Michigan State football: Chris Klieman said what any coach would say

On Wednesday night, a report came out that Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman was not interested in the vacant Michigan State football job.

While that caused a lot of grumbling within the fanbase, it probably shouldn’t have.

The head coach is fresh off a Big 12 title season and his Wildcats are in the middle of another race for a conference championship. For him to say anything else when mentioned as a candidate for the Michigan State job would be foolish. He has to make sure his players don’t quit on him and his coaching staff is all in, too.

But how much stock should we really be putting in the “I won’t be a candidate for that job” statement?

Michigan State football can’t count Klieman out yet

I get it, he gave almost a definitive answer regarding the coaching search for Michigan State. He said that he was staying put in Manhattan, but what coach would say something to the contrary?

Heck, Mel Tucker even publicly turned down the Michigan State job less than 24 hours before accepting it. The now-infamous tweet is still up, saying that he was committed to building Colorado football back up.

So while Klieman’s stock as the next head coach took a hit, I think we can all sit back and wait until the coaching search can really take off and offers can be made. Money talks and coaches can change their mind in an instant (as we’ve seen before).

This coaching search is going to be a long one and there are about two months left before we can really dive into some realistic names, but don’t count Klieman out yet.