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Coach of the Year: Bill Snyder

Ten years ago, it was almost impossible to inspire anyone to visit Kansas State and watch, play or coach football.
by: Kevin Haskin,
The Topeka Capitol-Journal
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There's a story to illustrate the apathy. Its authenticity is tough to attribute, but the tale is too good not to share.

A kid, who undoubtedly had room to roam in empty KSU Stadium, had enough by the fourth quarter and began acting up. His father in all likelihood a diehard since he hadn't fled for the exits, reportedly told his son,

"If you keep that up, I'll bring you back next week."

Cruel punishment indeed.

Today, the bleacher space that kid could have used to set up his Hot Wheels track has been replaced by fannies. Enough to fill every seat in KSU Stadium every time the Wildcats play.

Not only do they come from all corners of the state on game day, but from all corners of the country during the off-season. They seek out the man who took on the impossible for an explanation of the greatest metamorphosis in college football.

What they want is something Betty Crocker could condense into a few easy steps.

But Bill Snyder won't give it to them. He welcomes them to his office, provides a tour of the facilities and politely answers their questions. But he doesn't hand out a blueprint for success.

He can't.

"I don't think it's impossible, but I think people look for the impossible answer," Snyder said. "Everybody wants that recipe card, and there isn't any magical recipe or formula to it."

By now Snyder knows the one question that will always surface.

"If you can do it at Kansas State, why can't you do it at X, Y, Z, where we're from?" he said. "They're looking for something and they'll never find the answer. The answer is right under their nose and they'll never find it because they're looking for it in the wrong place."

They can't be faulted, however, for researching the startling accomplishments the once-moribund program at K-State has enjoyed under Snyder, who capped his 10th season with the Wildcats by going 11-2 and narrowly missing out on playing for the national championship in the Fiesta Bowl.

Remember K-State's inglorious past while considering these achievements for Snyder.

Six consecutive nine-win seasons, all of which resulted in bowl bids.

A school-record 77 wins as K-State's coach.

National rankings in the last 68 consecutive polls, including No. 9 in the final USA Today/ESPN coaches poll and No. 10 in the final Associated Press media poll this past season.

The list goes on and on, but it might be best to stop a second and address each part of the small sampling just offered:

Before Snyder arrived the Cats' postseason history was limited to a foul, rainy night in Shreveport, La. The invitation to the Independence Bowl, which resulted in a 14-3 loss to Wisconsin, was extended after former coach Jim Dickey redshirted eight would-be senior starters in 1981 to capitalize on an advantageous 1982 schedule.

No other football coach ever stuck around K-State for 10 seasons. Either they weren't allowed to or they didn't want to. The best anyone else could manage was 39 victories, from 1905-10.

Although the game was far different then, the coach, Mike Ahearn, had both a fieldhouse and scholarship fund named in his honor. K-State needed 30 seasons, from 1959-88, to record the same number of wins Snyder has managed since he took over in 1989.

The only poll K-State ever occupied for years was The Bottom Ten, a spoof written every week by Steve Harvey of the Los Angeles Times. Even then, Harvey grew tired of lampooning the Wildcats because they had become such easy targets.

Snyder is most responsible for erasing the laugh track.

But he readily concedes he has had plenty of help... from the K-State administration that gambled with insufficient funds, to the support staff that always kept its chin up, to the assistants who have kept the same 18-hour work day pace as their boss, to the fans dying to wear purple with pride again, to the players who often have proved the recruiting services wrong.

"There were times here when K-State didn't have bad coaches," Snyder said. "They just didn't have a chance. I've been more fortunate than any other coach who has been here because all these other things have given us a chance."

A chance, which was almost parlayed into a title shot in 1998. The Cats opened 11-0 with an 8-0 run through the North Division of the Big 12, which included a 40-30 victory over Nebraska, their first win in the series in 30 years. A double-overtime defeat to Texas A&M in the Big 12 championship game, suffered after the Wildcats had learned UCLA, one of two undefeated teams ahead of them in the Bowl Championship Series ratings, had been defeated, kept them from meeting Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl.

To reach this summit, Snyder has only tried to progress one day at a time.

Go ahead, roll your eyes. But Snyder insists his standard operating procedure is more than just coachspeak.

"To me that runs deeper than most people want to accept," he said. "It can seem like a trite, easy comment to make, but it's a statement that's taken for granted far too often. If you really dissect that a little bit, you realize there's some sensibility to that. It's a common-sense thing that if you can just do what that says, and find a way to get yourself a little bit better every day, you can be pretty good."

To that end, Snyder spends considerable time doing what he can to improve K-State football.

At the annual media golf outing this year, someone in Ron Hudson's group asked the Wildcats' offensive coordinator why Snyder chose not to play in the event.

"That man," Hudson said, "plays football. That's his game."

One he totally controls at K-State. Personnel moves, discipline matters, scheduling decisions ... just about everything, however minute, is subject to his approval.

But, his coaches have the authority to run their particular position groups in practice. The basic framework for each practice has been outlined prior to that workout and the script is followed closely. Snyder spends time at each station, noting his observations into a mini-recorder.

Each practice also is filmed and is reviewed by Snyder and his staff. So, too, are opponents' game tapes, which Snyder certainly scours but perhaps not to the extent some believe. He learned a lesson soon after making the transition to head coach after serving as Iowa's offensive coordinator for 10 years.

"If you're not careful, it (film review) can almost eliminate you from coaching,'' he said. ""I had to be very careful because there were so many other things that needed attention."

