Fanblogs.com: Bill Snyder returning to K-State sidelines
Tom_Blogical
· 1 year ago
Agreed. I think they blew it, too. OTOH, Glen Mason is available. No wonder they signed Snyder.
bb67
· 1 year ago
Kev, sober up man!! Snyder's already proven. Paterno's winning in his eighties. Spare us the over-the-hill garbage and post a professional opinion, okay??? Truth is they were stagnating under Prince at a time when the north division was there for the taking, and Snyder IS the best available option. Can you name anyone better for that particular job right now???? I doubt it. I used to like this website, but lately it's been less professional and more gossipy. The snide and often factless critiques are a tough read. I commend K State for going grassroots again....... maybe you should too.
Kevin @ Fanblogs
· 1 year ago
Can I think of anyone better than Snyder? Honestly? There are at least 20 coaches better than Snyder and at least 10 assistants that I would hire before going back to the well.
The crux of your question (and maybe this is a snide and factless critique) is: Could K-State hire anyone better than Snyder? And the answer to that is... gosh I would really like to think that they could have.
grant richter
· 1 year ago
Kevin - GET A CLUE!!!
Snyder can bring back stability, recruiting, and a slew of hopefully great assistants which will be groomed to take over when snyder leaves again. Recruiting will only get better compared to Prince, and the assistants snyder brings in will hopefully great recruiters as well. He knows more about winning and running a great program than anyone. He cares about ksu and will see to it that order is restored. Your article makes you sound like whitlock, anotehr ksu hater
Kevin @ Fanblogs
· 1 year ago
Honest question - why would a recruit want to sign there knowing that Snyder is there for two years or so? That's zero security for a recruit. To put your team's recruiting in that position is beyond short-sighted, it's just dumb.
Signing any coach as a band-aid signals (1) there's a problem at KSU and (2) KSU doesn't know how to fix it. Snyder is not the answer - he's what KSU is doing until they figure out what to do next.
Are you honestly going to tell me that you wouldn't rather have:
Brian Kelly Chris Peterson Jim Leavitt Jim Grobe Turner Gill Will Muschamp Tommy Bowden Greg Schiano Lane Kiffen Gary Patterson Butch Jones Norm Chow Bud Foster Kevin Steele Dan Hawkins Jimbo Fisher Kevin Wilson Brent Venables Joker Phillips Gus Malzahn Dan Mullen
Regardless of what you think of any of the above - they don't handcuff recruiting the way Snyder does/will. You can wish all you want, but I don't even think Snyder will be able to out recruit Prince.
Again... why would anyone sign at KSU? You're going to have somebody else coaching in two years.
FanoftheGame
· 1 year ago
Kev- I think you might have offended a few of the Snyder supporters. I'm a Snyder fan, but you do make a great point Kev. K-State should try to move forward, but the Snyder rehire is definately an idle move. It is only goiing to set them up for another "Ron Price Type" era that will follow Snyder again. I suspect that K-State is just going to allow history to repeat itself. Snyder is a great coach, but he is only a temporary solution to the bigger problem. And what if Snyder fails to bring the program back to where he left it? ......Then the Snyder Legend loses a little of its luster. Hey, I know Joe Pa has been proven for the most part that age is just a number.........but lets face it.......Snyder is not in the same class as Joe Pa.......Now before that pisses off the K-State faithful, I do think Snyder was a great coach. He did a marvelous job building that program.....He's just not one of the "Great Coaches" in the history of college football and Joe Pa, well,he is Joe Pa. The Big 12 is growing more and more competitive each year and I would love to see K-State in the mix, bet regressing back 6 to 10 years isn't really moving forward, now is it?
Kevin @ Fanblogs
· 1 year ago
Snyder was a great coach and built KSU up, as I readily admitted. But to come out and hire the man out of retirement reeks of desperation. There is no way a recruit is going to sign at KSU over a premiere football school because Snyder is going to be gone in two years. It's just a terrible, terrible band-aid.
observer
· 1 year ago
Are you an Idiot Fan? "not one of the "Great Coaches" in the history of college football" Bill Snyder took the WORST college football program in history - and made them national championship contenders within 12 years. Albeit they didn't win the nat'l Champ, but no one on the former list of "Great Coaches" not even Joe Pa had to inherit a program like K-State was in the '80s.
