I'd like to think we are getting more competitive with KSU, but Old Balls always seems to put more stock into beating us than we do them.
K-State wasn't the same without Snyder. And either was this rivalry. "Well, it's not just this ballgame or this rivalry," Snyder said. "There's a lot of things to be thankful for. Just the fact that I'm still standing is certainly one of them. I'm thankful for the opportunities to do as you say, and to hopefully, it might not always be true, but hopefully to have a positive impact on the lives of young people, and to be invested in this program, and the people that surround the program.
"There are so many Kansas State people who truly care about it. We've been very blessed in that respect."
About 85 miles northeast on Interstate-70, another man has taken note of the rivalry that habitually sparks a purple flood in Lawrence. Charlie Weis wasn't there when K-State posted a 64-0 shutout in 2002. He wasn't there when K-State humiliated the Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium in 2010 and 2011. The 59-7 and 59-21 drubbings over overmatched Turner Gill sent purple fans spilling into vacant front rows in the stadium.
The Wildcats offered another familiar drilling to a first-year Kansas head coach with the 56-16 win last season in Manhattan. Weis saw the passion. He saw the pride. He said earlier this week that he didn't "get" the old Kansas-Missouri rivalry -- "I understand proximity and all that stuff, but I really don't feel it," he says -- while underscoring the importance of focusing on the in-state battle that's been so dominated by the Wildcats over the years.
"Coach Snyder has done a great job of magnifying the importance of this game from the K-State perspective," Weis says. "Kansas has to take more of that same mentality. That's what we tried to do. We started last year, but we've tried to put even greater emphasis on it this year, about the importance of this game."
Weis started a running countdown clock to the Sunflower Showdown this summer. He says the message of the game's importance can be found inside the Jayhawks' weight room.
At K-State, the importance of the rivalry is found in a trophy case stationed smack in the middle of the Vanier Football Complex lobby, where a Governor's Cup trophy maintains a comfortable resting place.
Snyder left for three years. So did the trophy. When he returned to the sideline, the trophy found its way back to Manhattan.
K-State players don't believe it'll leave again anytime soon.
"It's been here longer than I've been here," says junior center B.J. Finney, an Andale native. "You're used to seeing it. It means a lot being an in-state kid. You don't have to listen to all the KU fans say, 'Oh, we beat K-State.' That happens, but not in football."
And these days, definitely not under LHC Bill Snyder.
