For the third time in four years, Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman is in the market for a new offensive coordinator.
The Dallas Cowboys announced Friday that K-State offensive coordinator Conor Riley will join the NFL team as offensive line coach under new head coach Brian Schottenheimer. The Athletic was the first to report the impending hire.
Riley spent the past six seasons on Klieman’s staff at K-State, the first five coaching the offensive line before adding the coordinator duties for the 2024 season. The Wildcats finished with a 9-4 record.
Before K-State, Riley was offensive line coach under Klieman when they won four FCS national championships in five years.
Riley, a nationally respected offensive line coach, was named interim coordinator at K-State after Collin Klein left for a similar position at Texas A&M at the end of the 2023 regular season. He guided the Wildcat offense in a Pop-Tarts Bowl victory over North Carolina State and shortly thereafter Klieman promoted him to the job permanently.
Kansas State offensive coordinator Conor Riley watches from the sideline during the Wildcats’ Rate Bowl victory over Rutgers on Dec. 26 in Phoenix.
During his one full season as K-State’s coordinator, the Wildcats averaged 426.8 yards and 30.8 points per game, including 542 yards in a 44-41 come-from-behind victory over Rutgers in the Rate Bowl.
In Dallas, Riley will be reunited with former K-State All-Americans Cooper Beebe and Deuce Vaughn. Beebe was the Cowboys’ starting center as a rookie in 2024 and Vaughn, the Wildcats’ second-leading career rusher, was in his second season as a backup running back.
Should Klieman decide to promote from within to fill the coordinator vacancy, the logical choice would be associate head coach Matt Wells, who also served as co-coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Wells, a long-time friend of Kliemans before he joined the K-State staff last year, also has head coaching experience with Utah State (2013-18) and Texas Tech (2019-21).