FanoftheGame
· 1 year ago
hmmmmm
ksuwild
· 1 year ago
This was posted by TB at bringonthecats.com ... and pretty much sums up how I feel.
Everyone should know by now that I don't see the world in black-and-white. Without getting too philosophical, I do believe there is a right and a wrong, but the real world rarely allows for nice, clean distinctions between the two. In every situation, the context and background facts will shape our judgment regarding whether the decision made in response to the situation was "right" or "wrong." However, the objective facts behind the situation almost never make for an easy, black-and-white judgment.
That's why you won't hear me say that hiring Bill Snyder was "right" or "wrong." A lot of what went into the situation makes me very, very disappointed in the decision that was made. On the other hand, I can't turn off the purple tint through which I see the world, which permits me to find some ways in which this could work out.
Judging by the comments in the press conference open thread regarding the facts and opinions expressed by several local journalists, I share with a lot of you a deep disappointment in the way this situation was handled. If we take at face value the information provided by the media members linked above, there was no coaching search done. Neither Gary Patterson nor his agent were ever contacted, nor was Patterson ever considered. We didn't think about taking a look at Turner Gill or Todd Graham or checking in to see if Jim Leavitt had changed his mind.
Of course, none of that should surprise us. Bob Krause, a university administrator with no athletic department experience, is "in charge" of our athletic department. He's being overseen by Jon Wefald, who has less than zero athletic department experience and has a track record (Jim Wooldridge, Ron Prince) for throwing his weight around at exactly the wrong time.
With all these sources indicating that Snyder was the only man ever considered for the job, I am at a loss to explain what was behind the initial Gary Patterson rumors. I know Tim Fitzgerald from GoPowercat.com, and there is no way he fabricated that story. Friends of mine from Nebraska and Texas told me that very day they were hearing the same thing. Bob Lutz wrote the very next day that sources were telling Jeffrey Martin of the Wichita Eagle the very same thing. With no further information, I'm left to speculate about how all this information came out, and the only conclusion I can reach is that it was intentionally fabricated to make it appear that Krause and Wefald actually engaged in this thing known as a coaching search.
Conventional wisdom holds that, when you fire a coach, you have a search to replace him. Maybe you appoint a search committee, maybe you hire an outside agency. Either way, you get some people who know what you're looking for and identify some candidates that fit that criteria. While conventional wisdom is not always the best method of attacking a problem, there is a reason it's known as "conventional." In most situations, it works. I have grown tired of defending the unconventional actions of the K-State administration because, while there is a chance that a non-conventional approach to a problem will work, odds are that it won't.
Think of it in blackjack terms. Sure, you could hit on 18, but the odds of you picking up a three, deuce or ace are very low. Sure, we could hire an unproven offensive coordinator from a middle-of-the-road ACC team who has no ties to the Big 12, but the odds that he will turn out to be a good coach are extremely low. Sure, we could rehire a coaching legend who has been out of the game for three years, but the odds that he will resurrect this program are similarly low. I should put a star next to that pending who his assistant coaches will be.
Beyond merely gambling on Snyder, we are entrenching the image that K-State football is nothing without Snyder at the helm. K-State was never any good at football before Snyder arrived, and in the infinitesimally small sample size since Snyder retired, the Cats haven't been any good since he left.
The solution to this problem, however, is not to go running back to the one coach who has ever had success at your institution. The solution is to identify the next coach who you believe is most likely to have long-term success at your institution. While Snyder instantly gives K-State the best head coach in the Big 12 North, as Panjandrum and others mentioned in the open thread, it remains very much an open question whether he will be able to lead us back to even the modest successes of seven- or eight-win seasons, and a much bigger question as to whether he will be a long-term solution at age 69. At best, we can hope that he will hire a few dynamic assistants and, when the time comes to step down for good, one of them will be prepared to lead K-State into the future.
