Manhattan
Jordan Peterson’s first coaching job was as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M. He only spent one year in that role, but that was enough time for him to take part in some memorable games with the Aggies.
Here’s one that sticks out for him more than a decade later: A 53-50 road loss to Kansas State that went to four overtimes in 2011.
Collin Klein led the Wildcats to victory by throwing for 281 yards and rushing for five touchdowns that day.
Peterson can’t forget about that game now that he is the defensive coordinator at K-State and Klein is the team’s new head football coach. It is actually one of the reasons why he was eager to work for the Wildcats when Klein approached him about the opportunity.
“Anytime you played Kansas State, you knew it was going to be a four-quarter battle,” Peterson said. “You knew that it was going to be a fistfight to figure out who’s going to come out of the phone booth alive. My first year as a GA was the four-overtime game here. Every experience was some version of that. That was the outside perception of it. Then you get here and you understand why.”
That wasn’t the only time Peterson was on the wrong end of a game against K-State. As he worked his way up the coaching ranks, he spent four seasons at Kansas, where he coached defensive backs from 2020 to 2023.
KU improved during those years. The Wildcats played in a pair of bowl games while Peterson was on staff. He is remembered fondly by fans in Lawrence. But the Jayhawks weren’t able to beat the Wildcats. This time, Klein was coaching quarterbacks and calling plays as an offensive coordinator.
Needless to say, Peterson is looking forward to teaming up with Klein and K-State for a change.
“Being on the other side of things means a lot to me,” Peterson said. “My family loves the state of Kansas. My oldest kid was born in California. My other two were born in New Mexico. But Kansas is really the only thing they were old enough to remember. When we talked to the kiddos about moving back to the state of Kansas, they were all excited. They were fired up. Then I was like, ‘Hey, we also get to wear purple now.’ That is exciting for all of us, to say the least.”
Klein and Peterson linked up over the past two seasons at Texas A&M.
They quickly realized they worked well together, in part because they remembered their four-overtime duel from 2011 for similar reasons. Peterson can tell you all about every coaching decision that went wrong that day for Texas A&M’s defense. Klein can talk for hours about the throws he missed.
Oddly, their brains were slow to recall the good stuff.
Klein admired the job that Peterson did with Texas A&M’s defense. That made him an obvious candidate for the coordinator job at K-State.
“He’s the entire package,” Klein said. “He has incredibly high character and he is a hard worker. He has the ability to recruit the top talent in the country. He’s also a great developer of talent. If you look at the guys he had in the secondary at Texas A&M, they got drastically better over the time they worked with him. Jordan brings out the best of the people around him, which I think is a very undersold value in a coach.”
Peterson has been living in Manhattan for months, but he will start earnestly working with the Wildcats later this week when spring practice begins on Thursday morning.
He has a vision for the K-State defense. He wants the Wildcats to have enough versatility to line up in several different formations. And he wants them to play hard enough to make opponents remember their battles, much like Peterson recalls his previous games with the Wildcats.
“We better be fast, violent and have relentless effort,” Peterson said. “You ought to be able to feel it on tape as you’re watching it. I want the first reaction to be, ‘Wow, these guys play hard. They play together. They play with confidence and swagger.’ That’s the first thing that I want people to say about this defense.”
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Kellis Robinett
The Wichita Eagle
Kellis Robinett covers Kansas State athletics for The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star. A winner of more than a dozen national writing awards, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.
