"I don't think there were some people that were real happy with me," Koenning said about his decision to leave Manhattan during a press conference. "They'll probably take my pictures off the walls down there."
Illinois wasn't the only program seeking Koenning's services though as Georgia too had contact with the coach this week.
However, during his introductory press conference on Friday, Koenning said he couldn't recall when exactly it was that he was contacted by Illinois or who initiated the dialogue.
Even K-State coach Bill Snyder questioned the coaching rumor surrounding his assistant coach.
"Coach Snyder came into my office last Saturday and said, 'what about this, what about this school?'" I said, 'Coach, I'm just trying to recruit. I'm just trying to do my job,'" Koenning said.
K-State has been quiet on the coaching change, officially, but its assumed that linebackers coach Chris Cosh would be the strongest candidate to take over as coordinator after sharing the title with Koenning this past season.
Koenning, who helped turnaround a Wildcats defense that ranked among the worst in 2008 to a national rank of 40th this season, said he's just used to the attention from other programs this time of year.
"I guess that's just kind of been commonplace for me the last five or six years because I've had been blessed to have some good players and some good coaches around me in a good environment where we've been able to play some good defense," he said.
Koenning reportedly signed a two-year contract worth $325,000 annually, according to ESPN. This past season he was paid $265,000.
