http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/insider/news/story?id=2932087COACH AND PROGRAM
Upon arriving at Kansas State before last season -- his first both wearing the Wildcat purple and as a head coach -- Kansas native Ron Prince shied away, to put it mildly, from any talk about "replacing" former head coach and Kansas State legend Bill Snyder.
Because no coach, no matter how confident in his own abilities, attempts to "replace" the guy whose name is on the stadium where his school's home games are played.
"That word was never in our lexicon. We never used it once," Prince said. "We came in knowing Kansas State had some success at a very high level, at a national level in the past. We just wanted to build from that and continue to field the kind of team that the people of Kansas would be proud of.
"Because of my familiarity with the region, being from around here, I have a pretty good sense of the values of the people around here. I know what they want and what they expect, and that was our initial goal to give them the kind of team they would get behind. We didn't come here to replace anybody."
No doubt Prince and the Wildcats have already made fans of Kansas State proud. More importantly, he's given the fan base good reason to believe that the program's absence from the Big 12 elite will be very short lived.
After totaling at least nine wins in seven of their first eight years in the super conference, the Wildcats had seen their status slide a bit as they combined for just nine wins in 2004 and 2005.
But all signs are clearly pointing up after Prince's first season, one in which the Wildcats not only won seven games, but also returned to the bowl scene by making an appearance in the inaugural Texas Bowl.
Along the way, there were signs of progress that suggest this seven-win season could very well be just a starting point. The Wildcats, once adjusted to a new coaching staff and system, closed the regular season by winning three of their last four games -- earning that bowl bid along the way. Two of those three wins were notable in themselves -- one coming at Colorado, and another coming against the No. 4-ranked and defending national champion Texas Longhorns, on national television to boot.
"On a national level, beating Texas was obviously a huge win for us," Prince said. "It was the Heidi game. Wake Forest was beating Florida State I think 33-0, so they decided to put our game on national television from coast to coast and all of America got to see that game. It couldn't have happened at a better time for us, because now when we go to high schools to recruit, they recognize us. People started saying we were back. My point was Kansas State had been winning those types of games for a long time, and we want it to be like that again."
Even with the national spotlight on the Texas game, Prince said he believes the victory against Colorado -- the Wildcats' first in Boulder since 2000 -- was the real turning point of his squad's season.
"That game was critical," he said. "Winning road games in general had been very difficult for us, so for us to go there and win that game on the road, to me was probably our biggest win of the year. For what we want to do in the future, winning that game was significant."
Those significant wins helped Prince and the Wildcats join some elite company for levels of success so early in their tenure.
Not only did Prince become the first coach in school history to take his team to a bowl game in his inaugural season, he was just the fourth Big 12 coach ever to take over a team coming off a losing season and guide it to a bowl berth in his first year. The other three: Mack Brown at Texas (1998), Gary Barnett at Colorado (1999) and Bob Stoops at Oklahoma (1999).
Not bad company considering two of those three have gone on to win national championships at their respective schools.
So how, exactly, did Prince do it?
For starters, he placed an overwhelming emphasis on special teams -- an often overlooked but incredibly important segment of college football, and one that can often help teams pull off upsets against deeper, more talented squads.
Oddly enough, that's no stretch from the way Snyder did things in Manhattan. Kansas State has long been known as a very dangerous squad on special teams, and it's a tradition Prince wanted to continue.
"We weren't the most talented team in the league," he said. "We did have some talented players, and that helped us, but having those kids also being willing to go grind it out and play in the kicking game gave us a chance to win all the games we won.
"We knew we would have some transition to make in offense and defense. But Kansas State has been a very good special teams program for a long time. We wanted to hang our hat on that, and that's what we did."
Did they ever. For starters, the Wildcats broke a 38-year-old school record by returning three kickoffs for touchdowns, which also tied them with Indiana for the most in the country. With an average kickoff return of 27.14 yards, the Wildcats led the nation in that category, too, but their special teams mastery wasn't just limited to returning kickoffs.
Kansas State also led the nation in total special teams touchdowns with seven (three kickoff returns, three punt returns, one fumble return) and ranked in the top 25 nationally in kickoff return defense (18th), punt returns (16th) and field goals (24th) while also blocking three punts.
The special teams tradition is clearly protected under Prince. Now, he wants to take Kansas State to another level. hoping to once again see the Wildcats play not only in the Big 12 championship game, but also to figure in the national championship picture yet again, as they did in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Getting there requires more than just winning. It requires playing big games and learning lessons along the way. Kansas State could get an early one this season as the Wildcats open their schedule on the road. This year, however, they'll do so at SEC power Auburn.
And it's just the kind of game Prince can't wait to play.
"I didn't only agree to that game, I wanted that game," he said. "I think it's exactly what our team needs right now in our development. If we want to get into the position to win the [Big 12] North and play in our conference championship game, we need to play these kinds of games.
"We need to go prove ourselves on a national stage, and that game will be a clear indicator of where we are and how we match up and what things we need to work on, no matter the outcome."