Like the K-State facilities. Since Snyder has arrived, the Cats have made improvements to their weight room, built a full-length indoor practice building, added an academic center and constructed a $3.3 million press box containing luxury suites. Cost for the improvements has totaled approximately $15 million. Another $12.8 million has been budgeted for the addition of 31 suites and more seating on the east side of KSU Stadium next year.

All were deemed necessary to keep up with the competition, both on and off the football field. A correlation between enrollment and gridiron success may be a stretch, but a positive impact from football hasn't hurt the university. Enrollment, which had dipped to nearly 14,000 12 years ago, has climbed to more than 20,000.

That's still rather small compared to other Big 12 schools. So, too, is the football budget Snyder works from to keep up with the likes of Nebraska and Texas.

"All I've tried to work on is the bare necessities. Bare necessities may not be the appropriate phrase. When we came here, we had half of that. We had the bare," Snyder said.

"We knew that no major college program was that way. So what we did was get it up to having the bare necessities. Basically, everybody has what we have. Now everybody is re-doing and making it bigger and better and fancier. But to me, that almost goes against the grain. The grain here is let's roll up our sleeves and go to work."

He may be criticized for his schedule, which has consistently been laced with non-conference opponentsthat are "less than powerhouses."

He may be criticized for his reluctance to reveal injuries or open practices.

But, the one thing wh will never be criticized for is his total dedication to his employer, his job or his profession.

Yet, after the loss to A&M, Snyder's commitment to the K-State program, above all else, was also subjected to scrutiny. He compared the defeat to the loss of a loved one, an analogy he admitted later was somewhat embarrassing.

Complete investment in the program, however, is part of Snyder's work ethic, which has been instilled in everyone connected with the program. His commitment, and the results it has produced, has led other programs to extend offers.

He has politely declined, though now his program could be at a crossroads. A 37-34 upset loss to Purdue in the Alamo Bowl, which marked the first back-to-back defeats for the Wildcats since 1994 and their first loss to an unranked team since the Aloha Bowl that same year, was partly attributable to Snyder's inability to get his team to shake off the loss in the Big 12 championship game and the subsequent snub from the BCS.

"I could have been a better leader for them,'' Snyder conceded. ""If they were still suffering from that, then it was my responsibility to have these young guys ready to play.''

How the crash landing to the '98 season plays out in 1999 is uncertain. Already, four assistants have left K-State, three moving on to Oklahoma to join Bob Stoops, who was a defensive co-coordinator for the Wildcats before spending the last three seasons at Florida. K-State also must replace 12 starters, including quarterback Michael Bishop, the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, and three other players&-linebacker Jeff Kelly, kicker Martin Gramatica and receiver Darnell McDonald&-who were named to either the first, second or third teams the Associated Press lists for its All-America selections.

If ever there was a good time for Snyder to leave, this might be it, he won't because that's no his style. But K-State has some solid returnees, led by Mark Simoneau, the leading tackler on a defense ranked third in the nation in '98, and David Allen, the country's top punt returner. As solid as the program is now, averaging 10 wins over the past five seasons, the Cats appear capable of reloading at any time.

Besides, as time has passed and the program has grown. Snyder, 59, has developed a deep appreciation for what he calls, "our constituency"&-the fans who now pack KSU Stadium. No longer do kids have room to play. Instead, they cheer on the Wildcats alongside their parents. The atmosphere, complete with a parking lot full of tailgaters, has become one of the best in college football.

"Maybe in the earlier years I was tempted (by other jobs), but I was pretty focused and set on what I wanted to accomplish," Snyder said. "I think of late, there have been some attractive offers, but I just couldn't let myself be attracted.

"I look at it this way: Where could you go where it would be better? Granted, there are places people may say would be the real cream of the crop and be of interest to you. But by and large, when you look at all of college football, I can't think of place where, if I went there, I'd have a better chance of this or that.''

No one came to K-State 10 years ago expecting to say that. Except, perhaps Bill Snyder, the 1998 Schutt Sports/American Football Quarterly Coach of the Year.
Snyder, the master of the turnaround, visited with anothercoach pretty good at it, Texas coach Mack Brown.



Snyder- not a miracle-worker, just a tireless worker.



The Snyder File

1959-62 William Jewell College player/DB
1962 Gallatin (MO.) High School assistant coach
1963 Eastern New Mexico Univ. graduate assistant
1964-65 Indio (CA.) High School assistant coach
1966 University of Southern Cal. graduate assistant
1967-68 Indio (CA.) High School head coach
1969-73 Foothill (Santa Ana, CA.) High School head coach
1974-75 Austin (TX.) College offensive coordinator
1976-78 North Texas State assistant coach
1979-88 Iowa offensive coordinator
1989-present Kansas State head coach

Notes:

Winningest coach in K-State history 77-39-1r
Guided the Cats to six-straight bowl gamesr
34-9 in non-conference gamesr
43-30-1 in Big 8/12 gamesr
1994 CNN National Coach of the Year
1991 ESPN National Coach of the Year
Three-time finalist for the Bear Bryant National Coach of the Yearr
K-State is ranked in the top 20 six-straight yearsr
Produced numerous all-conference(39) & all-American(27) players, including: Michael Smith, Jamie Mendez, Sean Snyder, Chad May, Tim Colston, Chris Canty, Kevin Lockett, Martin Gramatica, Jeff Kelly, Michael Bishop






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