Chris Klieman's staff in Manhattan is already getting picked apart, just one year into the job.

After rumors brought up K-State defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton's name connected to openings for Michigan State's defensive coordinator position, sources have told GoPowercat.com that Hazelton has indeed interviewed for the defensive coordinator spot on newly hired head coach Mel Tucker's staff in East Lansing. The source told GoPowercat that while no deal has been finalized and the job has yet to be officially accepted, K-State is anticipating Hazelton to take the job and that the offer he got from the Spartans is one that K-State, "can't match." Hazelton was being paid $550,000 a year at K-State.

Tucker and the Spartans have had to move quickly over the last few weeks, as he was hired away from Colorado on February 12. Hazelton rounds out Tucker's staff as his tenth and final assistant hired.

This no doubt will hurt the K-State defense as Hazelton was the catalyst behind an incredible defensive showing by the Wildcats in 2019.

K-State was second in the Big 12 in scoring defense this season, giving up just 21.4 points per game to opponents. Only Baylor (19.3 ppg) gave up less than that. The Wildcats pass defense was also elite, ranking second in the Big 12 at 202.9 yards per game, while the run defense ranked eighth in the Big 12 at 165.5 yards per game. How good was that compared to 2018?

Nationally, the Wildcats finished 27th in scoring defense (21.4) and 44th in total defense (368.4) during his first campaign.

“Coach Hazelton came in and one of the first things he met with us about was about the Big 12 Conference,” former safety Denzel Goolsby told GoPowercat.com in an interview earlier this year. “He said, ‘A lot of teams don’t play cover-3. If you want to play cover-4 against Oklahoma that’s great, but they’re going to expose you. That’s all they see. They see cover-4 and cover-2. They’re going to expose that.’ So, he implemented the cover-3. In spring ball last year, we were playing cover-3 non-stop. He was beating it into us.

“In August, we built onto that.”

The hire of Hazelton to K-State was not an easy one. Klieman initially hired Ted Monachino to lead the K-State defense in his first season, but Monachino left a short time after his hiring for an NFL job. That then led to Hazelton, a former North Dakota State friend, being hired away from Wyoming, where he had taken the Cowboys to Top 25 defensive rankings in two seasons.

"Knowing Chris for a long time, we had talked a little bit before and kind of went around and around," Hazelton said in the spring of 2019. "Really it had to do more with family things. My mom lives in Denver, I lost my dad a few years ago. So to be around her for that transition time was really helpful for her and our family, so she could hang out with the kids and stuff like that. I think it was one of those things where we went back and left Jacksonville to go to Wyoming and that was part of the reason. She’s doing really good right now and hopefully we can bring her out a bunch. It’s not too far away. It was still good."

This is a developing story. GoPowercat.com will continue to follow it as more information becomes available.