Here, however, is where I disagree slightly with the sentiments expressed by others and have actually changed my opinion somewhat recently. Lutz writes that Wefald is putting Snyder's reputation and legacy at risk by rehiring him now. But no matter what happens this time around, nothing can tarnish Bill Snyder's legacy. What he accomplished in Manhattan cannot be taken away, changed, altered or replaced. What is done is done, and nothing will change it.
However, Wefald and Krause are putting their legacies at risk. For all their faults athletically, that pair took over a moribund state university with 16,000 students in 1986 and made it an impressive academic institution of which its alums can be proud. I take great pride in telling people that I went to K-State, and I know those of you who went to school there do, too. We owe an awful lot of that pride, at least academically speaking, to Wefald and Krause.
In addition, we can take pride in what has been accomplished athletically by K-State. A remote state-school with a small budget has been able to produce competitive teams in football, men's basketball, women's basketball, volleyball, and occasionally other sports. The fact that Wefald and Krause recognize athletics as a crucial component to the success of a major university is to their credit.
Unfortunately, that recognition has turned into an obsession that has led to a series of bad decisions that threaten to undo a substantial portion of the good that this duo has done at K-State. Wefald changed K-State from an academic afterthought to a school that I spurned my home-state University of Nebraska to attend. He had a hand in changing it from a football disgrace to one of the premier programs in the Big 8/12 for a 10-year stretch. Now, he may be remembered more for having a hand in moving us from historic Ahearn Fieldhouse to Bramlage Coliseum, nearly destroying our proud basketball tradition, hiring an unproven and unprepared offensive coordinator from Virginia, and for running back to a legend because he hadn't put the proper personnel in place to conduct a proper coaching search.
Good luck, Bill Snyder. Jon Wefald's legacy is in your hands.
Kevin @ Fanblogs
· 1 year ago
Well said.
Bevo_Boy
· 1 year ago
Sums up??? Are you sure it only sums up how you feel, not describe every last little thing? lol
Mark
· 1 year ago
Worst coaching decision? Have you heard of Tyrone Willingham or Greg Robinson. At first this situation seemed a little sketchy, but I honestly feel that this may be what K-State needed. First off, Ron Prince left this team out to get eaten by the beasts of the Big 12. He brought in a pro style offense, which in my opinion can only be ran when you have blue chip recruits and don't even get me started on the defense. KState has prided on their defense for years and Prince goes to a 3-4 and the theme of the year was to give up 500plus yards a game. Anyways, Synder has to bring back his run first offense and get this defense back to the "lynch mob" days. If Synder brings back guys like Phil Bennett how is this a bad thing. Do you know how many coachs came from Synder's wing? Synder gets this team back on its feet and grooms a coach for the future. As Barry Switzer said, "Synder is the best coach of the decade" so I guess bringing him back is a bad thing.
Hell_Raider
· 11 months ago
Wow really, i personally think bring back Snyder was the best thing K-State could of done. Lets see they got rid of a mediocre coach Prince who was going nowhere but down and they found their old coach who is in my opinion one of the best coaches in college football history. You guys say hes not one of the best coaches but he took a team that was ranked 112th with .24% win ratio and turned them into number 10 with .71% win ratio that sounds like a incredible coach to me. And as for recruiting players are going to want to play under Snyder because he is one of the greatest coaches and the same goes for coaches coaching under him, look at KU's fat man, mangino he coached under Snyder and look at him, ill admit hes easy to make fun of but dam hes a very good coach. Snyder was the best thing K-State could of done you name 1 other coach K-State could of gotten that would of helped them more then Snyder can i mean come on K-State is pretty much Snyders team
All Comments
Spare us the over-the-hill garbage and post a professional opinion, okay???
Truth is they were stagnating under Prince at a time when the north division was
there for the taking, and Snyder IS the best available option. Can you name anyone
better for that particular job right now???? I doubt it. I used to like this website, but
lately it's been less professional and more gossipy. The snide and often factless
critiques are a tough read. I commend K State for going grassroots again.......
maybe you should too.
