Is Bill Snyder the Greatest Coach in College Football History?

It’s all about relative accomplishment. Sure, he hasn’t won any national titles, but look what he started with.

On the other hand, I also know that I will throw down with anyone who scoffs at the idea.

but definitively stating him as THE best ever is tough.

The man is a phenominal coach. The turnaround at KSU is and was amazing. There are just a lot of VERY GOOD coaches in the history of the sport.

but it bears repeating.

What would his overall record look like, and how many national championships might he have if he had been the head coach at OU, Bama, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, tOSU, or USC for the past 20 years? (I realize there was a 3 year break in there, but the point remains).

Or, the other way to look at it, would Stoops, Saban, Brown, Carroll, or Tressel have been able to do at KSU the same thing Snyder has done. Now, I’m not saying those are all in the conversation of being considered “greatest ever”, but they have all been very successful at their respective schools.

The three examples I see of being able to give us an idea as to how this might have turned out are Gene Chizik, Dan Hawkins and Urban Meyer.

Chizik was at ISU (yes his stay was short-lived), and it did not look like he was really taking them to great heights. When he went to Auburn and had arguably better recruits to work with, look at what has happened. You could argue that this has as much to do with the players he is working with as it does his coaching ability.

Dan Hawkins was kind of the opposite. He was doing very well at Boise State and they were playing very well. Then when he came to Colorado, he just stunk it up bigtime. Now again, it could be argued that BSU, being the big dog in the WAC was attracting the best of the best in that conference and the competition was just not at a level to present much of a challenge. And when he arrived at Colorado he was competing with the likes of Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma (for recruits as well as on the field). Again, is this due to the players and competition, or the coaching ability? In this situation I would tend to say the former, because if it was coaching ability, it would stand to reason he would not get worse with more experience.

Of course, Urban Meyer went from Utah, where he was very successful, to Florida, where he was also very successful.

In my opinion, Urban Meyer is the most appropriate of the comparisons. He had shown the ability to be successful at a less prestigious program that is not a traditional powerhouse, and was able to continue that success on a bigger stage. I think if Bill Snyder were at a school where recruiting higher caliber athletes was not difficult, he would have at at least one NC ring in his collection.

I just don’t know if any of these other coaches could have taken KSU “Futility U”, which was on the verge of eliminating the football program altogether, to the heights that Bill Snyder has.

We’ll never know, because the next coach at KSU who is successful has a pattern to look at. It will never be the same as what HCBS had to deal with when he arrived.

that he wins football games is great.

I think he’s the best college football coach ever.

However he is in the discussion and was perfect for Kstate.

with the recruiting advantages the big names (OU, UT, the SEC powers, etc.) have. I really believe the man could not only build a dynasty, but also run a program that develops men in a positive fashion. There will never be another like him roaming the sidelines in the Little Apple.

One of the greatest, sure, but I do not believe he’s #1. Great coaches win and win the biggest prizes available. Snyder has won, but he has never won a national title, and only has one conference title.

Best I’ve seen in my lifetime.

People expect Texas, LSU, Alabama, etc, to send lots of players to the NFL because they get all of the 4 and 5 star recruits.

KSU under HCBS has had a lot of players go play at the next level but they all started out as castoffs, unwanted 3 star high school players, and so on.

I’m not sure Snyder wanted or wants anything more than what he does at KSU. He coaches young men in a sport he loves and in the process, teaches them how to succeed in life. He had opportunities to go coach at other schools and in the NFL and he didn’t even sniff in the direction of anything else. As someone above pointed out, lots of other successful coaches left positions where they were successful because they thought the grass was greener and they would have that opportunity for the BIG win. HCBS is still here, still plugging away, and from all indications, very happy to have stayed put. The guy just isn’t tied into glory. But that I could be as grounded as this guy.