No later than I posted up this week’s Barspot review, did I come to discover that K-State made a choice on their next head coach.  And so, moving forward into future, the Kansas State Wildcats next coach is Bill Snyder.  Yes, that Coach Bill Snyder.  So the Wildcats and Jon Wefald go back to family and bring in the 69 year old wonder kid to go around the block again.  And that was the theme of the press conference this morning.  Family or in this case Family Squared.

The rumors popped up late last night when Jefery Martin of the Kansas City Star posted a quick news blurb about inside sources confirming Snyder’s acceptance.  Earlier this month we saw the fiasco of Ron Prince being fired and then another source dropping in Gary Patterson as replacement, only to backfire.  So this Purple Yeti was not so quick to jump to conclusions.  Listening in this morning on a local sports radio station, it took until up to 3 minutes before the conference to confirm that yes, Bill Snyder is K-State’s new coach.

Jon Wefald was the first to hit the stand and after wowing us with another Rhodes Scholar and a Carnegie National Professor of the year, he announced that Snyder is the new head coach.  Wefald then proceeded to compare Snyder to the likes of Joe Paterno, Ronald Regan, and John McCain.  His point?  That even old dogs can learn new tricks.  Granted the closest comparison Snyder makes with the above 3 is Paterno.  I’m not sure most kids today know of Ronald Regan, and the other politician in John McCain just lost an election.  Not a good signal to send out to recruits.

The waffling aside, Wefald stepped out of the way and let Snyder take the mic.  The first thing he did was speak on how family was the most important thing in his life.   He then said that Bill Snyder Family Stadium should have a ‘2’ superscripted above Family.  K-State is his second family and he feels the need to come back to his other family and help smooth it out in this flux period.  He also said that he realized it was a mistake right after he retired because he didn’t realize that his family wanted him to continue coaching.

So about three years of hanging out in the facilities and wanted to coach again led us to this day.  Okay, the KU blow out last week and Ron Prince’s subsequent firing led us too.  That’s when the opportunity came up and Bill Snyder considered coming back to coach.  Snyder gave credit to Prince, but it sounds like Prince was a marked man on the first day.  I really feel bad for Prince now.

I think this is where the problem lies right now at Kansas State.  It’s not the coaches.  It’s the Athletic Department.  Jon Wefald wants to save face on his way out and Bob Krause is desperetely trying to make an impression.  They get ansty and fire Prince then turn around and run out Gary Patterson because they can’t keep business secrets in the family.  Bill Snyder even took a couple of minutes to lambaste whoever let out that he was coming back last night instead of giving him the time to tell his family.  Granted information flies fast nowadays, but you’d figure a guy in the own department and who put K-State on the map deserves some respect in timing the announcement.

So today Snyder’s back.  Is it a good thing?  I don’t know.  When asked, everyone knowing the methodical tactition that he is, what kind of staff he has ready to go, he said he hasn’t thought of that yet.  Yeah, he had a lot of mind chewing to figure out if he wants to come back, but it sounds like he wanted to come back for 3 years and he’s telling us he doesn’t have anyone in mind?  Okay, I’ll let it pass this time, but I’m a little worried for this second time around.

I know one thing for sure, Snyder will get a better staff together.  The turnaround was too much with Ron Prince and his staff.  AD buffonery aside, Snyder will get the ship straightened out.  How much so?  Probably not as much as he did back in the heyday.  I wish Snyder the best in his second effort and hope that when he picks his successor that he does what he does best, and keep it in the family.