Kansas State head football coach Bill Snyder announced Wednesday that wide receivers coach Andre Coleman has been promoted to Offensive Coordinator, while offensive line coach Charlie Dickey and quarterbacks coach Collin Klein have been named co-coordinators. Dickey will coordinate the running game, while Klein will coordinate the passing game.
Coleman, a former K-State wide receiver, has tutored the Wildcat wideouts since 2013 and was elevated to Pass Game Coordinator prior to the 2016 season. Dickey was an original staff member of Snyder’s second tenure in 2009, coaching the offensive line, and he was promoted to Run Game Coordinator prior to the 2016 campaign. Klein will begin his second season tutoring the quarterbacks in 2018.
“We are fortunate to have three coaches who have had so much experience in our offense – a total of about 30 years – both past and present,” Snyder said. “We’ve been blessed to have so many loyal, caring and effective coaches over the years, and these three exemplify those values. I have been pleased with how well these three have worked together.”
A four-year letterwinner at wide receiver under Snyder from 1990-93, Coleman coached a position group that recorded the most receptions and yards ever by a Snyder-led team in 2013 before shattering both those marks in 2014 with 230 receptions for 3,097 yards. That group was headlined by Tyler Lockett, an All-American in 2014 who left K-State as the all-time leader in career receptions (249), yards (3,710) and touchdowns (29), just three of the 17 school records he set in his four-year career thanks in part to Coleman’s teachings.
More recently, Byron Pringle finished his two-year career in 2017 under Coleman after becoming the 30th Wildcat and the seventh former community-college player to top 1,000 career receiving yards. The Tampa, Florida, native set the school record for single-season yards per catch (24.13) in 2017 – a mark that ranked third nationally – while his career mark of 19.64 yards per catch ranks second in K-State history.
Dickey, a 30-year coaching veteran, is regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in the country having tutored K-State offensive linemen to 22 All-Big 12 honors since his arrival. He has also coached a pair of All-Americans in B.J. Finney, who earned second-team honors in 2014, and Dalton Risner, a first-team honoree this past year.
Under the direction of Dickey, the 2016 line helped K-State set the school record for rushing yards per carry (5.27), rank third in K-State history in total rushing yards (3,013) and rushing yards per game (231.8), and seventh in rushing touchdowns (39). They followed that up in 2017 by tying for third in school history in rushing yards per carry (4.98) and finishing seventh with 2,584 total rushing yards.
A 2012 runner up for the Heisman Trophy after quarterbacking the Wildcats to a Big 12 Championship, Klein just completed his first season as an assistant coach at K-State. Klein joined the staff in 2014 as a quality control coach and assistant director of recruiting before becoming an offensive graduate assistant in 2015. He spent the 2016 season as the quarterbacks coach at Northern Iowa.
Upon his return to K-State in 2017, Klein helped the Wildcats earn their eighth-straight bowl berth despite being forced the start three different quarterbacks due to injury. K-State finished the year ranked 13th in the nation in passing yards per completion (14.48), while the Wildcats’ 141.7 passing efficiency mark ranked eighth in school history.
Under Klein’s tutelage, Jesse Ertz put together the fifth-best pass efficiency mark in a season (150.22) while his 129.5 mark ranked ninth in a career. He also set the school record for lowest interception percentage (1.92) and became the 21st passer in school history to eclipse the 2,000-yard mark in a career. Klein also helped develop redshirt freshman Skylar Thompson, who started the final four games of the season and passed for 689 yards, the fourth most by a freshman in school history. Thompson’s season was highlighted by a Wildcat victory at 10th-ranked Oklahoma State in which he threw for 204 yards and three touchdowns on 10-of-13 aim, good for a 274.89 pass efficiency rating to rank fifth in school history.
Additionally, Alex Delton helped lead the Wildcats to victories against Kansas and Texas Tech, while he came off the bench against UCLA in the Cactus Bowl to rush for 158 yards and three touchdowns to earn Offensive MVP honors.
K-State’s offensive staff, led by Coleman and co-coordinators Dickey and Klein, also includes recently-announced former Wildcats that joined the staff in Zach Hanson (tight ends) and Eric Hickson (running backs).
