When he takes the podium on fall Tuesdays at the Vanier Family Football Complex, it’s easy to forget that Bill Snyder is one of the greatest to ever coach a football team. He ambles in slowly, a bit hunched over, Styrofoam cup of coffee ever present in his hand. The hint of a smile is on his face, as if he’s amused by the entire situation: the assembled press whose chatter died as he made his entrance, the table before him scattered with smartphones to record his every word, the athletic department staff positioned strategically and clad in licensed apparel.
Snyder is known for his boring, matter-of-fact answers. As reporters pepper him with meandering questions, he sits patiently, locking his bespectacled eyes to theirs, clearly hanging on every word. When the reporter reaches the end of his query, Snyder pauses, as if to let the words sink in, then softly, easily, his answer flows out, not surrendering undue information, but not rudely withholding. He’ll talk for a minute or two or ten and say very little in very many ways.
Coach Snyder doesn’t radiate intensity like Urban Meyer at Ohio State. He’s not quite as energetic (or maniacal) as Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. He’s not a football totalitarian
like Alabama’s Nick Saban. But Snyder’s the only one of his peers to already be a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. Much like the program he built, Snyder tends to fly under the radar. It seems he prefers it that way.
But buried among the empty platitudes and vows of faith in his young men, Snyder said something that offered a glimpse into how he brought a program based in Manhattan, Kan. from the depths of irrelevance to the national stage. It’s a mindset as simple as it is profound, as essential as it is difficult to spread. It’s the belief that no matter what stands in your way, if you prepare and execute, you just might prevail.
“No matter who you line up against and play, I see them all the same,” Snyder said. “They’re all the Green Bay Packers to me. It’s about conveying the message to these young guys, getting them to realize that they really do have control of the outcome of the ballgame.”
Smack dab in the middle of the country, at a university that blue chip recruits rarely even have on their radar, this is a crucial mentality. Even during K-State’s conference title seasons, and the years they were in the national title conversation, the Wildcats weren’t exactly loaded with talent. If the K-State roster had seen how they matched up on paper in some of the most memorable games of the Greatest Turnaround in College Football History, they’d have packed it in and taken an L. But Snyder ensured the opposite happened. K-State played, and won, dozens of games it wasn’t supposed to. That’s why Snyder is one of the greatest.
And he has an opportunity for another stroke of brilliance this season. As the third week of the season dawns, the Big 12 is wide open. Texas appears to be the team to beat, as they hang on to an undefeated record by the skin of their teeth. Oklahoma, the preseason darling, was completely outpaced in its opening loss to Houston, and plays a national contender in Ohio State this weekend. Oklahoma State lost to Central Michigan after the Intentional Grounding Heard ‘Round the Midwest. K-State had a week off after their opening loss to Stanford, and watched the chaos from home. You have to imagine Snyder stared down the results section of the Sunday paper with the same unblinking intensity he does with reporters.
Stanford is in the rearview. On Saturday, Florida Atlantic marches into Manhattan for the 25th home opener of the Snyder era. May as well be the Packers.