http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/sports/ncaafootball/at-kansas-state-bill-snyder-shares-a-bond-with-his-son-sean.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&Sharing a Family Bond Off and on the Field
Orlin Wagner/Associated Press
LHC Bill Snyder, talking to his team during a timeout, works closely with his son Sean, who is the associate head coach and director of football operations.
By TIM ROHAN
Published: October 19, 2012
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On the rare occasion when LHC Bill Snyder would stop working and be able to spend time with his children Sean, Shannon and Meredith, he would tell them stories about his mother.
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Orlin Wagner/Associated Press
Coach LHC Bill Snyder, 73, and No. 4 Kansas State are unbeaten heading into Saturday’s game against No. 17 West Virginia.
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Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press
LHC Bill Snyder with Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops after a 24-19 victory in Norman on Sept. 22. The Wildcats are 6-0 this season.
How she had raised him herself in their downtown, one-bedroom apartment in St. Joseph, Mo. How she had worked at a department store to be able to send him to college. How she had thrown herself — all 4 feet 9 inches — in front of the door when he tried to leave without permission.
Or how he had broken curfew when his divorced father bought him a convertible for his 16th birthday, and how she had told his father, “Either you come and get the car, or I’m going to drive it in the river.”
Some weekends, he went to see his father three hours away, but he grew to be his mother’s son: accountable, consistent, meticulous. Even obsessive. Every detail mattered. If any little thing was left undone, he came to believe, there would be consequences.
Now 73, Snyder, the patriarchal Kansas State football coach, has his Wildcats (6-0) ranked No. 4, wringing the most out of their talent as they travel to face No. 17 West Virginia on Saturday. It is what he does. Now in his 21st season in Manhattan, Kan., Snyder has rescued perhaps the nation’s worst major-college program, retired, returned and has now done it again. His secret is in the details.
This he taught to his oldest child, Sean. So when Snyder retires again — the decision of when that happens will almost assuredly be his — he will recommend his son as his successor, he says.
But for some time, Sean had longed not to succeed his father, but simply to know him better. Snyder worked 16-hour days as a young coach under Hayden Fry at North Texas. That earned him a job at Iowa when Fry went there in 1979. That pace also earned Snyder a divorce. He had not been around much at home, sometimes waking up the children at night to play with them.
In their home’s narrow hallway, he taught Sean how to carry a football and how to tackle.
Then at Iowa, Snyder mostly saw Sean and his sisters each summer. The first thing he asked about was school. He never yelled, never swore, never raised his voice, but if their grades had slipped, he checked their progress nightly come fall.
Those summers, Sean watched his father. He wondered: Why the act? Why the discipline? Why the work?
A soccer player, Sean joined his high school football team to punt, to make it to Iowa, to answer all of the whys.
“If you want to punt, then how are you going to be good at it?” Snyder asked, making his son plan, strategize and set goals. This was a lesson; Snyder raised his children the way he coached his players. Sean learned to punt on his own and earned a scholarship to Iowa in 1988.
“Coming from a divorced family, to me, to be whole and fill everything out, there was a lot of areas I needed to learn,” Sean said, adding, “I needed to be around him to learn those things and understand a lot of previous years and put it together.”
After Sean’s freshman year, Kansas State interviewed his father for its head coaching position. No Division I team in the sport’s history had lost more games. The Wildcats played “home” games at Oklahoma and Nebraska, where their opponents’ fan bases would buy tickets and generate more revenue.
Steve Miller, then the athletic director, interviewed 18 other candidates, but only Snyder had a patient, long-term plan, and a calm, knowing presence.
He was hired, and in his first meeting with the team, addressing a group of players who had never played in a game Kansas State won, he explained his rules: no “ear screws” — his word for earrings — no foul language, no being late. At one point, a scholarship player stood up and left the room.
Snyder continued. They would wear blazers and ties on trips. They would practice Sundays at 8 a.m., so they should spend their Saturday evenings accordingly. They would act like gentlemen.
Sean joined his father in 1990, after being benched during his sophomore season. He moved with his wife and daughter to Manhattan, about two hours west of Kansas City, but his father made him walk on, because, Snyder said, “I wanted him to grow up and be able to take care of himself.”
By Sean’s senior year, he had earned a scholarship and was an all-American punter. He returned to Kansas State as a part-time assistant coach in 1994. By the time he became the director of football operations in 1996, the whys about his father had been answered, and the Wildcats’ program had been jump-started.
To overcome the losing, to build a powerhouse in the heart of Kansas, Snyder spent uncountable hours studying film. He recruited junior college players and gave opportunities to walk-ons.
“He sort of runs an orphanage,” said Mark Janssen, who co-wrote a book with Snyder. The trend started in 1997 when the athletic Michael Bishop transferred to Kansas State because Snyder let him play quarterback.
In one-on-one film sessions, they watched the same play hundreds of times, Bishop said. This went on for hours until Bishop, who would go on to be a Heisman Trophy finalist, excused himself for a bathroom break. That relentlessness helped the Wildcats win 11 games in six of the next seven seasons.
He bounced ideas off Sean, who handled off-the-field issues — from the budget, to travel, to personnel. Sean shared his father’s nose, lighter hair and now his work ethic.
Snyder said of his son: “I think he’s the only individual, other than myself, that really understands the totality of what the Kansas State program is all about.”
But Sean often made it home for dinner, and sometimes he sneaked out to have lunch with his wife. “In all the good ways, Sean is a miniature Bill,” his sister Shannon said.
Snyder’s teams eventually sputtered, winning four games in 2004 and five in 2005. He retired and for three years he attended his grandchildren’s activities.
The highway from the interstate to campus was named after him. The stadium was called LHC Bill Snyder Family Stadium. But Ron Price, Snyder’s replacement, was not LHC Bill Snyder. Details were missed, said Sean, who had stayed with the program.
Imagine Alabama without Bear Bryant, if Alabama won 66 percent of its games with him and less than 36 percent without him. Snyder was rehired in 2009 to fix the program again. He said he came back for the people.
Last season, he promoted Sean to associate head coach.
Snyder jokes that Sean’s contract requires him to bring his children to work. But Snyder’s family —he remarried while at Iowa and had two more children — says he is at ease these days, that he makes time. He says he is not slowing down.
There is much that looks the same. Players run the stadium stairs every Wednesday morning as punishment for missing class. Fifty-seven players on the roster either walked on or came from a junior college. Snyder’s quarterback, Collin Klein, is a dual threat and Heisman contender. Sean’s son, Tate, plays linebacker.
“When we feel like the waters are smooth, and the program is secure, then I’ll get back on to doing some other things in my life,” Snyder said in a phone interview this week. Then, he will recommend Sean as his successor.
“If I were to step down today, I certainly would,” he said, adding, “I think he’d be absolutely fantastic at it, but I wouldn’t encourage him to take the job.
“I’d rather see him live a more complete life than this.” Your next HC, Sean Snyder
<-With Sean's head.
