Kansas State’s Snyder mulls future

PHOENIX — Bill Snyder has coached Kansas State for 26 seasons, returning once from retirement to coach at the stadium that bears his name.

Tonight’s Cactus Bowl against UCLA could be his grand finale.

Snyder has a contract that automatically renews every year, but the 78-yearold coach hasn’t decided if he wants 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 you know, for me, it’s a big decision.”

Snyder helped turn Kansas State’s struggling team into a nationally prominent program when he took the reins 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.

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 against California under interim coach Jedd Fisch to become bowl-eligible. UCLA hired former Oregon and Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly.

“I’ve known Chip for a while, and he just said, ‘You take this team until the bowl game is over,” Fisch said. “So that’s kind of how we’ve made this thing work.”