Snyder, K-State future extended, unsettled
A long time ago, in recognition of Bill Snyder’s transformation of Kansas State from the most sad-sack program in college football history into a consistent winner, a one-time rival proclaimed him the “coach of the century.”
Barry Switzer said it during the 20th century. Last week, Snyder got a new five-year contract through the 2022 season, when he would be 83.
“I think it’s great!” Switzer told USA TODAY in a text message. “He’s one of the two coaches who could do it. ... I’m the other!”
Switzer, by the way, is two years and two days older than Snyder and hasn’t coached since 1997.
But with the exception of a threeyear break when Snyder retired (in 2005, returning for the 2009 season), he has been grinding away. He’s still winning in the 21st century. And at least right now, on the cusp of his 27th season, there’s no indication he’ll stop soon.
The new deal is about recruiting, of course. So much in college football usually is. But especially in Snyder’s case, the idea is to create the picture of stability, the better to persuade high school players to join up.
But there’s more.
Snyder, who turns 79 on Oct. 7, a day after Kansas State’s sixth game this season, is already the oldest coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision. But anyone who has followed the Wildcats in recent years knows better than to try to predict the coach’s future.
In the days after the Cactus Bowl in December, when Snyder wrestled with whether to retire, it wasn’t surprising. Though it has perhaps taken on more urgency in the last couple of years, his internal debate has become an annual part of the Kansas State offseason experience. It also wasn’t surprising when the answer came back: He’s coming back.
“It can’t go on forever, that’s for sure,” Snyder told USA TODAY in May 2017. “I don’t want it to go on forever. But I don’t know. I’ve preached it one year at a time, and that’s the way it’s been for the last several years. No particular reason why that will change.”
There’s no particular reason his decision each year will change, either. Especially if he didn’t retire in 2017, after having 33 treatments for throat cancer.
But at least part of his reasoning is undoubtedly related to an unusual provision in the new contract, just like in the last deal, which stipulates Snyder will have “appropriate input” in choosing his successor.
There’s little doubt as to why that clause is included. There’s no doubt who Snyder wants.
He has advocated for years for his son Sean, a former Kansas State player and a longtime assistant on his staff. Sean Snyder is the special teams coordinator and associate head coach, and his father says he essentially runs the program’s daily operations, but he’s never called an offensive or defensive play.
And Bill Snyder built Kansas State football, but so much more, as well. If the administration had been willing to promote Sean, Bill Snyder might already have retired. But the succession plan appears to be a long shot, which is why tension continues to bubble, just beneath the surface, about what happens when Snyder retires. If he ever does.
Switzer’s proclamation is debatable, but Snyder is undoubtedly the architect of the biggest turnaround in the history of college football. Before his first season in 1989, when “Sports Illustrated” called Kansas State “Futility U,” the magazine had it right. Thirty of 33 seasons had ended with losing records. Snyder inherited a winless streak of 27 games.
The 12 previous K-State coaches had combined for 116 wins in 43 years. Snyder’s overall career record in 26 seasons is 210-110-1.
But while he deserves credit for building far more than a football program, even though that alone would have been an astonishing accomplishment, Snyder’s desire bordering on insistence of his son as successor potentially holds the school hostage.
As the years pass, Snyder runs the risk of staying too long. We’ve seen it before, relatively recently with Bobby Bowden at Florida State and Joe Pater- no at Penn State (though there was obviously much, much more going on with the end of Paterno’s tenure, the fading of a legend was undeniably happening, too).
We’ve seen coaches get out at the right time, too; Frank Beamer’s decision to retire at Virginia Tech is an example of how it could work.
Snyder looks frail; he was noticeably thinner after the cancer treatments. In the last couple of years he appears to have aged a decade.
But the Wildcats went 8-5 last season with a young team. The nucleus returns, and Snyder has used staff attrition to reshape with younger coordinators. And while opposing coaches have brought up his age with recruits for years, he just shrugs.
“I can’t do anything about it,” Snyder told USA TODAY in 2017. “I’m not going to lie about my age. It is what it is.”
The new five-year deal sounds nice. In reality, it just means more of the same. More grinding by Snyder. More winning by the Wildcats. More wondering whether and when he’ll retire.
The common conjecture involves a day like today. Smack in the middle of August. Preseason practices well underway. Kickoff fast approaching.
“I’ve decided it’s time to step away,” Snyder will tell us, “and Sean should be elevated to replace me.”
And the timing, so the theory goes, will make it difficult to do anything but accept his “appropriate input.”
If it happens, it won’t be today. Or this month. That much seems certain with the announcement of the new deal. But that only means that after the season, we’ll all wait again as Snyder wrestles with his future ... again.
And then next summer, we’ll wait to see if he’ll decide to hang up the whistle at just the right time. Or maybe Kansas State will announce another contract extension, taking Snyder to 84. And we’ll start the cycle again.