MANHATTAN, Kan. _ After decades of receiving near universal love from Kansas State football fans, Bill Snyder is suddenly in need of a popularity boost.
He works at a stadium that bears his name and features a statue of his likeness, but Snyder is currently facing the same stress levels of any other struggling coach. He could really use a win over TCU on Saturday, not just to help K-State turn around a disappointing season, but to show critics he remains the man best suited to lead this team.
Fan unrest has reached levels previously unseen during Snyder's second tenure following last week's 51-14 loss to Oklahoma, in which the Wildcats (3-5, 1-4 Big 12) allowed an astounding 702 yards. For the first time, perhaps, the most successful coach in school history with nicknames like wizard and legend seems to have more doubters than believers.
"I understand it," K-State athletic director Gene Taylor said. "I think we all had expectations that were a lot different than where we are as a team right now. Whether it was realistic or fair, I don't know. But I think we all thought we would be in a better spot than we are right now. I understand the frustration. We are all frustrated, Coach is frustrated, they all want to be better and playing better than what we have been."
That should make for a fascinating upcoming month of football.
Though Snyder signed a new five-year contract in August that will pay him $3.2 million this season and contains a $3 million buyout, his future is in doubt. Some are beginning to wonder if he might opt for retirement rather than another rebuild at age 79. The last time K-State finished the regular season with a losing record under Snyder was the same year he initially decided to retire in 2005.
Three news outlets that cover K-State football, including the school newspaper, posted columns this week calling for Snyder to retire. This is uncharted territory for the most iconic man in town.
Then again, the season is far from lost. The Wildcats still have a realistic path to bowl eligibility. With a closing schedule that includes TCU (3-5, 1-4), Kansas (3-5, 1-4), Texas Tech (5-3, 3-2) and Iowa State (4-3, 3-2), it wouldn't be a shock to see K-State go on a winning streak.
"We were 3-4 at one point last year getting the same questions and we turned it around and won five of six," Taylor said. "I still see a team out here that is capable of winning the rest of the games and playing well, because I've seen it. It's there. Can we be consistent enough to finish off strong? I still believe we can."
Taylor furthered that point by mentioning how K-State "owned" Oklahoma State 31-12 three weeks ago and nearly pulled off a second-half comeback against Texas. The Longhorns turned around and beat the Sooners, then the Cowboys upset the Longhorns. That shows Taylor the Wildcats are still within striking distance of the Big 12's best teams, regardless of what happened last week.
Alex Barnes leads the Big 12 in rushing yards and right tackle Dalton Risner is an All-America candidate. There are positives.
"Oklahoma has done that to a lot of people," Taylor said. "You look at what happened on the field and we look far away from Oklahoma, but I don't know if that is really the case."
For now, serious discussions about Snyder's future will have to wait.
Snyder said earlier this week that he won't think about retirement until the season ends. Taylor said he would also prefer to delay that conversation, opting to support his football coach as much as possible over the final four games. Still, that will be an important meeting whenever it takes place.
"Depending on how we finish this year," Taylor said, "we will have a lot of different things to talk about."
Until then, Snyder will try his best to right the ship. He has led K-State to eight straight bowl games. Extending that streak is everyone's goal.
It won't be easy, given the team's current lack of momentum, but Snyder has been here before.
"I think all seasons are taxing," he said. "It's long, it's hard, it's 16 hours a day, seven days a week. It's certain that taxing is the right word. It would be considered to be more taxing if you were not having the success that you felt that you were capable of. For me, that's not about the wins and the losses. It's about our youngsters doing as well as they're capable of doing. Preparing as well as they can, playing as well as they can. I can live with the results if they've done the very best that they can. That's part of life's lessons, trying to do the dead-level best as you can. Then, if you do that, you live another day."
Snyder seemed to question his methods briefly last week, when he took a somber approach following the Oklahoma loss. He said he wasn't sure if the K-State football team had been in this condition before and more or less shrugged his shoulders when asked about the obvious talent disparity between the Sooners and Wildcats.
He seemed numb to the situation.
"I saw a different feel to him than after all the other games," Taylor said. "I kind of get it. He just got beat pretty handily. A lot of people would go in there down. Coach is not an angry guy, he was probably just disappointed."
The Wildcats will face more difficult questions during the offseason, when they try to replace seniors like Risner and defensive back Duke Shelley. Roster attrition has hit K-State hard over the past two seasons, with nearly 30 players leaving the team for reasons other than graduation, and a string of lackluster recruiting classes leaves the coaching staff with serious ground to make up.
Maybe those challenges, combined with a humbling loss, piled up in Snyder's mind for one afternoon. But he was back to his normal self when practice begin on Monday.
"He doesn't change," Risner said. "When everyone is pointing fingers and wanting to know what's wrong with the program and asking, 'Should we get new coaches? Do the players care? Do the players even want to be there? Do they (stink)?' That's the way it is. It's negative. But I'm not going to let that change the team that we are. We aren't going to let the bad times turn us into people that we aren't or make us give in. I think he does a really good of being a representative of that. Even when things are bad, he stays the same person."
Snyder's mettle will be tested over the next month. It's been a while since he dealt with this much negativity.
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