Bill Snyder’s 16 goals remain foundation for Kansas State football in 2017

“We found out when everybody found out, and you wouldn’t have noticed anything was different with him (Snyder) and we had a team meeting a week later and he acted like nothing was wrong. He was unaffected by it or at least wouldn’t let us see he was. That’s just a testament to the kind of guy he is, you didn’t see any changes in him.” –-Dalton Risner on Bill Snyder.

The last image you saw of Kansas State football was a triumphant bunch of Wildcats wearing silver and purple happily celebrating a Texas Bowl victory over Texas A&M. 

The 33-28 victory over the Aggies catapulted the Wildcats into early discussions of making the 2017 Big 12 Championship Game. Then things took a turn, a much concerning turn rather quickly in the offseason. On February 13rd, the now 77-year-old head coach announced that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer. In the announcement, Snyder commented that he was alerted of the diagnosis shortly before the Texas Bowl.

Snyder underwent treatments throughout the spring practices and returned to the 2017 Kansas State spring game. Snyder’s commitment to his team and the program matches up with many of the “16 Goals for success” that Snyder has developed for the Kansas State program. Those goals include the following:

• Commitment
• Unselfishness
• Unity
• Improve
• Be Tough
• Self-Discipline
• Great Effort
• Enthusiasm
• Eliminate Mistakes
• Never Give Up
• Don’t Accept Losing
• No Self-Limitations
• Expect To Win
• Consistency
• Responsibility

However, as longtime assistant Andre Coleman describes it, there is one goal that sums up Snyder so much.

“Leadership, I mean he’s a leader.” Coleman said.

Coleman, along with five other coaches at Kansas State lead the nation in players who’ve returned to coach at their alma mater.

“I’m learning from one of of the greatest leaders to ever coach this game,” Coleman said. “I’m blessed to come into work every day and learn form a hall of fame coach. I was blessed to play for a hall of fame coach and I’m just soaking up as much as I can because being apart of this program helped me in the real world, adversity hit—you know if you go through things. That’s life, everybody goes through things. It’s roller coasters, it’s a series of ups and downs—when you’re down, it’s those 16 goals that help you fight back and bounce back. It helped me as a player, it helped me as a man and it’s helping me now as a coach.”

I’m blessed to come into work every day and learn form a hall of fame coach. I was blessed to play for a hall of fame coach and I’m just soaking up as much as I can because being apart of this program helped me in the real world

Another of the 16 goals that came into play this past offseason is unity. In July,  Kansas State offensive lineman Scott Frantz came out and announced that he was gay in an interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe. Junior cornerback Duke Shelley remembers how that moment brought the team together a year before.

“Scott’s a great guy. I mean we came in as freshman together and you’re interacting with people and you establish relationships since you’re always around that person and I had no idea.” Shelley said.”

“Never though that he was until we had a team bonding thing and he comes out and everybody really came together from that moment on, we just flocked together. We’re just a family. When he came out over the summer, I just walked into the facility and they told me Scott’s on ESPN and I was like for what? It shows the type of guy that he is. He’s not hiding from anything and he wants to help other people so that’s cool.”

As Kansas State is primed to open the 2017 season, Snyder’s health is an obvious question and he’s answered some those with a few simple adjustments.

“I drink water all day. Snyder said. Between water and food, it’s driving me crazy. They give me x-number bottles of water every day and I have had more water in the last four months than I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’ve also had more food placed in front of me in the same time period or whatever than I’ve had in my entire life. I’m doing fine, just getting acclimated to everything again.”

When it comes to the team Snyder coaches on the field, the Wildcats return veterans on offense, defense and special teams. Something that will be needed in a Big 12 conference that is nothing but easy. With the Big 12 title game returning this season the climb up the Big 12 mountain will require that experience.

“I think the fact you mentioned we have some experience helps. Snyder said. We also have some experienced guys with some speed and when they don’t have that experience, that speed gets negated sometimes because you can’t get your feet moving fast enough the way you want them to.”

The Wildcats return 14 starters combined from both sides of the ball. That’s not as much as Oklahoma, TCU or Texas. However, it’s the experience that Snyder calls on that will give Kansas State a chance to contend in the Big 12.

Kansas State Wildcats Football

“The experience is beneficial to them because if they’ve taken advantage of the experience they have then they feel more comfortable and they understand schemes and what defenses do and they’re better at reacting quicker. They get in and out of assignments better, would be my guess.” Snyder said.

One player who will go a long way in deciding how the Wildcats season will go is quarterback Jesse Ertz. The Wildcat signal caller came back from multiple knee injuries to be one of four quarterbacks in FBS to rush for over 1,000 yards and pass for over 1,500 yards in 2016.

“I think—dealing with the injuries that he’s had to deal with has to be frustrating for anybody and seeing him on the field and finally getting healthy last season you know was special and to see him have that kind of success,” Coleman said.

“The thing is Jesse played a lot of the season hurt so he still wasn’t 100 percent healthy however this season it’s good to have him back. I’m just excited for him.”

In 2015, Kansas State introduced a lot of youth to the nation and the Wildcats responded fighting their way to a 6-6 regular season record. In 2016 they battled their way to improve on that with a nine-win season capped off by a bowl bid. 2017 brings respect along expectations in the form of a preseason ranking of 19th in the USA Today/Amway coaches poll.

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“It’s been great because I’ve seen it all happen,” Shelley said. The good and the bad, we’ve seen it all. We went from nobody respecting us to—wow, our team is getting some love and respect we deserve. We knew we deserved it and now we have it.”