The crux of your question (and maybe this is a snide and factless critique) is: Could K-State hire anyone better than Snyder? And the answer to that is... gosh I would really like to think that they could have.
Snyder can bring back stability, recruiting, and a slew of hopefully great assistants which will be groomed to take over when snyder leaves again. Recruiting will only get better compared to Prince, and the assistants snyder brings in will hopefully great recruiters as well. He knows more about winning and running a great program than anyone. He cares about ksu and will see to it that order is restored. Your article makes you sound like whitlock, anotehr ksu hater
Signing any coach as a band-aid signals (1) there's a problem at KSU and (2) KSU doesn't know how to fix it. Snyder is not the answer - he's what KSU is doing until they figure out what to do next.
Are you honestly going to tell me that you wouldn't rather have:
Brian Kelly
Chris Peterson
Jim Leavitt
Jim Grobe
Turner Gill
Will Muschamp
Tommy Bowden
Greg Schiano
Lane Kiffen
Gary Patterson
Butch Jones
Norm Chow
Bud Foster
Kevin Steele
Dan Hawkins
Jimbo Fisher
Kevin Wilson
Brent Venables
Joker Phillips
Gus Malzahn
Dan Mullen
Regardless of what you think of any of the above - they don't handcuff recruiting the way Snyder does/will. You can wish all you want, but I don't even think Snyder will be able to out recruit Prince.
Again... why would anyone sign at KSU? You're going to have somebody else coaching in two years.
I think you might have offended a few of the Snyder supporters. I'm a Snyder fan, but you do make a great point Kev. K-State should try to move forward, but the Snyder rehire is definately an idle move. It is only goiing to set them up for another "Ron Price Type" era that will follow Snyder again. I suspect that K-State is just going to allow history to repeat itself. Snyder is a great coach, but he is only a temporary solution to the bigger problem. And what if Snyder fails to bring the program back to where he left it? ......Then the Snyder Legend loses a little of its luster. Hey, I know Joe Pa has been proven for the most part that age is just a number.........but lets face it.......Snyder is not in the same class as Joe Pa.......Now before that pisses off the K-State faithful, I do think Snyder was a great coach. He did a marvelous job building that program.....He's just not one of the "Great Coaches" in the history of college football and Joe Pa, well,he is Joe Pa.
The Big 12 is growing more and more competitive each year and I would love to see K-State in the mix, bet regressing back 6 to 10 years isn't really moving forward, now is it?
Everyone should know by now that I don't see the world in black-and-white. Without getting too philosophical, I do believe there is a right and a wrong, but the real world rarely allows for nice, clean distinctions between the two. In every situation, the context and background facts will shape our judgment regarding whether the decision made in response to the situation was "right" or "wrong." However, the objective facts behind the situation almost never make for an easy, black-and-white judgment.
That's why you won't hear me say that hiring Bill Snyder was "right" or "wrong." A lot of what went into the situation makes me very, very disappointed in the decision that was made. On the other hand, I can't turn off the purple tint through which I see the world, which permits me to find some ways in which this could work out.
Judging by the comments in the press conference open thread regarding the facts and opinions expressed by several local journalists, I share with a lot of you a deep disappointment in the way this situation was handled. If we take at face value the information provided by the media members linked above, there was no coaching search done. Neither Gary Patterson nor his agent were ever contacted, nor was Patterson ever considered. We didn't think about taking a look at Turner Gill or Todd Graham or checking in to see if Jim Leavitt had changed his mind.
Of course, none of that should surprise us. Bob Krause, a university administrator with no athletic department experience, is "in charge" of our athletic department. He's being overseen by Jon Wefald, who has less than zero athletic department experience and has a track record (Jim Wooldridge, Ron Prince) for throwing his weight around at exactly the wrong time.
