Kansas State offense taking shape under Klein, Martinez

MANHATTAN, Kan. (WIBW) - K-State alum Collin Klein knows what it takes to succeed on the football field as a quarterback.

He enters year number one as the new Offensive Coordinator, a role he took over in January. Wildcat faithful remembers Klein being a Heisman trophy finalist in 2012.

He says having a proven starter in Adrian Martinez, he knows what it takes to win.

“He’s worked his butt off. He’s a student of the game, he’s got a great foundation football IQ to him. He’s great to work with,” Klein said.

Over the last couple of weeks, Klein says he’s had a message for Martinez.

“He’s an electric athlete,” Klein said. “My biggest message to him on that is you cannot play quarterback scared to make a mistake. You can’t say ‘I can’t turn this ball over’ or ‘I can’t fumble.’ You can’t think like that... you can’t think ‘Hey I got to go win the game on this play.’”

Klein says there has been a learning curve but the players are buying in and believing they can do a lot of damage.

“I’m really excited about some of the stuff that we have cooking for this year,” K-State Quarterback Adrian Martinez said. “I think he’s (Klein) really creative and he’s making sure we utilize all of our weapons.”

“That’s what’s going to make us deadly in my opinion,” Martinez added. “We have the capability of huddling but we also have the capability of going fast and being up tempo so I think it’s a blend of those two and this camp, we’ve been really trying to focus on those things.”

Martinez says the pressure won’t always be on him because there are guys in the locker that are leading by example and can make plays at any time.

“I don’t need to make every play,” Martinez said. “Having that mindset and still maintaining that aggressive type nature.”

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