An offseason of change for the K-State football coaching staff has continued on into mid-March.
In late February, Scottie Hazelton left as the defensive coordinator for K-State football to take the same job at Colorado. Hazelton was also in charge of the Wildcats’ linebackers.
Nearly three weeks later, the Wildcats confirmed Chris Klieman‘s hiring of Steve Stanard as linebackers coach. It had previously been reported that Stanard would likely be taking the job.
Kansas State, incidentally, stayed in-house to replace Hazelton as coordinator.
“We are excited to add Steve to our defensive staff,” the K-State football head coach said in a statement. “Steve and I have experience working together in the past, and I have continued to follow him throughout his career. He brings an abundance of experience tutoring linebackers and is very familiar with this area of the country. He has done a great job the last few years working with the Syracuse defensive ends, but I know that he is ready to return to coaching the linebackers and will do a phenomenal job with the group that we have here.”
Stanard spent the past three seasons as the defensive ends coach at Syracuse. From 2012-13, Klieman was the coordinator at North Dakota State and Stanard the FCS power’s linebackers coach.
A former Nebraska football player, Stanard has been a defensive coordinator at four previous stops in a coaching career that stretches back more than three decades:
- Wyoming, 2014-16
- Tulane, 2009-11
- Colorado State, 2003-07
- New Mexico State, 2000-02
With the hiring of Stanard, the K-State football coaching staff is once again complete.