New Kansas State football head coach Collin Klein made his first public appearance since his introductory press conference last week, meeting with local business owners at the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event held at Briggs Auto Wednesday evening. 

Klein just got back to Manhattan earlier that day after spending the first part of the week in College Station helping Texas A&M prepare for its opening round College Football Playoff game a week from Saturday versus Miami.

“Manhattan, Kansas, is special,” Klein said. “It’s different than anywhere else in the country. I felt that as a student athlete when I was getting recruited and in my comings and goings, recruiting all over the country. That hasn’t changed, and I just truly can’t thank you guys enough for all that you do to make this place truly the best place to live in the country.”

Klein mainly focused on potential future NIL opportunities and partnerships between area businesses and the Wildcats.

The hire has been a spark in the community since it was officially announced a week ago. Athletics director Gene Taylor said Friday, following Klein’s introductory press conference, that the response among donors has been very positive.  

“A lot of energy, a lot of excitement,” Taylor said a week ago. “I’ve got a lot of text messages, and it’s been fun because they just know this guy, right? They know who he is as a person, they know who he was as a player. … He knows a lot of people, and he’s going to be great with donors. He’s willing to go out and hit the ground running on that side of things.”

And that showed on Wednesday, as Klein briefly outlined his vision for a symbiotic relationship between his program and area businesses.

“I love getting creative,” Klein said. “I love helping people. I love bringing people together, and anything that we can do on our end to help you guys, and anything that comes to your mind that you feel like can help us as a program or some of our student athletes, let’s make it happen.”

Last week, when asked if everything was in place financially for Klein to succeed, he indicated he liked the progress that had been made so far, even if things at K-State weren’t quite where he wanted them to be. 

“I think we’ve made, even in the short time I’ve been here, some really, really good strides,” Klein said. “I think everything’s moving in the right direction.”

The former Heisman finalist has gotten a front-row seat to one of the top money-raising operations in the country at Texas A&M over the last two years. The Aggies raised over $56 million across all sports from June 2024 to July of this year, according to a report from CBS Sports, which was triple the amount raised the year before. 

On the gridiron, that’s translated into an 11-1 record, A&M’s best since 2012, and a No. 7 seed in the playoffs.

Some of that won’t port over to K-State. Texas A&M is one of the largest public universities in the country, with a massive enrollment and substantial financial resources, including plenty of oil money. But Klein is confident that some of the lessons learned in East Texas over the last 24 months could help shape a future filled with success for K-State football. 

“There’s a lot going on in college football right now,” Klein said. “It’s going to take all of us across the board to take our program to the next level. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been able to see the transition and what that takes.

“The level of work, the level of intentionality, the level of relationship building, that’s something that we can do right here. And I’m really excited about doing that (and getting) this purple Powercat in the playoffs in these next couple of years.”