Watch Coach Klieman’s Press Conference  |  Listen to Coach Klieman’s Press Conference

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman met with members of the media for the first time during preseason camp on Monday at the Vanier Family Football Complex. Links to video and audio of the press conference – which was streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ – are above, while a transcript of Klieman’s opening statement is below.

CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH

Opening Statement…

“Well, good afternoon everyone. It’s exciting to be back. Welcome back to everyone. I hope everyone had a good, short summer and ready to talk a little football. We just finished practice five. We had our first two days in just helmets, and then the last three days have been just upper pads. We haven’t put on full pads yet. That will come tomorrow. But it’s been a good five days getting acclimated to being out there a little bit more than they are for summer conditioning, as well as just our first glimpse at a lot of new players just seeing what the retention is from some of our older guys from what they did in the spring and summer. We’re excited about where we’re at. We’ve got a long ways to go, but we’re just evaluating every day to find extra guys, more depth, that can help us. We know that we have a good amount of guys back at certain spots, but we have a lot of positions that are really up for grabs where there’s really good competition. There’s more competition this year at a number of positions than we’ve had since I’ve been here. I know as a coaching staff we’re excited about maybe building some depth as well as having really good competition on a daily basis to push each other.”