One of the big problems I have with Snyder is that he allowed his name to be put on the stadium. It seemed like a cool idea at the time, but in retrospect, I think it hurt the (possible) attractiveness of the K-State job. While most reasonable fans want a new coach, it's going to be extremely difficult to get an up-and-comer who is interested in sticking around for the long term.
Now, it was going to be difficult anyway because it's MHK. I get that. But K-State no longer offers a coach the opportunity to come in and make a name for himself the way Snyder did in 1989. Not when you must drive down LHC Bill Snyder HIGHWAY to get into Manhattan, and not when you have to coach every day at LHC Bill Snyder FAMILY STADIUM.
Who wants to put up with that?
Say what you want about Ron Prince, but Snyder didn't do him any favors. He still made his home in Manhattan and even in retirement was extremely visible on campus and in the community. Aside from a letter to the Collegian, Snyder never once offered support for Prince. And when the idiots called for Snyder to return, you got the impression that he couldn't get enough of the attention, that he wanted to come back and prove to everybody he could do it again. Snyder has an ego, and he does a terrible job of trying to hide it.
By comparison, Bobby Bowden left (was forced out) at Florida State, and has come to accept it, even though he isn't happy about the way things went down. He doesn't live in Tallahassee and has only been to one FSU home game all season, and that's because he was invited as a special guest. "I don't want to be a distraction," Bowden has said over and over. He did write a book, but of course he was going to write a book. He's Bobby Bowden.
LHC Bill Snyder, as good as he is, is no Bobby Bowden.
But if you're the next coach at K-State, it sure feels like it.
We're going to start from ground zero again due to Snyder's selfishness and inability to walk away from the game properly.
Nobody wants to be the coach that follows THE coach. (You hear this all the time). And nobody wants to be the coach that follows the coach with his effing name on the stadium.
That's why the Patterson hire following Prince was so important - the golden opportunity that we pissed away.
All that being said, I thought we could potentially bypass this with Snyder building a staff with a viable head coach in waiting. What's become evident is either he is incapable or simply unwilling to do so. Which means, a second retirement without any succession plan whatsoever, exactly the same as when he mumped us the last time with his departure and the administration hired
Snyder is so perplexing. As much as he supposedly loves this football program, he is amazingly careless about the long term legacy he chooses to leave. It's very bizarre.
