Gene Taylor prepared to reward K-State football coaches after ‘unbelievable season’

Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman and his assistants have already been rewarded with lucrative bonuses for guiding the Wildcats to 10 victories and a Big 12 championship this season.

More appears to be on the way.

K-State athletic director Gene Taylor says he is prepared to engage in new contract discussions with both Klieman and his coaching staff in the coming weeks. He wants to make sure they remain comfortable in Manhattan for the foreseeable future after they delivered one of the best football seasons in program history.

Taylor said that Klieman’s agent “has already called.”

“We haven’t had that conversation yet, but it’s coming,” Taylor said on Wednesday. “Right now, I think the priority is probably just looking at making sure his assistants are good. Then we will probably sit down with (Klieman) and see what the market does. The market has changed a lot regionally. That is part of the issue. We have to look at that.”

Klieman is set to earn $4 million in salary next season. He is under contract with K-State until 2027 with a max salary of $4.3 million beginning in 2024.

Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman is the highest paid assistant on his coaching staff at $600,000. His current contract runs through 2024. Tight ends coach Brian Lepak is the lowest paid assistant on staff at $225,000, also through 2024.

It seems likely that every coach, from Klieman on down, is in line for some sort of raise in the near future unless some of them find a better opportunity elsewhere.

Not only did the Wildcats have a terrific season in 2022. The administration is now under internal pressure to make sure their coaches at better compensated than their counterparts at KU.

The Jayhawks recently boosted Lance Leipold’s salary to $5 million as part of a lucrative extension. Their offensive coordinator, Andy Kotelnicki, is also now earning $1 million annually. That is likely what Taylor was referring to when he said “the market has changed a lot regionally.”

Taylor wants K-State football salaries to be competitive with their Big 12 peers and higher than most programs not named Oklahoma and Texas. It goes without saying he would like for them to be the highest paid coaches in the state.

The highest paid football coach in the Big 12 is Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy at $7.5 million. Klieman’s salary currently ranks sixth in the conference ahead of Matt Campbell (Iowa State) and Neal Brown (West Virginia).

Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire and Leipold recently passed Klieman with new contracts. It is not publicly known how much Baylor and TCU pay their head coaches.

Fortunately, raising funds for new coaching contracts doesn’t look like it will be much of a challenge.

“It’s easier when you’re successful and you go to a Big 12 championship,” Taylor said. “It makes it a lot easier when donors come up and say, ‘We can’t lose this coach. We can’t lose that coach.’ They understand it better. They see the market change and they know what our budget is like and new money has to come from somewhere. When you approach them they are a bit more willing to listen.”

Taylor is happy to work with K-State coaches on contract extensions and new salaries.

After a football season like this one, that is simply the price of success.

“It was an unbelievable season,” Taylor said. “I felt we were going to be pretty good this year. When I looked at our schedule I thought we would be in the neighborhood of eight wins. Then I saw how we competed in games and I just thought we were going to break through. Once we beat KU and ended up in the championship game I thought we had a really good chance to win it. I can’t be more pleased.”