With all these sources indicating that Snyder was the only man ever considered for the job, I am at a loss to explain what was behind the initial Gary Patterson rumors. I know Tim Fitzgerald from GoPowercat.com, and there is no way he fabricated that story. Friends of mine from Nebraska and Texas told me that very day they were hearing the same thing. Bob Lutz wrote the very next day that sources were telling Jeffrey Martin of the Wichita Eagle the very same thing. With no further information, I'm left to speculate about how all this information came out, and the only conclusion I can reach is that it was intentionally fabricated to make it appear that Krause and Wefald actually engaged in this thing known as a coaching search.
Conventional wisdom holds that, when you fire a coach, you have a search to replace him. Maybe you appoint a search committee, maybe you hire an outside agency. Either way, you get some people who know what you're looking for and identify some candidates that fit that criteria. While conventional wisdom is not always the best method of attacking a problem, there is a reason it's known as "conventional." In most situations, it works. I have grown tired of defending the unconventional actions of the K-State administration because, while there is a chance that a non-conventional approach to a problem will work, odds are that it won't.
Think of it in blackjack terms. Sure, you could hit on 18, but the odds of you picking up a three, deuce or ace are very low. Sure, we could hire an unproven offensive coordinator from a middle-of-the-road ACC team who has no ties to the Big 12, but the odds that he will turn out to be a good coach are extremely low. Sure, we could rehire a coaching legend who has been out of the game for three years, but the odds that he will resurrect this program are similarly low. I should put a star next to that pending who his assistant coaches will be.
Beyond merely gambling on Snyder, we are entrenching the image that K-State football is nothing without Snyder at the helm. K-State was never any good at football before Snyder arrived, and in the infinitesimally small sample size since Snyder retired, the Cats haven't been any good since he left.
The solution to this problem, however, is not to go running back to the one coach who has ever had success at your institution. The solution is to identify the next coach who you believe is most likely to have long-term success at your institution. While Snyder instantly gives K-State the best head coach in the Big 12 North, as Panjandrum and others mentioned in the open thread, it remains very much an open question whether he will be able to lead us back to even the modest successes of seven- or eight-win seasons, and a much bigger question as to whether he will be a long-term solution at age 69. At best, we can hope that he will hire a few dynamic assistants and, when the time comes to step down for good, one of them will be prepared to lead K-State into the future.
Here, however, is where I disagree slightly with the sentiments expressed by others and have actually changed my opinion somewhat recently. Lutz writes that Wefald is putting Snyder's reputation and legacy at risk by rehiring him now. But no matter what happens this time around, nothing can tarnish Bill Snyder's legacy. What he accomplished in Manhattan cannot be taken away, changed, altered or replaced. What is done is done, and nothing will change it.
However, Wefald and Krause are putting their legacies at risk. For all their faults athletically, that pair took over a moribund state university with 16,000 students in 1986 and made it an impressive academic institution of which its alums can be proud. I take great pride in telling people that I went to K-State, and I know those of you who went to school there do, too. We owe an awful lot of that pride, at least academically speaking, to Wefald and Krause.
In addition, we can take pride in what has been accomplished athletically by K-State. A remote state-school with a small budget has been able to produce competitive teams in football, men's basketball, women's basketball, volleyball, and occasionally other sports. The fact that Wefald and Krause recognize athletics as a crucial component to the success of a major university is to their credit.
Unfortunately, that recognition has turned into an obsession that has led to a series of bad decisions that threaten to undo a substantial portion of the good that this duo has done at K-State. Wefald changed K-State from an academic afterthought to a school that I spurned my home-state University of Nebraska to attend. He had a hand in changing it from a football disgrace to one of the premier programs in the Big 8/12 for a 10-year stretch. Now, he may be remembered more for having a hand in moving us from historic Ahearn Fieldhouse to Bramlage Coliseum, nearly destroying our proud basketball tradition, hiring an unproven and unprepared offensive coordinator from Virginia, and for running back to a legend because he hadn't put the proper personnel in place to conduct a proper coaching search.
Good luck, Bill Snyder. Jon Wefald's legacy is in your hands.