Kansas State University Athletics
K-State Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2008
The 2009 season saw one of the greatest legends in college football return to the sidelines in hopes of revitalizing a program that he once built, piece by piece, into a national force. And Bill Snyder has done just that – and then some.
The architect of the “greatest turnaround in the history of college football” Bill Snyder returned to lead the Kansas State football program in 2009 after 17 ultra-successful seasons as the head coach from 1989-2005. And, following a 7-5 campaign in 2010 and a berth in the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl, the Wildcats climbed to heights only previously seen under Snyder as the Wildcats went 10-3 in 2011, finished No. 8 in the final BCS standings and earned their first Cotton Bowl invitation since 2001.
he bar was raised again in 2012 as Snyder led the Wildcats to their third conference championship in school history and first since 2003. Kansas State, which won its first 10 games of the season and finished 11-2 with an 8-1 mark in Big 12 play, tied the school record for overall wins and conference victories while also ascending to No. 1 in the BCS rankings following its 10-0 start.
Named the 32nd head football coach at K-State on Nov. 30, 1988, and again as the 34th on Nov. 24, 2008, Snyder has amassed a 170-85-1 (.669) record during his tenure with the Wildcats, including a 97-65-1 (.598) mark in Big 8/12 games. His 170 victories are the ninth-most among active FBS coaches and are more than triple the man in second place on K-State’s all-time coaching victories list.
But to fully understand the turnaround ushered in by Snyder at Kansas State one must only consider that the Wildcats were in the midst of an 0-26-1 run when he was hired. It also took K-State 51 seasons (1938-1988) to total just 130 wins, while the 12 head coaches prior to Snyder's arrival in Manhattan combined to win just 116 games from 1945-1988.
Snyder led Kansas State to 11 straight bowl berths between the 1993 and 2003 seasons, making K-State one of only seven programs in the nation to appear in the postseason every year during that stretch. During that span, Snyder’s Wildcats won nearly 80 percent of their games, chalking up 109 victories - a staggering average of nearly 10 wins per season - and making Kansas State the nation’s second-winningest program over that period.
Snyder’s unprecedented success in 21 years at Kansas State has not gone unnoticed. He has been named the National Coach of the Year on five occasions (1991, 1994, 1998, 2011, 2012). He has won the prestigious Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award twice (1998, 2012) and been a finalist for the Bear Bryant/FWAA National Coach of the Year Award in 1993, 1995, 2011, 2012 before winning in 1998.
In 1993, he joined legendary Nebraska head coach Bob Devaney as the only head coaches in Big Eight history to be named Associated Press Big Eight Coach of the Year three times in a four-year period (1990, 1991 and 1993). The Houston Chronicle named him the 1996 Big 12 Coach of the Year, while he earned 1997 and 1998 Big 12 Coach of the Year honors from the Kansas City Star. Snyder also was the 1998 Big 12 Coach of the Year by the AP and by a vote of league coaches before earning the league coaches’ support again in 2002. The 2003 season brought more honors, including Big 12 Coach of the Year accolades from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and ESPN.com.
The list of accomplishments Snyder has amassed in his 21 years is as endless as the time most people thought it would take for the Wildcats to be a consistent threat in the Big Eight, and now, Big 12 Conference.
