Bill Snyder was so far ahead of his time, when it came to offensive football. He was one of the few offensive minds who could mesh multiple concepts, seamlessly, into one philosophy. Those offenses in the late 90s and early 2000s were fun to watch and study.
When the AD that hired Bill Snyder was doing his due diligence by calling other coaches to ask about Bill, he called Bo Schembechler at Michigan and Bo's response was "Get him the fuck out of the Big 10". That speaks volumes.
I lived in Manhattan, KS from early 1988 to the summer of 1990, so I got to see the impact of Snyder's arrival firsthand (though sadly not to stay long enough to see the big on-field breakthrough that started with Snyder's second season). I was very young at the time and had no interest in sports until later, but I was still impacted by it. My mom had a friend from work who was married to one of K-State's starting defensive linemen at the time, and that player actually ended up quitting the team after Snyder arrived because he thought Snyder was out of his mind expecting the players to actually put in the effort and try to win. I also remember how wild the town got one September weekend in Snyder's first season with the team, as the Wildcats had WON a football game for the first time in three years (which was almost half my lifetime at that point)! It rivaled the celebrations of winning national titles I later observed while living in Lincoln, NE in the mid 1990s...
Back when regular seasons were only 11 games, they were only like the 5th or 6th program to ever achieve that. Genuinely one of the best non-championship runs in CFB history, and likely the most underrated.
4 of those seasons came back-to-back, (1997-2000) which was only the second time any team in Division 1-A/FBS had ever accomplished that (the other being Nebraska from 1993-97). For someone to achieve that at K-State, starting less than a decade after the end of the "Futility U" era, is far beyond amazing.
Ou fan and K state was by far the team I hated playing because you know it's going to be a grind but as a kid especially in the 90s when we sucked because of the probation K state was who I rooted for watching Snyder build that team up against them Nebraska juggernaut teams of the mid 90s K state was the only team that could give the Huskers issues
Dude you should have been around during the Bishop and Ell Roberson/Darren Sproles years. None of the teams since then have been able to match the talent on those teams. Man those teams were fun to watch. That said, I love K State football and every year is always a lot of fun. Really looking forward to this year.
In 2002, with Roberson and Sproles, Kstates defense led the ncaa in scoring defense at only 11.8 ppg, while the offense averaged 45 ppg. In 1998 with Bishop, they scored 48 ppg, while the defense gave up 14.3 ppg. In 2012 with Collin Klein, the defense allowed 22.1 ppg, while the offense averaged 38.8 ppg.
You know, last time a Big 12 team rolled into Provo ranked in the top 15 (2022 Baylor), they went 6-7 and have only fallen downward. The time before that (2013 Texas), they became irrelevant for almost 10 years. Now, it's K State's turn to be broken for a decade.
Before Snyder, it was the toughest job in college football but after he left it, it’s not even close to the toughest job. He turned an undesirable job into a desirable one.
Will Howard left because he was pushed out by how good the freshman was behind him. Similar to how Baker Mayfield transferred because Patrick Mahomes was behind him at Tech.
Stop trying to sound like a sportscaster by lowering your voice at the end of every other sentence. Just use your regular voice the way you would talking about sports to your friends, not like you are on TV. People come to YT for authenticity, not to hear someone trying to sound like he is on TV.
