It Was TIME: Collin Klein Takes Over After Chris Klieman Retirement
Heartland College Sports: The Big 12 Sports Podcast
Pete Mundo
4.8 • 870 Ratings
🗓️ 3 December 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kansas State is officially entering a new era. Chris Klieman has announced his retirement, and longtime Wildcat favorite Collin Klein is stepping in as the new head coach.
In this Heartland College Sports reaction, Pete Mundo breaks down why this move makes sense for K-State, why you can absolutely respect what Klieman accomplished while still believing it was the right time for Klein, and what this means for the Big 12 moving forward.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For better or for worse, it was time, and Colin Klein had to come home. |
| 0:07.8 | Welcome in on Pete Mundo, Heartland College Sports is where you find us. |
| 0:11.8 | We cover the Big 12. |
| 0:13.3 | We're glad you're here joining us as always as a part of the show. |
| 0:17.4 | So the big breaking news this week was Chris Kleinman stepping down as the Kansas |
| 0:24.2 | state football coach. And very rarely in this business, do you get to call your own shot on when |
| 0:33.9 | you leave? It doesn't matter if you've won a Big 12 championship like Chris Climons done. |
| 0:39.3 | It doesn't matter if you've done one of the most difficult things in not just college |
| 0:45.3 | football, but all of life. |
| 0:47.9 | And that is to successfully replace a legend. |
| 0:52.8 | It doesn't matter. |
| 0:59.2 | When your time is up, it's up and you usually do not get a decision as to whether or not it gets to end. And that is the nasty side of the college football |
| 1:04.9 | coaching business. And Chris Clyman learned that this week. And a part of me feels bad for him. |
| 1:12.9 | Really, because he's done a really good job in a difficult spot leading Kansas State football. |
| 1:21.3 | You take over for a guy like Bill Snyder. |
| 1:24.0 | That ain't easy. |
| 1:25.8 | Just ask Ron Prince, okay, how that goes. We've seen guys all over the map and all of sports try to successfully replace a legend and it rarely ends well. You never want to be the guy to replace the guy, right? You want to be the guy to replace the guy who replaced the guy in a perfect world. |
| 1:49.6 | But Chris Climann effectively replaced a legend. |
| 1:55.2 | He walked into a stadium every day for work that was named after the guy that he replaced, knowing full well, he was never going to have his success. |
| 2:03.6 | He did it humbly. He did it admirably, but it was still time. |
| 2:10.6 | Because Colin Klein is ready and you are not going to miss out on the opportunity to bring Colin Klein home |
| 2:20.1 | as a guy who could be here for 10, 15, 20, 30 years. I'm not guaranteeing it. We've seen |
... |
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