Football Coach Chris Klieman Says School Working To Make NIL Successful At Kansas State
Before NIL entered college landscape, recruiting for coaches was already a year-round endeavor that never stopped.
In today’s world, coaches are forced to keep recruiting players they already have on their team.
Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman talked about for a couple of minutes at his end-of-spring football press conference.
A couple of weeks ago, NIL became a hot topic again when it was reported that Coleman Hawkins’ $2 million deal helped sway the 6-foot-10 senior forward to K-State men’s basketball program.
Instead of taking a backseat to this new world, K-State is actively figuring out how to make NIL work for its athletic programs.
“We had a conversation about it in a team meeting today,” Klieman said two months ago. “It is not going anywhere. We expressed the guys who wanted to be here with Name Image and Likeness that Kansas State is improving really well. It will help us keep everybody.
“That was really our main focus for NIL was to take care of the guys on the football team so they didn’t leave. That is something I am really excited about.”
Like it or not, NIL is not going anywhere anytime soon. Programs with aspirations of winning championships must embrace it and do everything possible to keep players instead of having them lured away. The transfer portal is very active these days.
“You know who all of our best players are,” he said. “We got to make sure that those guys know the value they have is really good here and we are going to do everything we can to make sure we do everything to keep those guys and they want to be at K-State. We have really made some great strides in NIL.”
And that is great news for K-State fans. They already have proof that the Wildcats are players when it comes to NIL.
David Boyce is a contributing writer to K-State On SI. He can be reached at davidboyce95@gmail.com.
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DAVID BOYCE