Collin Klein is heading home.
When Kansas State visits Colorado at Folsom Field on Saturday, the Wildcats’ first-year head coach will be back in the state where he grew up, with kickoff set for noon MT. Klein, a Loveland native, is in his first season running the program after Kansas State hired him on Dec. 4, 2025.
His path back to Manhattan, Kansas, starts with the one that made him a Wildcats legend in the first place. Klein was Kansas State’s quarterback and helped steer the program to the 2012 Big 12 Championship. He finished that season as a Heisman Trophy finalist, and his senior year also brought a Fiesta Bowl berth and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.
Before becoming the head coach, Klein was already woven into Kansas State’s recent success. He led the Wildcats to a combined 21-5 record as the starting quarterback in 2011 and 2012, then later returned to the staff as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator during the 2022 conference championship season. After two years as Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator, he came back to lead his alma mater.
Saturday will be a different kind of return for Klein. It will be his first trip to Folsom Field as a head coach, though he has played there before. In 2010, he came off the bench for Kansas State at Folsom Field and ran for two touchdowns in a 44-36 loss to Colorado.
Klein also has family ties that run through the Front Range. His father grew up in Boulder, and Klein said those roots have been part of his life, even if the family’s early college leanings tilted another direction.
"My first college game was Colorado State," Klein said Monday at his KSU press conference. "My dad actually grew up in Boulder. A lot of family all through the Front Range, but he was more of a Colorado State fan."
There should be plenty of familiar faces in the stands, too, as Klein brings a battered Kansas State team into a matchup against a Colorado squad still looking for its first Big 12 win. Kansas State is 4-3 overall and 1-3 in conference play, while Colorado sits at 2-5.
"It will be great that there will be a lot of family there," he said. "The focus is on our team and our guys and doing everything we can to make sure that we make the progress and do the things necessary to win the game."
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Kansas State still has questions hanging over its quarterback spot, which adds another layer of uncertainty to a game already shaped by recent form and injury concerns. For Colorado, the bigger internal wrinkle is how the offense distributes the workload, especially with Deion Sanders indicating Richard Young should be much more involved after barely seeing the field lately. [Read more 🡒]