Peterson: A quarterback, a coach and rich Iowa high school roots meet in Big 12 title game

I doubt television announcers at Saturday’s Big 12 championship football game will even mention it. Heck, it’s probably not even interesting to anyone outside our great state of Iowa.

We know it, though, and that’s what’s important. We know TCU is quarterbacked by Max Duggan. We know Kansas State is coached by Chris Klieman.

No one has to tell us they’re taking their Iowa grassroots connection to the top of the Big 12 football world this weekend at Jerry World in Dallas.

We know Duggan played high school football for his father at Council Bluffs’ Lewis Central High School. We know Klieman is a former star at Waterloo’s Columbus High School. We know they’re former Des Moines Register first-team all-state selections.

Maybe after Saturday, the rest of the college football world will know it, too.

We know, and really, we’re all that matter in this big-time coming together of two wonderful Iowans. But if the TV announcers mention it during the ABC broadcast that starts at 11 a.m., then that’s great.

Two Iowans in key roles of the Big 12’s biggest game. One a very successful quarterback. The other a very successful head coach. On opposite sidelines.

For us casual Iowan watchers, does it get much better than that?

“A lot more people would remember Max,” Klieman told me in a Sunday text message. “Only the more seasoned people would remember me.”

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They’ve shared a crazy ride to the top. Klieman became Kansas State’s coach in 2019 after an amazing 67-6 record and three Football Championship Subdivision national titles at North Dakota State. He replaced a legend in Bill Snyder.

“I know I’m not going to fill his shoes,” Klieman said at his first Big 12 Media Days in July 2019. “I’m just trying to continue his legacy, while doing it our own way.”

He’s continued it while confirming that athletics director Gene Taylor made a great hire. (Another connection to our state: Taylor served as a deputy athletics director at Iowa from 2014-17.)

Duggan’s story includes a heart ailment that wasn’t diagnosed until undergoing a COVID test. His story includes starting with coach Gary Patterson at TCU and ending with Sonny Dykes. It includes beginning this season as a backup quarterback and possibly ending it in a hotel ballroom in New York − at the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

“It’s been a crazy ride,” Max’s father, Jim, said. “All kinds of different emotions.”

And with all kinds of connections, starting with both learning the game at the Iowa high school level.

“It says a lot about Iowa high school football,” Jim Duggan, a former Lewis Central head coach, said. “Nationally, recruiters need to take a harder look at people that come out of the state of Iowa. Look at (Baylor linebacker) Dillon Doyle (of Iowa City). That kid is just fabulous. Kurt Warner. I think there’s a lot of Iowa diamonds in the rough in our state.”

Two will be front and center Saturday, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

“The quality of the coaching in the Iowa high schools is fabulous,” Chris’ father, Bob, said. “I think we get so shorted (reputation-wise) when it comes a lot of that. I don’t think it’s fair.”

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Bob Klieman was one of the top basketball officials in the state. He’s in the Iowa High School Officials Hall of Fame. He knows what he’s talking about.

Meanwhile, the Kliemans and Duggans have a personal connection. Chris’ brother, Scott, and Max’s father were football teammates at the University of South Dakota.

“He lived on my floor in the dorm," Jim Duggan said. “I got to know him real well. I’ve still never met Chris, but I know him as a football coach.”

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A football coach from Iowa, opposing a former Iowa high school football player who quarterbacks a 12-0 team that on Saturday can clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff.

As Max’s dad said ... crazy.

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson embarked on his 50th year of writing sports for the Des Moines Register in December 2021. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, 515-284-8132, and on Twitter @RandyPete.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ex-Iowa high school stars front and center in Big 12 title game