Berry Tramel: Don’t look now, but Kansas State's Bill Snyder is doing it again

By BERRY TRAMEL Comments 5
Published: October 28, 2009

The riddle is not why Bill Snyder returned to coaching. Returned to Kansas State, where he fashioned the greatest college football story ever told.

Kansas State coach Bill Snyder is back on the sideline. AP photo

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The riddle is why Snyder ever left in the first place.

Snyder’s own son, once his punter and now his chief lieutenant, didn’t think his dad should have walked away from football four years ago.

"When he retired, I didn’t think he was really ready,” Shawn Snyder said. "I saw more gas in the tank.”

That tank indeed seems far from empty.

The architect of the Manhattan Miracle, the coach who flourished in the job where the brave dared not go, is at it again.

Twenty years after Snyder began building the Wildcats from hopeless rumdum to perennial Big 12 contenders, he has K-State on top again.

In Snyder’s first season back after a three-year hiatus, the Wildcats lead the Big 12’s North Division. They struggled in September, going 2-2, but bring a 3-1 league record into OU’s Owen Field on Saturday.

"It’s just second nature to him,” Shawn Snyder said of his dad’s penchant for reconstruction. "He’s built to do things.”

Don’t get the wrong idea. The current Snyder salvage plan pales in comparison to 1989, when his Iowa-rooted staff included the brothers Stoops.

"There’s no way it (current K-State football) was in the position it was when we walked in there,” said Bob Stoops, who is 5-1 against his old boss, the defeat coming in the 2003 Big 12 title game.

K-State’s 50-year futility is well-documented. Many talk about the decrepit facilities. Snyder most remembers the squashed spirits.

When Snyder took the job in 1989, he met with the outgoing seniors who never would play for him.

Twenty years later, Snyder remains stunned at what he encountered. Calls it amazing.

"They were predominantly good people, but losing had impacted them so many different ways,” Snyder said.

The players told Snyder they wouldn’t go to Aggieville, the hopping campus entertainment district, on Saturday nights after games. Wouldn’t wear their letter jackets. Sometimes wouldn’t even go to class on Mondays.

"I was struck by the dramatic impact losing had on their lives,” Snyder said.

Change a culture like that, maybe you get the itch to do it again.

K-State football had not fallen into the dregs without Snyder. Ron Prince went 17-20 in his three years as coach, including two victories over Texas. And truth is, Snyder’s final two KSU teams were no better, going 9-13.

But the Wildcats were slowly slipping from a perch that once had been an impossible dream.

Snyder said he didn’t return to restore K-State’s winning ways so much as settle the waters. Said he loves the Kansas State people and wanted to return stability to a program that had fractured in his absence.

"As everything just kind of happened, it presented an opportunity,” Shawn Snyder said. "He’s well-rested for that right now.”

Joe Paterno had told Snyder that he would tire of retirement. Snyder says Paterno was wrong, says he loved going to his grandson’s Little League games and regretted only letting the KSU equestrian team get him on a horse for a promotion. "I’m not doing that again,” Snyder said.

But he is coaching football again.

"You never know,” Stoops said. "Sometimes you don’t know how much you’ll miss it.”

The truth is, K-State people missed Snyder as much as he missed them.

"I was excited,” KSU linebacker Alex Hrebec said when he learned Snyder had returned. "I had heard about what he had done before. There’s a lot of people with a tremendous amount of respect for him.”

You might say that. Two sections of highways leading into Manhattan are named for Snyder. The football stadium is named for the Snyder family.

In college football history, few coaches so dominate the identity of one particular program. Florida State’s Bobby Bowden. BYU’s Lavell Edwards. That’s about it.

Now Snyder is back, and the next riddle is how long he will last.

Snyder’s work ethic is legendary. Twenty-hour days. Game plans developed in the spring for opponents six months away.

"I hope he takes a breather every now and then,” Shawn Snyder said. "It’ll take a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of energy to get things back.”

Early returns are encouraging. The ‘Cats beat lower-division Massachusetts just 21-17 and lost at UCLA and Louisiana-Lafayette.

But after a 20-6 victory over Colorado, K-State leads the North Division and has the most favorable schedule remaining.

"He’s demanding,” Hrebec said. "A very competitive coach. He expects the most out of you.”

At 70 years old, can Snyder still relate to players? "If you want to win,” Hrebec said, "if you want to work hard, he can relate to you.”

It’s not so complicated. No great riddle. Hard work and dedication to the task always have been the foundation of the man who is built to do things.

Berry Tramel: 405-760-8080; Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.