Bill Snyder is a living legend to whom Kansas State owes almost everything. Almost.
As I wrote last November:
Snyder built the program from a pile of rat-infested sewage into one of the most reliable and respected programs in college football. He deserves his place in the College Football Hall of Fame. He deserves his place among college football's legendary coaches. And he deserves to have his name forever emblazoned on Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Bill Snyder, however, does not deserve to pick his successor as head coach of Kansas State football.
That was written on Nov. 17, 2017, six days after Kansas State lost to West Virginia to fall to 5-5 on the season. They beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater a day later and finished 8-5, Snyder's 16th season with at least eight wins. The program's 20 other head coaches have combined for one season with at least eight wins.
It wasn't Snyder's best year, but it was enough to keep the optimism flowing in Manhattan and enough for second-year athletics director Gene Taylor to offer a five-year extension to the then-78-year-old entering his 27th overall season as head coach.
I wrote that because, a day earlier, Brett McMurphy reported, in 2016, Kansas State agreed to add Jim Leavitt, then-Colorado defensive coordinator and current Oregon defensive coordinator, to their staff for the 2017 season and have him replace Snyder in 2018.
"Sources said Kansas State’s top officials, including president Richard Myers, and the school’s highest-profile boosters were all on board with Leavitt, then a Colorado assistant, joining KSU's staff and then replacing the legendary Snyder after the 2017 season," McMurphy wrote. "Leavitt and the school had an agreement, guaranteeing Leavitt $3 million if he wasn’t named K-State’s coach by Jan. 1, 2018."
Snyder vetoed the hire and insisted that his son, Sean Snyder, would be his successor. Sean Snyder, currently associate head coach and special teams coordinator, played at Kansas State and has been on the Wildcats' staff since 1994.
Was it an unreasonable request? Nope.
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Bill Snyder has earned the right to share his preference (and, of course, he can veto a current staff addition). He does not, however, have the right to demand such a preference, and, more importantly, Kansas State can't allow Snyder to control the football program's future.
Taylor and the university's leadership can give Snyder veto power if they wish, which they clearly did, but if they believe Sean Snyder isn't the best option, which they clearly do, they cannot bend to Snyder. Kansas State must make a decision that's best for the short- and long-term future of current and future student-athletes and the entire university.
A year later, Kansas State is 5-6 and in need of a win in their final regular-season game — at Iowa State — to avoid their first five-win season since 2008. Lately, Snyder has been criticized for, among other things, blocking transfers (including preventing Corey Sutton's transfer to 35 different schools) and accused of withholding bowl rings and violating NCAA rules on practice limits.
"He needs to retire. It's time," Gabe Crews, a former Kansas State State defensive lineman who made the bowl ring and NCAA violations accusations in a YouTube video last week, told CBS Sports this week "Kansas State needs a new fresh energetic face to bring that youth and spirit and energy to the program."
Those issues are brushed aside if Snyder was reeling off 10-win seasons and competing occasionally for Big 12 titles. Instead, they're 5-6, haven't finished better than third in the Big 12 since 2012 and currently have the 102nd-ranked 2019 recruiting class (247Sports).
If that's enough for a change — or, perhaps more likely, a messy divorce — Kansas State cannot allow Bill Snyder, a living legend who deserves almost everything, to control the football program's future.
