Collin Klein Hired To Coach Quarterbacks At UNI

When practice for the 2016 college football season begins next month, the UNI Panthers will have a new quarterbacks coach.

Former Kansas State signal-caller and Heisman Trophy finalist Collin Klein is the newest member of Head Coach Mark Farley's staff, UNI athletic officials announced on Thursday (July 7, 2016).

Klein comes to UNI after spending the last two seasons as a graduate assistant with his alma mater coaching the quarterbacks. Klein graduated from Kansas State in 2011 with a degree in business financial services and controllership.

The Loveland, Colo. native helped quarterback Jake Water go for a Kansas State record 3,501 yards in 2014 while also improving the play of several quarterbacks in 2015 while the Wildcats battled injuries. He served as an assistant director of recruiting and defensive quality control coach in his first year on staff and was an offensive graduate assistant in 2015.

As a student-athlete at Kansas State, Klein ranks in the program’s top-10 in 34 different statistical categories. He led the Wildcat offense and program to a 21-5 record in his final two seasons as a starter and team captain and was the first quarterback from a BCS Automatic-Qualifying (AQ) school in the BCS era to rush for at least 20 scores and pass for 10 in consecutive seasons after doing so in 2011 and 2012.

He was the 2012 Johnny Unitas Award Winner, an award given to the nation’s top senior quarterback, and finished third in Heisman Trophy voting. He also led Kansas State to a No. 1 national ranking, a Big 12 Championship and a Fiesta Bowl berth in the same year.

Klein and his wife, Shalin, a former Wildcat women’s basketball player, will reside in Cedar Falls.