Klein’s house and can tell he fits in their offensive system. Klieman is hoping Stick can come visit and give Thompson pointers as he adjusts. Klein, the former Heisman Trophy finalist who was retained as quarterbacks coach, is just as eager to learn something brand new.

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“He is in our K-State mold,” Klein said of Klieman. “Hard-working. Extremely high character. Extremely high care and concern for all the individuals in our program. He’s a great fit.”

They still have a long way to go in hammering out the X’s and O’s and their grand plan for 2019. For now, what Klieman promised all of his new players as they begin this process together: They’re going to be cared for, they’re going to be challenged and they’re going to be loved.

And if they embrace and attack this one dang day at a time, it’s going to work.

“We just want to win,” Thompson said. “And not just win six or seven games and be bowl-eligible. We’re trying to compete for a championship around here. That’s gonna be the standard. If you’re not living up to that or expecting that, you might as well not come to Kansas State.”

(Top photo of Klieman and Taylor by Bo Rader / Wichita Eagle via Getty Images)