It appears Kansas State’s search for a defensive coordinator isn’t going to take long at all.

Early Monday morning, Pete Thamel of Yahoo! reported that K-State safeties coach Joe Klanderman is set to become the new defensive coordinator for the Wildcats. K-State is expected to search for a position coach from outside of the program for the tenth assistant. Klanderman replaces Scottie Hazelton, who left the coordinator job after one season last week for a job as defensive coordinator under Mel Tucker at Michigan State. The report did not specify if Klanderman will remain coaching safeties or not, but that is the expectation among many, while it is expected the outside hire is to coach linebackers.

“Joe is one of the best defensive coaches I have ever been around, and he is ready for this role,” head coach Chris Klieman said. “In addition to already having coordinator experience, Joe knows our defense as well as anyone, and it is important to continue to develop our players and keep them in our system. We appreciate what Scottie did for our program this past year and hate to see him leave, but we are excited about our future with Coach Klanderman and the rest of our defensive staff.”

Klanderman came to K-State alongside Klieman from North Dakota State where he saw tremendous success with the Bison. His coaching success appears to have carried over to Manhattan.

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This year, K-State ranked first in the nation in third down defense at 28 percent. That was the best mark by any team in school history since at least 2003. The Wildcats also ranked 15th nationally in first down defense and put together a No. 2 ranking in the Big 12 in pass defense (202.9 yards per game), which was the highest ranking in the conference a Wildcat defense has reached in five seasons.

With Klanderman and other defensive coaches’ help, K-State allowed just 21.4 points per game, their best mark since 2003. Under Klanderman’s guidance, Denzel Goolsby earned Honorable Mention All-Big 12 honors, the first Wildcat safety to do so since 2016.

“We’re going to be fairly aggressive," Klanderman said about the defense ahead of his first season at K-State. "I think in the Big 12 the important thing is; if you don’t give up the big play and you’re able to play sound defense, I think you’ve got a chance. Especially with the ball control offense that we’re going to have. That’s going to be our biggest emphasis, just keeping the ball in front of us. But in the same respect, we’re going to challenge throws. We’re not going to allow people to nickel and dime us all day long. I’d say we’re going to be fairly multiple in the things that we do, but in the same — ‘Controlled Chaos’ I guess would be the right word. We want to do very few skill sets, but be able to make it look like a bunch of different things. That’s what we’re going to try to implement over the next couple of months.”

This is a developing story and GoPowercat will provide more information when and if it is available.