Kansas State Hires Matt Wells, Promotes Conor Riley as Co-Offensive Coordinators
Chris Klieman and the Kansas State Wildcats have their new offensive coaches in place with the official hiring of Matt Wells as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, while promoting Conor Riley to offensive coordinator. The Wells news first came in a report earlier in the week from GoPowercat’s Ryan Wallace.
The two replace Collin Klein, who left to take the same position at Texas A&M.
Conor Riley was upped to interim offensive coordinator for the Pop-Tarts Bowl, where Kansas State beat NC State 28-19. Quarterback Avery Johnson threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing for over 70 yards with a score. As a team, the Wildcats racked up 257 rushing yards and 435 total yards. Riley just wrapped up his fifth season with Kansas State as the team’s offensive line coach, where he has produce over 10 All-Big 12 honorees.
Meantime, Matt Wells has spent a number of years coaching college football with stints at Navy, Tulsa, Louisville, New Mexico, Texas Tech, and most recently in an offensive analyst position under Brent Venables at Oklahoma.
Wells was the head coach at Texas Tech from 2019-2021 and was relieved of duties after a loss to Klieman and the Wildcats during the 2021 season. During his time in Lubbock, Wells led the Red Raiders to an overall record of 13-17 and a conference record of 7-16.
Despite Wells’ struggles in Lubbock, he helped to contribute to one of the nation’s top offenses last season at Oklahoma. The Sooners’ offensive attack finished first in the league in multiple statistical categories including total yards per game (507), passing yards per game (324.8), and points per game (41.7). The numbers were good for third in the nation, sixth in the nation, and fourth in the nation, respectively.
