* AFCA Board of Trustees 2018
* 2018 AFCA Region 4 FCS Coach of the Year
* 2017 Bruce Craddock MVFC Coach of the Year
* 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 Eddie Robinson Award Finalist
* 2014 Rawlings Football/American Football Monthly FCS Coach of the Year
* 2012 Football Scoop FCS Coordinator of the Year
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Chris Klieman won five conference championships and four national championships in his five seasons as the head football coach at North Dakota State from 2014 through 2018. He left NDSU to succeed College Football Hall of Famer Bill Snyder as the head coach at Kansas State.
Klieman finished third on NDSU's coaching wins list with a 69-6 record including a 36-4 mark in Missouri Valley Football Conference games and 18-1 in the FCS playoffs.
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Klieman was part of seven FCS national championship teams in his eight years at NDSU after joining the Bison in 2011 as the defensive backs coach. He was the defensive coordinator in 2012 and 2013 and was elevated to head coach in 2014.
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After winning an unprecedented five consecutive national championships from 2011 to 2015, the Bison bounced back from a semifinal loss in 2016 to win back-to-back national titles in 2017 and 2018. The 2018 Bison finished 15-0 to become just the fifth undefeated and untied national championship team in FCS history.
A four-time finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, presented annually to the FCS national coach of the year, Klieman was named the Bruce Craddock MVFC Coach of the Year in 2017. He was elected to the American Football Coaches Association Board of Trustees in 2018 as an FCS representative.
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North Dakota State didn't skip a beat in Klieman's first year despite losing 23 seniors and welcoming seven new assistant coaches. The Bison scored 34 unanswered points to beat Big 12 member Iowa State in the season opener as part of an FCS-record 33-game winning streak that extended into November.
Klieman was named the 2014 Rawlings Football/American Football Monthly FCS Coach of the Year. His 9-0 start in 2014 was the best by any first-year head coach in NDSU and Missouri Valley Football Conference history.
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NDSU replaced seven starters on defense in 2015 and won eight straight games under freshman quarterback Easton Stick after a midseason injury to senior starter Carson Wentz. The Bison defense continually improved from a season-opening loss at Montana and held four playoff opponents to just 217 yards and nine points per game.
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The Bison went 12-2 against the toughest schedule in school history in 2016, beating two Top 10 non-conference opponents at home and rallying for a 23-21 win over the 11th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. NDSU faced 10 nationally ranked opponents and earned a No. 1 overall seed for the FCS playoffs before falling in the FCS semifinals.
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NDSU attracted and retained top assistant coaches providing great continuity during Klieman’s tenure. After hiring his first staff in January 2014, only four of Klieman’s assistant coaches left NDSU and all took jobs with NFL or Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
North Dakota State went 40-5 against FCS Top 25 teams under Klieman. NDSU had 29 players named to All-America teams, including Buck Buchanan Award-winning defensive end Kyle Emanuel. Six players combined for nine CoSIDA Academic All-America® selections.
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Klieman came to NDSU following a nine-year stay at Northern Iowa where he was the defensive coordinator, co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach from 2006-10 under head coach Mark Farley and 1991-93 under head coach Terry Allen.
North Dakota State led the nation in scoring defense each of Klieman's three years on NDSU’s defensive staff, including a low of 11.3 points per game in 2013. He was named the 2012 Football Scoop FCS Coordinator of the Year and coached a two-time Buck Buchanan Award finalist in cornerback Marcus Williams, a four-year NFL veteran.
NDSU was Klieman's second head coaching job. He was the head coach for one season at Division III member Loras College where he went 3-7 in an injury-plagued 2005 season. He had been the defensive coordinator at Loras the previous three seasons and transformed the Duhawks into one of the Iowa Conference's most feared defensive units. Klieman took Loras from ninth in the league in defense to leading the league in rushing defense, passing defense and total defense.
A native of Waterloo, Iowa, he was inducted into Columbus Catholic High School’s inaugural Athletic Hall of Fame class in 2017 and was a 2016 inductee of the Waterloo Optimist Club’s Baseball Hall of Fame.
Klieman was a three-time All-Gateway Conference defensive back at Northern Iowa and a four-year letterwinner from 1986-90. He graduated from UNI in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in health education and earned a master's degree in physical education from UNI in 1992.
Following his playing career, Klieman was an assistant coach for the Panthers from 1991-93. He also had assistant coaching stints at Western Illinois (1994-96), Kansas (1997), Missouri State (1999) and Loras (2002-04).
Klieman and his wife, Rhonda, are the parents of two sons, Devin and Colby, and one daughter, Haley. Devin was a student manager with the NDSUÂ equipment staff during his father's final three seasons.
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| Year |
Team |
Position |
Overall |
Conference |
NCAA Playoffs |
| 1991 |
Northern Iowa |
Graduate Assistant |
|
|
|
| 1992 |
Northern Iowa |
Graduate Assistant |
|
|
|
| 1993 |
Northern Iowa |
Assistant Coach |
|
|
|
| 1994 |
Western Illinois |
Assistant Coach |
|
|
|
| 1995 |
Western Illinois |
Assistant Coach |
|
|
|
| 1996 |
Western Illinois |
Assistant Coach |
|
|
|
| 1997 |
Kansas |
Graduate Assistant |
|
|
|
| 1999 |
Missouri State |
Assistant Coach |
|
|
|
| 2002 |
Loras |
Defensive Coordinator |
|
|
|
| 2003 |
Loras |
Defensive Coordinator |
|
|
|
| 2004 |
Loras |
Defensive Coordinator |
|
|
|
| 2005 |
Loras |
Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator |
|
|
|
| 2006 |
Northern Iowa |
Assistant Coach |
|
|
|
| 2007 |
Northern Iowa |
Assistant Coach |
|
|
|
| 2008 |
Northern Iowa |
Co-Defensive Coordinator |
|
|
|
| 2009 |
Northern Iowa |
Defensive Coordinator |
|
|
|
| 2010 |
Northern Iowa |
Defensive Coordinator |
|
|
|
| 2011 |
North Dakota State |
Assistant Coach |
14-1 |
7-1 MVFC (1st, tie) |
FCS Champion |
| 2012 |
North Dakota State |
Defensive Coordinator |
14-1 |
7-1 MVFC (1st) |
FCS Champion |
| 2013 |
North Dakota State |
Defensive Coordinator |
15-0 |
8-0 MVFC (1st) |
FCS Champion |
| 2014 |
North Dakota State |
Head Coach |
15-1 |
7-1 MVFC (1st, tie) |
FCS Champion |
| 2015 |
North Dakota State |
Head Coach |
13-2 |
7-1 MVFC (1st, tie) |
FCS Champion |
| 2016 |
North Dakota State |
Head Coach |
12-2 |
7-1 MVFC (1st, tie) |
FCS Semifinalist |
| 2017 |
North Dakota State |
Head Coach |
14-1 |
7-1 MVFC (1st) |
FCS Champion |
| 2018 |
North Dakota State |
Head Coach |
15-0 |
8-0 MVFC (1st) |
FCS Champion |
|
Five-year NDSU Head Coaching Totals |
69-6Â |
36-4 (5 titles) |
18-1 playoffs (4 titles) |
