Kansas State football assistant coach tracker under Collin Klein
MANHATTAN — Collin Klein is already making big changes to the Kansas State coaching staff after he was announced as the Wildcats' head coach on Dec. 4.
Klein is expected to have at least two new coordinators, a new general manager and a handful of position coaches. According to his offer letter, Klein will have a salary pool of $6.5 million to distribute among his assistant coaching staff.
A lot of movement has already happened, and plenty more is expected in the days and weeks ahead. Klein said he wanted to be patient in identifying the right coaches , but he'll want to get it done amid roster movement and the opening of the transfer portal on Jan. 2.
Here's a look at those Klein will bring to Manhattan and who he will part ways with.
The Topeka Capital-Journal will update this page when new coaches are announced and reported .
Kansas State football staff additions
Trey Scott, general manager
Scott is a former agent and NFL executive. He was a pro personnel assistant for the Washington Commanders in 2011 before becoming the player personnel executive for the Las Vegas Raiders from 2012-22. He followed by becoming an agent in 2022 with REP1 Sports , landing with Excel Sports Management in Nov. 2023.
At one point in his career, Scott was labeled as a future NFL general manager candidate. He took over the Raiders' assistant director of player personnel after the 2016 season at 28 years old.
Sean Gleeson, offensive coordinator
Gleeson has been an offensive coordinator at Fairleigh Dickinson (2011-12), Princeton (2017-18), Oklahoma State (2019) and Rutgers (2020-22). At Missouri, he started as an offensive analyst and quarterbacks coach in 2024, before only holding the quarterbacks coach title in 2025.
Gleeson's most recent stint as offensive coordinator at Rutgers ended with his firing during the 2022 season. Rutgers had dropped to 3-3 and was averaging 334 yards, 22.8 points and ranked No. 118 in the country in team passing efficiency.
That doesn't mean Gleeson didn't have success at Rutgers, as he helped produce NFL Draft picks Isaiah Pacheco and Bo Melton . The Scarlet Knights had one of the more improved offenses in the country upon his arrival, adding 13.4 points per game in 2020 than it had the year before.
Jordan Peterson, defensive coordinator
Peterson, a Texas A&M alum, served as the Aggies' co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach for the last two seasons under Mike Elko.
Texas A&M is coming off a regular season in which it ranked No. 19 in yards allowed, giving up just 309.8 per game. The Aggies ranked first in the nation on third downs and allowed only 182.8 passing yards per game and 14.1 yards per completion, two marks that ranked among the nation's best.
Peterson is no stranger to the Sunflower State, working for Kansas from 2020-23 on Lance Leipold's staff. He was the program's defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach in 2023, and worked between being a safeties coach and defensive analyst in the three years before.
Marcus Woodson, co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach
Woodson joins Klein's staff in Manhattan with 21 years of coaching experience. He worked with Peterson at Fresno State in 2014 and 2015.
Other coaching stops for Woodson include Florida State , Auburn, Memphis, Charleston Southern and Millsaps College. He's had a defensive backs coach label for his entire career, until serving as Arkansas' co-defensive coordinator over the last three years.
Thad Ward, associate head coach and wide receivers
Ward has spent the last three seasons as Illinois' running backs coach under Bret Bielema, and was given an assistant head coach title before the 2024 season.
Ward was Kansas State's wide receivers coach in 2022, when Klein was offensive coordinator, and the Wildcats won the Big 12 championship.
Stanton Weber, special teams coordinator
Weber spent the last three seasons as the special teams coordinator at Toledo, where he was named a finalist for FootballScoop's 2024 Special Teams Coordinator of the Year and was named to the American Football Coaches Association's 35 Under 35 Leadership Institute.
The Overland Park native was a wide receiver and special teams standout for the Wildcats from 2011-15, and was a team captain as a senior. A teammate of Klein's, he helped lead the Wildcats to a Big 12 championship in 2012.
Weber began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at K-State in 2017-18, before serving as its special teams quality control coach from 2019-20. He took off for South Carolina from 2021-22, where he was a special teams analyst. He's been the Toledo special teams coordinator since 2023.
Buddy Wyatt, defensive line coach
Klein announced on Dec. 15 that Wyatt will remain on Kansas State's staff and will serve as the program's defensive line coach. He had spent 2019-25 under Chris Klieman as the team's defensive ends coach.
Christian Ellsworth, quarterbacks coach
Ellsworth was promoted to the Aggies' tight ends coach in 2025 after working as a senior offensive analyst in 2024. He began his coaching career at Kansas State under Klein as an offensive graduate assistant.
Ellsworth and Klein's relationship began in 2016 when he played quarterback at Northern Iowa. During his redshirt freshman year, Klein was the program's quarterback coach.
Cory Patterson, running backs coach
Patterson was the running backs coach at Oklahoma State in 2025, and he's also served as a wide receivers coach at Purdue (2023-24), and as a tight ends coach at Illinois from 2018-20 and a running backs coach from 2021-22.
The St. Louis native was responsible for developing current Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown at Illinois, who rushed for 2,648 yards and 15 touchdowns over two seasons.
Mike Schmidt, offensive line coach
Schmidt will depart his alma mater, where he played and got his start as an assistant from 2009-20. He left the Aztes in 2021 to become Syracuse's offensive line coach, and was then promoted to its run-game coordinator in 2022. He was Mississippi State's run-game coordinator, tight ends and tackles coach in 2023, before returning to San Diego State for the last two seasons.
SDSU's offensive line led the nation's 20th-ranked rushing attack, which nearly averaged 200 yards per game. The Aztecs also gave up the 25th-fewest sacks in the country.
Brian Lepak, tight ends coach
Lepak will remain at Kansas State and coach the team's tight ends. Lepak coached the Wildcats' offensive line in 2025 and spent 2022-24 tutoring the team's tight ends. He started at K-State in 2021 as a senior offensive quality control coach.
Nick Toth, linebackers coach
Toth served as a defensive coordinator at Mercyhurst (2006), Ashland (2007-08) and Fresno State (2012-15), and he called Air Force's defense in the second half of the 2025 season.
In 2024, Air Force's defense led the Mountain West in total defense, allowing 341.9 yards per game, while the Falcons ranked third nationally in first down defense and 27th in passing defense.
Jeremiah Johnson, defensive backs coach
Johnson will depart Coastal Carolina after one season as its defensive coordinator, while also serving as the Chanticleers' interim head coach late in the season, after their Independence Bowl appearance on Dec. 30.
Johnson and Klein worked together in 2016 when Klein was a quarterbacks coach at Northern Iowa. Johnson has served as a defensive coordinator at UNI, Kent State and Louisiana Tech.
Johnson's defenses have had success. Louisiana Tech's defense ranked 12th nationally in total defense in 2024. He coached at Northern Iowa for 16 seasons, leading 32 All-Missouri Valley Football Conference First Team performers and five MVFC Defensive Players of the Year. During his first run as the Panthers ' defensive coordinator from 2014-21, his defenses allowed 19.9 points per game over 99 games.
Jeremy Jacobs, director of strength and conditioning
Jacobs is expected to join Klein's staff as the director of strength and conditioning. He worked with Klein at Texas A&M for two seasons, serving under the Aggies' strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt.
Jacobs joined Texas A&M after serving as the associate director for sports performance and head of football applied sports science at Duke, where he worked with A&M coach Mike Elko.
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: Kansas State football coaching staff tracker after Collin Klein hiring
