Kansas State's Bill Snyder a legend on his own sideline

• The master of the 'miracle in Manhattan' has his team at 6-0 and ranked No. 3 in the nation.
• Snyder retired after the 2005 season, but returned three years later to 'calm the waters.'
• Players say coach demands hard work, but don't doubt the effectiveness of his methods.

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Cranes are visible long before the edifice rises into sight, and then the name on the facade slowly comes into focus.

There would be no Bill Snyder Family Stadium at Kansas State without Bill Snyder, the man who transformed one of the worst college football programs in the country into a persistent power.

"He is to K-State everything that Dean Smith is to North Carolina," former Kansas State athletic director Tim Weiser says. "He's THE guy."

When Snyder retired in 2005 after 17 seasons, the university named the stadium after him. It was fitting – Kansas State honoring his 136 victories and Snyder insisting upon the inclusion of the word "family" in the stadium's name to recognize both those closest to him and the larger community.

But his retirement didn't take.

Snyder's name remains on the building, but the coach is in his fourth season back on the sideline. His successor, a rookie head coach named Ron Prince, was fired during the 2008 season.

Snyder, now 73, agreed to return a few weeks after Prince's dismissal to, as he said at the time, "calm the waters." He became one of a handful of Football Bowl Subdivision coaches to leave and return to the same school – John Robinson at Southern California and Mike Riley currently at Oregon State being other notable examples.

To Kansas State fans, Snyder represents success. If he doesn't return, perhaps the ambitious $75 million, six-phase renovation project in progress on the stadium's west side doesn't happen.

Winning opens wallets, and the Wildcats are 6-0 and ranked No. 3 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.

The Wildcats are ranked fourth in the Bowl Championship Series rankings, behind Alabama and Florida, which both have won BCS national titles, and Oregon, which played for one in 2011.

Kansas State never has won a national championship, but Snyder came close in 1998, finishing the regular season with a 11-0 record before falling to Texas A&M in the Big 12 championship in double-overtime. The Wildcats were No. 1 at the time, and a victory would have sent them to the national title game.

That season came in the middle of what is known locally as the "decade of dominance" from 1993-2002, when the Wildcats played in 10 consecutive bowl games and won fewer than nine games in a season only once.

As good as Snyder was in building Kansas State football – Sports Illustrated once dubbed K-State "Futility U" – it could be argued he is even better in his second act. Honored as coach of the year three times by the Big Eight and three times by the Big 12, Snyder makes any list of best active coaches who haven't won a national title. What if Snyder were to do it this season? With a throwback quarterback in Heisman Trophy candidate Collin Klein? When no one saw it coming?

Forget stadium renovations — a statue might be next.

Recharged for return

When Snyder was re-introduced as head coach on Nov. 24, 2008, he said he had "made a quick decision" to leave. But he'd been thinking about retirement long before his announcement in 2005.

In 2004, the Wildcats finished 4-7, their first losing season since 1992, and Weiser recalls it was a significant event for Snyder, who had averaged 10 victories over the previous 11 seasons.

It was shortly before Christmas, and Snyder told Weiser he was ready to step down. Weiser was blind-sided.

"There are a few things in your career that get burned into your memory, things you'll never forget," says Weiser, now the Big 12's deputy commissioner. "This was one of those. It was a conversation that floored me."

Weiser urged Snyder to take the Christmas break to reconsider, a step he admitted was self-serving.

"It was so un-Bill-like," Weiser said. "Everything is so well thought out, scripted. This felt like it was sort of a knee-jerk reaction. Sure enough, after the 27th or something, we had recruits coming in. We talked again, and he said, 'You're right. It was more of a reflection of my frustration with things, and the kids – I didn't feel like I was getting through to them.'

"That ended at that point for him. It was back to business as usual."

Except it wasn't. Another losing season in 2005 led to another conversation.

"He said, 'A year ago, I was ready to quit – now I'm ready to retire,'

" Weiser said. "I thought that was such an important distinction."

In the final days of the 2005 season, Snyder was introspective, a bit nostalgic. A frequent topic of conversation was how the values of his players, and young people in general, had changed. Even though he added it was a reflection of society as a whole, his comments gave rise to the perception he was having difficulty relating to today's athletes.

Seven years later, getting through to the undefeated Wildcats doesn't seem to be an issue.

"Our guys have been good," Snyder said in an interview with USA Today Sports. "Collectively, for the most part, I like their value system."

Asked if there had been any problems since returning, Snyder shook his head no.

"The best I can say is what I said to our youngsters from the very outset: If you care about improvement, if you work hard and be committed to what we're doing, if you'll care about your football team, if you'll show discipline — all of the things you'll want your child, when that time comes, to possess, that you'll want to teach your children, then we'll have no issues whatsoever," Snyder said.

"We'll be on the same page. Now, if you don't believe those things, we've got a problem and we'd better sit down and talk."

That sounds familiar to Weiser, who never thought Snyder was out of touch. But he could see the coach might have been burned out from accomplishing what is can be referred to as a miracle at Kansas State.

"One of the things this business, maybe sports in general, doesn't give you is a chance to step back and recalibrate," Weiser said. "In the academic world, with faculty, they have an opportunity for sabbatical. To me, it's an opportunity to step back and re-focus, to hit the reset button."

"For Bill, that's what the time away did. It made him more energized, now ready to take on the next round of battles."

Methods 'proven to work'

The legend is intact.

More and more, Snyder's subpar 2004 and 2005 seasons appear to be aberrations. At least that's the view of Kansas State wide receiver Chris Harper.

A native of Wichita, Harper attended Oregon for one season. But he missed home and wanted to play football at whichever school – Kansas or K-State – was the dominant program.

Harper chose Kansas State, redshirting in 2009. The Wildcats were 7-6 in 2010 and 10-3 in 2011, playing in bowl games both years. At 6-0 this season, the Wildcats believe anything is possible.

Under Prince, the Wildcats lost to the Jayhawks three straight years. But Snyder has dominated Kansas, having won 17 of 21 meetings after a 56-16 victory Oct. 6.

It's the sort of success Harper says comes from the hard work Snyder demands.

The Wildcats endured a three-hour practice Tuesday, complete with the customary grumbling.

"You still complain about it, but we go out and do it," Harper said. "It's proven to work. It's what we do. You push yourself further than you knew you could. In the process, he makes you tougher."

Such talk likely would elicit a smile from Snyder – if he weren't consumed with Saturday's showdown at West Virginia. He'd say Harper's response is the reason he started coaching, and why he came back.

"It was about the people," Snyder told USA Today Sports. "The university, the community, Manhattan and, certainly, about the young people. That was important.… It was centered around the people. (My return) didn't have anything to do with football."