Manhattan Project 2025: Chris Klieman's Deuce Vaughn Ver. II
D3's time to go nuclear has arrived.
The world is changing. Reforming. This is your moment.
- Kitty Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer (2023)
I’ve always maintained that the Big 12 is one of, if not the best conference for College Fantasy Football (CFF). It’s programs like Kansas State that bolster my conviction in that notion.
Conventional wisdom will tell you that mid-tier programs such as the Wildcats, when run by the right coaching staffs (more on this in the next section), serve as breeding grounds for nuclear CFF assets.
In the pre-NIL/transfer portal era, when an above average player slipped through the cracks of the big programs’ recruiting efforts, and found themselves playing for… I don’t know… Iowa State (e.g. Breece Hall) or, let’s say Minnesota (e.g. Mo Ibrahim), these players could dominate the touch distribution in a way that is uncommon at higher tier programs, while at the same time playing for a program that is competitive in almost every game (unlike those at lower/higher tier programs). It’s a nice sweet spot for CFF.
Good players at bad P4s or G5 programs get crapped on multiple times a year when their teams are overwhelmed. Good players at elite programs face too much competition to dominate touches, and play in too many blowouts. Good players at mid-tier programs on the other hand, offer the best of all worlds when lightning strikes.
While not quite the nuclear option that the previously mentioned names were, KSU’s DJ Giddens was yet another CFF producer in this mold during the 2024 campaign. Giddens finished the year rushing for over 1000 yards and averaged 19 PPG in full PPR formats.
Giddens’ replacement, Dylan Edwards, resembles more so DJ’s predecessor, the diminutive but always dangerous Deuce Vaughn. Vaughn was a particular favourite of mine in CFF drafts entering the 2022 season, and he did not disappoint me.
At risk of stating the obvious, Edwards is going to be a trendy pick in drafts this offseason. We’ll get more into his profile later on. First, let's take a look at what makes KSU’s the right kind of staff for our purposes.
Coaching & System
RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 18.9 — OC1: 15.95 — OC2: 18.221 (half ppr)
Chris Klieman has done a fantastic job with the Kansas State Wildcats since his arrival in 2019. The former North Dakota State coach has fielded an offence that has produced a 1000-yard rusher in four of the five full seasons that he’s been with KSU.
Deuce Vaughn, as mentioned, was one of my favourite players from 2020-2022; he rushed for over 1000 yards in 2021 and 2022, and accounted for 1000 total yards in 2020. DJ Giddens took the baton in 2023 and didn’t look back, achieving the millenary mark in each of his two seasons as the starter. Even more impressive was that he achieved that mark in 2023 with Treshaun Ward nipping at his heels.
Not captured in Table 1. is Klieman’s stellar track record at the FCS program North Dakota State, where he served as head coach from 2014-2018. Once again, in four out of five seasons, the Klieman’s Bison produced a 1000-yard rusher, including a 2000-yarder in 2014. That player, John Crockett, carried the football a staggering 368 times that season.
Since COVID, Klieman’s RB1 has seen over 40% carry share every year. Twice in that time span the top runner saw over half the team’s carries. That’s a remarkable pattern as far as CFF players are concerned.
Looking to the OCs, Matt Wells and Conor Riley share coordinator duties. Wells joined the staff in 2024 after spending two seasons as an analyst with OU. His seasons with Texas Tech and Utah State are unremarkable in this context. Riley was promoted from offensive line coach to co-OC in 2024.
As any experienced CFF wiseman will tell you, offensive line coaches having a hand in play calling is usually a good omen for the run game (though this is more anecdotal than anything).
While Klieman’s play calling tendencies skew heavily (58/42 run plays over the last five seasons), his two coordinators are more balanced (50/50 for Wells, 54/46 for Riley, whose tendency data is just a measure of what KSU did in 2024).
The offence Klieman runs is a slow one. KSU under Klieman averages around 28 seconds per play, or 65 plays per game.
Dylan Edwards (5’9, 170)
2024 RUSHING STATS: 74 - 546 - 5 (11.3 PPG)2
The former Colorado Buff and Sunflower State native Dylan Edwards announced himself in the Wildcats’ bowl game this past December. With DJ Giddens opting out, Edwards took the lion’s share of carries and scored multiple times (via the air and the ground).
The former four star originally committed and signed with Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffs out of high school. He played one season in Boulder, which was a campaign that included some notable moments, namely his week one performance vs. TCU where he scored four(!) times.
He would fail to score the rest of the season until the very last game vs. Utah. In 2024, Edwards transferred to KSU, playing second fiddle to DJ Giddens. Coincidentally, his best game of the regular season was once again in the season opener, where he scored twice vs. UTM.
He capped off the season going absolutely nuclear vs. Rutgers. Against the Scarlet Knights, Edwards rushed 18 times for 196 yards and two scores, and caught two passes for 27 yards and another score.
The comparison to a former KSU great, Deuce Vaughn, will be an easy one for CFFers to make this offseason. Both players are undersized (less so Edwards), and both players demonstrated great receiving ability. Vaughn was uncanny in his ability to stay durable at his size over his three seasons. That will be the primary concern/question regarding Edwards’ profile.
We saw Edwards handle a large workload in one game vs. Rutgers— but can he do it over a 12 game season? His receiving ability provides some margin for error as far as carry volume is concerned. He doesn’t necessarily need to tote the rock between the tackles 20 times, but some combination of targets and carries reaching 20+ opportunities a game is what CFFers will be looking for with Edwards in 2025.
Closing
Edwards will be a hot name in CFF drafts this offseason. We’ve seen this pattern play out before where the next guy up who hasn’t done much all year goes nuclear in a bowl game (think Bijan Robinson in 2020) and then carries that momentum into the next season.
The system in place and the comparison to a former CFF great, Deuce Vaughn, will also boost Edwards up draft boards. I’d imagine he’ll settle somewhere in the round two to three range if the buzz is consistent with him being the starter in spring camp.
It wouldn’t even surprise me if he worked his way into the back end of first rounds assuming spring quotes are strong. ◾
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Sample of 2018-2024 excluding 2020.
Full ppr.