An exciting young coach who was among Ron Prince’s first hires at Kansas State, Tim Tibesar was promoted to defensive coordinator on Jan. 10, 2007, and is in his second season with the Wildcats.

Regarded as one of the top defensive coordinators in all of Division II prior to his arrival at Kansas State, Tibesar originally joined the Wildcats as the program’s special teams coordinator on Dec. 22, 2005. Over the next 12 months, Tibesar lifted K-State’s special teams to unprecedented heights as he built the units into some of the country’s best during the 2006 season.

Under Tibesar, Kansas State scored more special teams touchdowns – seven – than any team in the nation. The Wildcats led the country with a school-record three touchdowns on kickoff returns, ranked second nationally with three TDs on punt returns and returned a fumbled kickoff return for yet another score.

In the NCAA rankings, K-State ranked No. 1 in kickoff returns and No. 16 in punt returns, while ranking No. 18 in kickoff-return defense. The Wildcats also blocked three punts, with all three resulting in touchdowns.

Individually, senior Yamon Figurs earned first team All-Big 12 honors as a return specialist after ranking fifth nationally in average punt return yardage. Junior punter Tim Reyer also flourished under Tibesar’s tutelage and finished the season with a 42.1 yard-per-punt average to rank 30th in the country in punting.

K-State also had four different players average at least 24 yards per kickoff return – which would have ranked in the top 35 nationally with enough returns to qualify – including James Johnson (52.5), Leon Patton (32.1) and Justin McKinney (24.7), who each returned a kickoff for a touchdown.

Tibesar, 35, coached alongside Ron Prince at Cornell during the 2000 season and came to K-State from the University of North Dakota, where he constructed one of the stingiest defenses in all of Division II as the Fighting Sioux’s defensive coordinator.

A 1995 summa cum laude graduate of North Dakota, Tibesar returned to his alma mater in 2001 as the program’s inside linebackers coach. During his three years as inside linebackers coach, Tibesar coached two North Central Conference Most Valuable Linebackers – Digger Anderson in 2005 and Travis O’Neel in 2001.

In 2003 he was promoted to defensive coordinator and proceeded to assemble a unit that ranked first in the North Central Conference in total defense, scoring defense, rushing defense, pass efficiency defense and quarterback sacks over the next two seasons.

North Dakota was also consistently ranked among the national leaders defensively during Tibesar’s tenure and in 2004 led all of Division II in scoring defense after yielding just 10.8 points per game.

Tibesar joined the staff at North Dakota after spending one season as tight ends coach at Cornell in 2000. Prior to that, he served as a graduate assistant and assistant offensive line coach at the University of California in 1999, a linebacker coach at Grossmont (Calif.) College in 1998 and a student assistant at San Diego State from 1997-98.

A standout linebacker at North Dakota from 1993 to 1996, Tibesar served as a team captain for the Fighting Sioux in 1995 and 1996. A three-time All-NCC performer and the 1996 NCC Most Valuable Linebacker, Tibesar earned multiple first team All-America honors in 1996 and was named a Football Gazette third team All-American in 1995. He was also a three-time GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American (1994, 1995, 1996) and received a 1996 National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholarship Award.

In 1996, Tibesar received the Stan Marshall Award as the NCC Male Athlete of the Year. The following spring he was recognized as the Midwest Sports Channel Division II Male Athlete of the Year and the Ramsey County Athlete of the Year.

During his playing career, Tibesar helped North Dakota to NCC titles and NCAA Division II playoff appearances in 1993, 1994 and 1995 as the Fighting Sioux posted a 36-11 record during his four years in the program.

A native of St. Paul, Minn., Tibesar graduated from North Dakota with a 4.0 grade point average in business economics. He earned a master’s in business administration from San Diego State in 1998.

Tibesar and his wife, Jill, celebrated the birth of their daughter, Elle, in June.

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