MANHATTAN — Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman knew he wanted to light a fire under his stagnant offense.
The problem was, the man he thought best for the job was several levels up, calling plays from the coaching booth.
So, Klieman concluded that the best place for first-year offensive coordinator Conor Riley on Saturday night was on the sideline with his players.
Whether it was that specific mood or the fact it was senior night, the Wildcats responded with their most productive offensive performance in more than a month and a convincing 41-15 victory over Cincinnati at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
The victory snapped a two-game losing streak. K-State (8-3 overall, and 5-3 Big 12) plays Saturday at Iowa State.
Klieman said he and Riley, who also coaches the offensive line, discussed switching game-day assignments before making the change Saturday.
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“Just to get some energy for the o-line,” Klieman said of returning Riley to the sideline, where he had been for the previous five seasons as line coach. “I thought that was going to be really important.
“We had talked about it a couple of weeks ago, and then this week it was my decision that you’re coming down because I want your energy down there. I thought it was really impactful in between drives to make some adjustments and I thank (Riley) for doing that. It was a selfless act. I said, ‘This is what I want you to do,’ and he said he’d do anything for me.”
With Riley and quarterbacks coach Matt Wells in the bench area, tight ends coach Brian Lepak and Clint Brown, the director of roster management, provided the eye in the sky to help Riley with the play calling.
“We wanted to keep Wells and Avery (Johnson) together,” Klieman said. “(Brown) went upstairs along with coach Lepak, and we did the best we could of trying to give Riles the information.”
It certainly paid off on the field, where K-State racked up 428 yards total offense, including 281 yards rushing. Running back DJ Giddens gained 143 yards on 15 carries and quarterback Avery Johnson added 72 on 10 carries behind a re-energized line. The Wildcats scored on their first three possessions and led 27-3 at halftime.
“I think we’ve kind of been so tensed up the last couple of weeks and we just said, ‘Screw it, we’re just going to go out there and play free,’ and I think we did that,” senior guard Hadley Panzer said.
Johnson, who passed for 147 yards and two touchdowns, said he saw a difference after consecutive losses to Houston and Arizona State.
“It was just he brought a lot of fire to those guys,” Johnson said. “He got onto those offensive linemen, and he really pushed them to go out there and execute at a very high level, and they did that tonight.”
Panzer, a three-year starter, said it was fitting to have his position coach on the field for one last home game.
“It felt like old times,” he said. “I’ve been here long enough to where he has always been on the sideline. But it was good to have him down there.
“He lit a fire underneath us when we needed it and got us going, and he’s always been a great coach for us.”
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on X (formerly Twitter) at @arnegreen.
