Is Bill Snyder finished at KSU?
No one knows — even the coach — but could Tuesday’s Cactus Bowl matchup with UCLA be the last game for Kansas State’s Bill Snyder?
Before the 2016 OUKansas State game, I ran into then-KSU athletic director John Currie. I mentioned that I had talked to Wildcat coach Bill Snyder that week.
“Oh, did he tell you when he’s going to retire?” Currie asked with a laugh.
No, I said.
“If he does,” Currie responded, “let me know.”
Currie is long gone from Manhattan. But K-State still doesn’t know Snyder’s future plans.
The Wildcats play UCLA in the Cactus Bowl on Tuesday night, and the 78-year-old Snyder admitted he doesn’t know if this will be his final game. New KSU athletic director Gene Taylor told the Wichita Eagle that he’s in the dark, too.
“A good friend of mine told me (Snyder) could be a good poker player and win a lot of money playing, because he does not give you a sense for what he’s thinking,” Taylor said. “I go back and forth. I really do. I couldn’t give you a sense one way or the other what he’s thinking.”
Snyder has admitted to trying to set up his son, Sean, as a successor.
Some in power at Kansas State resist that, leading to some tense times. That led Currie to take the illfated Tennessee job.
“I need to have more dialogue with my family,” Snyder said. “I have had some dialogue with our administration, and I need to have a little more dialogue with them. As far as the people in our program, the players, I have to assess, which I haven’t done, just exactly the impact, positively and negatively that I have had with them. It’s the same things I have always said. It’s just about being more thorough with it. For me, it’s a big decision.”
For Kansas State, too. Bill Snyder is the father of K-State football. He’s got 209 career victories, which is about 40 percent of the Wildcats’ all-time total. That’s Joe Paterno territory.
“We have talked a couple of times,” Taylor said. “He really wants to thoroughly discuss it with his family. He feels compelled to give us an answer sooner than later. He has told me that before ... I think he’d like to give it as soon after the bowl game as he can.”
Who knows what Snyder will do. But K-State fans had best enjoy him while they can.