The Bill Snyder fact that continues to blow my mind
The Kansas City Star
I suppose my appreciation for Bill Snyder has been on full display the last few weeks.
So maybe by now it’s overkill, but it’s worth pointing out that what we’re seeing is a genuine coaching savant at the height of his powers at the age of 72^.
^ This has nothing to do with today’s post, but tomorrow we’ll bring back DKTM Twitter Tuesday, where you submit a question to me on Twitter, I answer it here, and we all have fun.
I’d forgotten about this until Blair Kerkhoff pointed it out the other day, but when Snyder took over at K-State the program was in such bad shape that it sold home games to Oklahoma, and played them in Norman because it meant more money. There was talk about KSU dropping down a level, and who knows what that would mean today?
Anyway, depending on your definition of the term, Snyder might be the best college football coach in the country and it sure seems like nobody outside this region realizes that.
It’s not that K-State is without talent, but it’s also entirely possible that the Wildcats would be 3-3 or maybe even worse instead of 6-0 if, say, Ron Prince was still in charge.
All of this is a long way to introduce a fact that just boggles the mind:
Kansas State has been the underdog four straight weeks, been outgained four straight weeks, and won four straight weeks.
College football has too long of a history with too many teams to assume that’s never happened before, but the list can’t be long.
Honestly. Check it out: Miami, Baylor, Missouri and Texas Tech outgained K-State by an average of 437 to 345.
And each one of them lost.
The players are the ones playing, and they deserve a fair amount of credit, but my gosh, you don’t accomplish this without an enormous coaching advantage.
Frank Lambert
1 year, 8 months agoI agree with your assessment of the prodigious coaching talent of Bill Snyder. Having experienced Doug Weaver, Vince (we gonna win) Gibson, Ellis Rainsberger, and a number of others including Ron Prince (who talked a good game but couldn’t coach one) this man on his second resuscitation of K-State football has taken Ron Prince’s talent plus juco transfers and molded them into a typical Bill Snyder team that just gets a little better each week. If he is able to coach long enough, he may be the oldest coach to win a national championship!
John W Mack Jr.
Fairway
1 year, 8 months agoI have watched the K-State games this year and have been constantly amazed at their success. I am a longtime KSU fan, yet it is tough to explain their current success. It seems he constantly tinkers with the offensive and defensive schemes as the game goes on until he finds the winning combination, instead of waiting until halftime or they are way behind.
The rest of the schedule should prove to be just as entertaining, and more challenging.