Trey Scott's football life has always revolved around contracts. Scott was an NFL executive for 11 years with Washington and the Raiders, and had a stint as a coach's agent for another. But in December 2025, he took a new role as general manager at Kansas State, and it is fitting that doing so honored a contractual carveout with his family.
"I was good doing what I was doing," Scott told CBS Sports. "Probably a year prior, people started to call just as that [GM] role became a thing in college. So that was kind of when I had the conversation with my wife, because she was comfortable. We were living where her family was, and I told her, 'I promise you, I'm not chasing these jobs. I'm only gonna go if one person calls.' And I wrote it down on a piece of paper, and I signed it, and gave it to my wife, and it was Colin [Klein]. Sure as heck, he gets a job."
Klein, the former star quarterback at Kansas State, was set to take over as coach at his alma mater, and he wanted his old teammate by his side once again.
The two have been close for more than a decade, dating back to their playing days at Kansas State, when Scott was Klein's backup quarterback. As the years went by and they pursued different professional paths, they would intersect when Scott was on the road scouting.
He'd watch film in Klein's office, oftentimes back in old stomping grounds. Klein spent 2014-15, then 2017-23, as an assistant coach for Bill Snyder and Chris Kleinmen before a two-year run as offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. And they'd connect, of course, on football.
"He'd stay at my house, and we'd be up talking way too late, not about him being a GM if I got an opportunity to be a head coach, but like, hey, how do you evaluate o linemen?" Klein said. "What are the things that when you look at that position that are important to you? What is an NFL o-lineman? Measurables at every position? What is the makeup and mindset? The worlds were completely different at that time, but little did we know, like, they were going to merge and be very similar very soon. But he's a football guy, I'm a football guy. We both love working. We both love overcoming challenges. So I think all of that, all of those components lended itself to a very good fit."
Restoring the standard
Under Snyder and Klieman, the Wildcats had been one of the highest-floor teams in the country.
Snyder rescued the program and got it to multiple conference championship games in the late 1990s and early 2000s, coming 60 minutes away from a national title berth in 1999. His second stint peaked with Klein leading the team to No. 2 in the country and a Fiesta Bowl as a Heisman finalist in his senior year in 2012.
Klieman took over, and the standard barely wavered, with a 10-win regular season and conference championship in 2022 serving as the high-water mark.
But 2025 was the first non-COVID season in which Kansas State won fewer than eight games since Snyder's last in 2018. Klieman retired at the end of the season, and the Wildcats turned to Klein to return the program to form.
That longtime consistency was borne out in intense attention to detail, for which Snyder was renowned, down to a manual for assistant coaches that instructed them on how to shave. But it is that detail, according to quarterback Avery Johnson, that was lacking.
"At times last year, let the small things kind of slip through the cracks, and I think this year we're kind of trying to hammer down on the small details," Johnson said at Big 12 Media Days. "No matter how big or how small, that type of stuff translates to wins and losses in the fall."
Klein echoed the attention to detail, explaining that thin margins are key, especially in the Big 12. Out of K-State's six losses in 2025, five were in one-possession games. They also eked out one-score wins over FCS opponent North Dakota and moribund Oklahoma State. Johnson regressed last season, and Kansas State didn't get much of anything from its passing game. The team's leading receiver, Jayce Brown, transferred to LSU.
Losing offensive linemen John Pastore and George Fitzpatrick to season-ending injuries won't help matters. But in Klein, K-State hopes to get the best out of dual-threat Johnson, as he did with Marcel Reed at A&M. Johnson is enjoying the flip in head-coaching philosophy.
"I think for me it would be having an offensive-minded head coach and a defensive-minded head coach, and I think I'm so grateful for the few years I had with Coach Klieman, because I got to see things from a defensive perspective, a defensive back's demeanor or a linebacker's demeanor -- are they going to blitz or not blitz -- different kinds of things that you don't necessarily always get from an offensive-minded head coach, because a defensive minded head coach sees the game from a defender standpoint.
On the flip side, Coach Klein is an offensive-minded head coach, and something that I kind of relate to. So, having a coach that you can relate to and spitball ideas off of definitely helps. So, it's kind of cool now that I've been able to have both sides of it, and been able to take bits and pieces from both of my head coaches."
Support system
Like Snyder (who still lives in Manhattan, in the same home he bought when he arrived in 1989), Kleinmen isn't far from the program either. He's with the school in an advisory role and still around the facility. Ankle surgery slowed him down a bit in the spring, but Klein says he's still a phone call away. The day before speaking with CBS Sports, Klein rang his former boss to run through a couple of things that were on his mind.
"Our relationship is very unique, and I would say not many transitions, and not many relationships are probably like ours in a way that both of us have always looked and put the other person first, and what's best for them in whatever situation," Klein said. "And I think having that type of relationship, that kind of trust allows for some pretty good opportunities both ways."
Klein has the support system in place from former coaches to lean on to old teammates running the front office. Now it's up to him to uphold the standard Kansas State has come to expect.
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