Thanks, Coach

“Wins and championships (are) the shiny lucre that fans are actually paid in....” - Scipio Tex

Bill Snyder won his 200th game as head coach of the Kansas State Wildcats today. Poetically, the win was a Senior Day triumph over K-State’s in-state rival, KU.

Let’s take a moment to consider what Bill Snyder means to K-State football.

• When Bill Snyder took over at K-State in 1989, the Wildcats’ all-time record was 316-532-40 (.353 winning percentage).
• In 1989, K-State was 86 wins behind Iowa State, the next-worst team in the Big 8. K-State is now tied with Iowa State at 515 all-time wins.
• K-State hadn’t won so much as a conference championship since 1934, when the Wildcats won the Big 6.
• K-State had never won a bowl game and only played in one.

Let’s consider Snyder’s record in comparison to the above numbers.

• Bill Snyder’s winning percentage is .652.
• Snyder owns at least 30 percent of K-State’s all-time wins against the schools that constituted the Big 8 Conference in 1989. Against those schools that are still members of the Big 12, Snyder owns more than 40 percent of K-State’s all-time wins against those schools.
• K-State has won two Big 12 championships under Snyder.
• Snyder has taken K-State to 17 bowl games.

Programs simply don’t change their fortunes like this. Or if they do, it doesn’t last. Remember when Gary Barnett won two Big 10 titles at Northwestern? Or a decade later when Jim Grobe won the ACC at Wake Forest? Those programs didn’t sustain the momentum built by those coaches.

Turning around a program to this extent requires an excellent coach, program and personnel manager. And then that person has to stay where he is. And then that person has to fight complacency.

Bill Snyder has done all of this, much to the benefit of K-State fans.

Thanks, Coach.