Watch Coach Klieman’s Press Conference  |  Listen to Coach Klieman’s Press Conference  |  Listen to Player Breakout Interviews

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and select players met with members of the media on Tuesday inside the Vanier Family Football Complex as the Wildcats began spring practices on Tuesday morning. Links to video and audio of Klieman’s press conference – which was streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ – are above in addition to an audio link of player breakout interviews. A transcript of Klieman’s opening statement is below.

CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH

Opening Statement…

“Good afternoon, everyone. I know everyone is ready to head to Kansas City for Big 12 Men’s and Women’s (Basketball tournaments). We started spring practice today, our first true practice in the combination indoor-outdoor (practice facility), so it was tons of field space. So much better to be able to open up garage doors and have the defense outside most of the morning, the offense stayed inside, and then we were able to split some team reps up and use both fields and got a lot of stuff done. Good energy out there. I think we have a little over 80 guys practicing right now this spring through all the offseason surgeries and some other injuries, so we’re down a little bit at numbers. The two positions that we’re probably down the most is tight end and defensive end. We won’t be in the double reps like we typically do our double reps. The spring becomes team on one end and 7-on-7 on the opposite end because we do have some DB’s and wide receivers. The guys had great energy today. That’s exciting. It was a quick offseason. The guys were excited to be back out there, and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We have a lot of guys returning, but obviously we lost a number of talented players. So, it’s going to be a great evaluation for a lot of young players and new players.”