Big 12 Head Football Coaches Ranked: No. 1-5
Jan 2, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Kansas State Wildcats coach Bill Snyder before the 2015 Alamo Bowl against the UCLA Bruins at Alamodome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
No. 1: Bill Snyder, Kansas State
In 1989, Kansas State was the worst college football program in the history of the sport. In 93 seasons, the program had a record of 299 – 510 (.370), the most losses of any team in Division 1 football at the time. Amazingly, the Wildcats had only been to one bowl game in program history.
Snyder’s lone win in his first season (1989) was cause for celebration because it was the first win for Kansas State football in three seasons. By 1991, the Wildcats had a winning season at 7-4, and the 1993 Copper Bowl win was the program’s first postseason victory.
Snyder would lead the Wildcats to ten straight bowl games from 1994 – 2003. In 1998, Kansas St. went 11-0 and was ranked No. 1 but fell to Texas A&M in the Big 12 Title game. In 2003, Snyder captured his first Big 12 title by upsetting Oklahoma in the conference title game.
After retiring in 2005, Snyder did the impossible again. He rescued the Kansas State program for a second time. In three years, Ron Prince went 17-20 at Kansas State prompting Snyder to return to the sidelines in 2009. Since then, the Wildcats have not had a losing season and have two 10-win seasons, and handed Snyder his second conference title in 2012.
What has made Snyder’s success remarkable is the fact that he has built a winning program without having highly-touted recruiting classes. Since Snyder’s return in 2009, Kansas State’s recruiting classes have been ranked 63 in the country, on average. The highest ranked class was 2013’s 45th best class.
Bill Snyder inherited an impossible job at a program with no history, no fan support, uncompetitive facilities, and worst of all, no hope. Yet, somehow Snyder has not only been successful, he has built a winner that has not seen NCAA sanctions while under his guidance. He has also remained one of the kindest and classiest coaches in any sport in America. Often, he delivers hand written notes of encouragement to opposing players during pre-game warm-ups.
Hall of Fame football coach Barry Switzer of Oklahoma once said of Snyder, “He’s not the coach of the year, he’s not the coach of the decade, he’s the coach of the century.” Looking at where Kansas State is as a program today versus where it was in 1989, it is hard to argue against that point.