Kansas State’s Snyder weighs exit
Bill Snyder has coached Kansas State for 26 seasons, returning once from retirement to coach at the stadium that bears his name.
Tuesday night’s Cactus Bowl against UCLA could be his grand finale.
Snyder, who has been battling throat cancer, has a contract that automatically rolls over every season, but he hasn’t decided whether to work a 27th season or retire.
“I’ve had some dialogue and I need to have some more dialogue with my family and more dialogue with our administration,” Snyder said. “Just needing to be more thorough with it. Because it’s a big decision.”
Snyder, 78, helped turn Kansas State’s struggling team into a nationally prominent program when he took over in 1989. He retired in 2005, the program went into decline, and Snyder returned to coaching in 2008.
Snyder has led Kansas State to eight straight bowl appearances and 19 overall, including three trips to the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona.
The Wildcats (7-5) got their 2017 season off to a slow start, losing three of their first four Big 12 games. Kansas State closed strongly, its only loss in the final five games to No. 23 West Virginia by five points.
UCLA (6-6) had a shaky start as well, costing coach Jim Mora his job one game before the season ended. The Bruins closed the regular season with a 30-27 victory over California under interim coach Jedd Fisch to become bowl-eligible.
UCLA hired former Oregon and Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly last month, but Fisch will lead the Bruins against Kansas State.
A big question heading into the game is whether UCLA star quarterback Josh Rosen will play. He has lingering concussion issues and injured his shoulder in the final game against Cal, missing the second half.
Heart of Dallas Bowl: If the game comes down to a kick for Utah against West Virginia, the Utes will turn to someone who entered this season with only one year of high school football and didn’t know what the Lou Groza Award was, yet walked off with it a few weeks ago.
Matt Gay has difficulty describing what transpired over the past five months.
“It’s been crazy,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out the emotion of things.”
Gay’s Utes (6-6) need a victory Tuesday to finish with a winning record for the fourth consecutive season.
West Virginia (7-5) already has done that but wants to end a two-game losing streak that began when quarterback Will Grier was lost with a broken finger on his passing hand during the first quarter against Texas.
Gay walked on last summer after playing soccer for Utah Valley and narrowly lost the starting job to freshman Chayden Johnston. After Johnston’s first attempt went wide from 45 yards in Utah’s opener, Gay was told, “You have the next one.”
And the job was his. Gay leads the FBS with 27 field goals, missing only four attempts.