Bill Snyder Retires After 27 Total Years at Kansas State

After various reports surfaced earlier Sunday, Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder made it official. He will retire from coaching at the age of 79 after 27 total seasons in Manhattan (over two stints). Kansas State was his only head coaching post.

K-State makes it official. Bill Snyder is retiring. pic.twitter.com/nqGIDkd8pQ

— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) December 2, 2018

Snyder is a four-time Big 12 Coach of the Year and was named the unanimous national coach of the year in 1998, receiving the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year, the Walter Camp Coach of the Year and the AP Coach of the Year awards. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015.

Snyder holds an overall record of 215-117-1 (.647) and those 215 wins rank No. 15 all-time among FBS coaches. His 333 total games coached comes in at No. 14. But the Wildcats went 5-7 in 2018, posting a sub-.500 record for just the seventh time during his tenure which began in 1989. Although, he finished strong against Oklahoma State.

Snyder retired in 2005, but was rehired in 2009 after his successor went 17-20 in three seasons and failed to make a bowl for consecutive years. Under his leadership, Kansas State has been the third-winningest program in Big 12 history.

Mike Gundy talked about Snyder’s legacy at Kansas State and his imprint on college football as a whole prior to the two teams’ matchup last season.

“I don’t think there’s any question that he’s been as big an impact at Kansas State as any coach that’s ever coached in college football, based on where they started and where he’s taken them to,” said Gundy.

“I think that even though he’s a Hall of Famer, which he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, coaches can coach at certain schools and have an advantage. And then some coaches make their advantages with the commitment and what they put into that university and he’s a perfect illustration of that for what he’s done there.

“That’s an outsider looking in and I’m sure they would probably feel the same way, the administration there and the impact that he’s made on that university and that state over the period of time that he’s done it.

“Pretty huge, I would say.”