Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman fires offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham
Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman shuffled his staff on Friday afternoon, announcing that offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham and fullbacks/tight ends coach Jason Ray will not return for the 2022 season.
Quarterbacks coach Collin Klein will serve as interim offensive coordinator for the upcoming bowl game.
"We appreciate the efforts of Courtney and Jason during their time in Manhattan and wish them well in the future," Klieman said. "These were very difficult decisions to make as both are great coaches and friends — Jason since our time at North Dakota State and Courtney, who I have known since we were young.
"However, I feel like this is in the best interest of our program moving forward."
Kansas State, which finished the regular season at 7-5 but lost its last two games, will learn its bowl destination on Sunday.
Messingham and Ray both came to K-State from North Dakota State with Klieman in 2019.
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Klieman and Messingham both grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, and were teammates at Northern Iowa. Messingham served as Klieman's offensive coordinator in 2017-18, when the Bison won back-to-back FCS national championships. Ray coached the NDSU wide receivers in 2018 after spending the two previous seasons in a similar capacity at Missouri State.
Messingham had come under fire of late, especially from K-State fans, for his play calling during the season finale at Texas. In that game, K-State twice failed to convert on fourth down in the fourth quarter, once deep in their own territory, leading to a Texas field goal, and the second inside the Longhorn 20-yard line during a potential game-winning drive.
On both occasions, the Wildcats faced third-and-1 and could not pick up a yard in two attempts. Texas went on to win the game, 22-17.
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Klein, a former quarterback and Heisman Trophy runner-up at K-State, was the only holdover from Bill Snyder's coaching staff when Klieman was named head coach in December 2018.
Klein spent two years after his playing career on Snyder's staff, first as a recruiting assistant and quality control coach in 2014 and then as a graduate assistant the following year.
His first full-time assistant position came in 2016 at Northern Iowa, where he served as quarterback coach. He then rejoined Snyder's staff as quarterback coach in 2017 and in 2018 added the title of co-offensive coordinator.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football fires offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham
