Why Bill Snyder, not Nick Saban, is best college football coach

Bill Snyder may not have the decorations on his trophy case that Nick Saban does, but he’s still the best coach in college football today.

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National championship rings….zero.

Top 10 recruiting class rankings…zero

Heisman trophy winners…zero

Record in bowl games…7-9

Years on the job at his current school…24

No, this isn’t the resume of a coach who is about to be fired, or is on the proverbial hot-seat. This is part of the resume of the Kansas State Wildcats head coach, Bill Snyder.

And for all the lack of supposedly important items on the above list, Bill Snyder is still the best coach in college football today. Yes (Alabama fans should probably shield their eyes now), even better than Nick Saban.

While Saban may have fists full of rings, and trophy cases that are ready to topple with all the weight placed inside, he doesn’t hold a candle to the job that Snyder is able to do in Manhattan, Kansas.

I’m not sure there is any one coach who means as much to a program as Bill Snyder does to Kansas State, to be honest.

When Snyder arrived on the scene in Manhattan in 1989, he walked into a giant grease fire. The Wildcats were sporting an overall program record of 299–510 (.370) in their 93 years of play. They hadn’t won a conference title since 1934, and only managed four winning seasons in the 44 years prior to Snyder taking over.

They had also not won a game since October 1986, going 0-26-1 over that stretch.

Bill Snyder was taking on an impossible situation, and all the was really expected of him was to hold serve, win a few games, and keep the football program from becoming the laughing stock of the entire nation (if they weren’t already). But he did much more than that.

Take a look at what Snyder was able to do during his first five years.

1989: 1-10, 0-7 Big Eight
1990: 5-6, 2-5 Big Eight
1991: 7-4, 4-3 Big Eight
1992: 5-6, 2-5 Big Eight
1993: 9-2-1, 4-2-1, Big Eight

Snyder took a team that hadn’t won a game in over three seasons, and turned them into conference contenders, and winners of the 1993 Copper Bowl.

That alone should have been cause to celebrate and to give Snyder lifetime tenure at Kansas State, but he wasn’t done yet. In the years following, the Wildcats went on to eventually win three Big 12 North division titles, and one Big 12 conference title, and found themselves in the national championship discussion during all those seasons.

Then, after the 2005 season and two years of uncharacteristic losing records, Snyder decided it was time to retire. Only one day after announcing his retirement, Kansas State voted to rename its football stadium Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium to honor the coach and his family.

Originally the plan was to simply name the venue Bill Snyder Stadium, but Snyder insisted that “the people I care about most” be included in the name…his family. And when he left, the Wildcats continued in their patch of mediocrity, going 17-20 from 2006-2008 under Ron Prince.

Now 20 years ago, that kind of record would have been cause for celebration at Kansas State, but not now when they knew the program was capable of so much more.

You know how they always say that when someone is gone, and fans are wishing for more that “so-and-so isn’t walking through that door”.

Well, in 2009, Bill Snyder walked through that door.

And within a few seasons of returning, Snyder had the Wildcats once again winning conference titles and challenging the big boys for national championships.

Now, this could be the reclamation story of just about any program under any coach. But with Snyder, its something special. Kansas State was a nobody program in a conference full of big names and legendary coaches. They weren’t supposed to be good…ever. Every conference needs a whipping boy, and that was K-State’s job in the Big Eight/Big 12.

Nick Saban is able to pluck top recruits from trees and produce championships in a football factory seated in a Farmville of football factories, the SEC. Just log in and tend your crops on a daily basis, and you’ll be fine.

But Snyder, against all odds, has taken Kansas State and elevated the program to places it probably never should have been.

Snyder’s greatness goes way beyond W’s and L’s, X’s and O’s or any quantifiable statistic though. Just ask Baylor defensive coordinator and former Snyder assistant, Phil Bennett.

When Bennett’s wife Nancy was struck by lightning and killed in 1999, it was Bill Snyder who stood by his side and made sure he didn’t give up on life, family or his passion for coaching football. The story of bonding between the two coaches was chronicled in an ESPN feature this past season, and is a touching tribute to both men well worth watching.

The coaching tree that extends from Snyder’s tutelage is an impressive list, and all men who employ the same high standards and same unwavering sense of impeccable character as their mentor. Coaches like the above-mentioned Bennett, Bret Bielema, Mark Mangino, Carl Pelini, and even Bob and Mike Stoops, all cut their coaching teeth under Snyder.

And when it comes to players, Snyder goes out of his way to look for kids who not only display ability on the field, but also show signs of high character, and he molds these young men into the best athletes and citizens they can possibly be, stressing to them about living up to potential.

You can’t pay for the type of sterling reputation that Snyder has developed. He is revered by his peers, and adored by his players. The community of Manhattan would sooner burn down the entire town than strike an ill word against Bill Snyder.

College football needs more men like Snyder. The sport needs an infusion of high character and a moral compass.

The statistics in the opening stanza of this piece may never change, and for the folks in Manhattan, Ks., that’s just fine. To them — and you can stop in any 5-and-dime or breakfast nook in town and verify this statement — Bill Snyder is the greatest coach in college football.

I think they’re right.

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