Kansas State coach Collin Klein explains the 'live in physicality' origin
MANHATTAN — Collin Klein stood in front of the Morgan Family Arena crowd and had everyone in attendance ready to run through a wall.
Kansas State 's legendary quarterback had just become the program's head coach. He spoke of how he wanted to take the program where it had never been before and how it would build upon the foundation that the iconic Bill Snyder had built in the decades before he even thought about putting on a Wildcats uniform.
But there is one line that has seemed to resonate most with the fanbase .
"This is a physical game," Klein said. 'Some people want to visit physicality; We live there."
The line has been used in commercials that hype season tickets for the football program, and it blares, seemingly multiple times, at every basketball game. Fans often tweet at potential recruits to let them know they're ready to "live in physicality." It's a new rallying cry.
But where did it originate? Klein admitted he stole the phrase and might owe royalties to one of his former colleagues.
"I think coaches are notorious for stealing things, right?" Klein laughed. "All of us are a product of who we've been around. Yeah, I had heard it a couple times, most recently a coach I coached with down at Texas A&M, and he used it a lot."
Klein said Aggies associate head coach and running backs coach Trooper Taylor is who he borrowed it from. He said he might owe Taylor a Whataburger or two when he visits someone he calls a "dear brother" of his.
Klein said the line wasn't scripted, but it articulated what he wants to see in his program very nicely.
"(Physicality) is an all-the-time thing," Klein said. "In this space, it's how we attack the weight room, how we attack winter conditioning, and it's pushing our physical limits to the max and then extending them and doing it again.
"It's a fundamental game; how we block and how we tackle are the biggest areas that show up, right? If you're the physical football team that you need to be, those teams are great tackling teams, and they're great blocking teams. In the style to which you do both of those things, to some extent, is irrelevant, as opposed to those fundamentals of how you do it."
Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_ , contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: K-State's Collin Klein reveals origin of 'we live in physicality' quote
