This is a photo of Bill Snyder during his post game press conference after a 51-14 loss to Oklahoma in which Oklahoma called off the dogs in the 3rd quarter in a game that could have been a lot worse.  Oklahoma racked up over 700 yards of offense and Kansas State was over matched from start to finish.  OU has better athletes and better coaches than K-State.  This game showed how far away K-State is from being a ranked team.  A very long way.

K-State dropped to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in conference with the loss.  Until this season it has been a rare occurrence to see a Bill Snyder coached team get blown out.  It does happen from time to time, but usually only once or twice a year.  This season K-State has lost to Mississippi State at home 31-10, at West Virginia 35-6, and at Oklahoma 51-14.  Three blowouts by more than three touchdowns in which K-State was not competitive at all in those games.

There are many reasons for the struggles.  Horrible recruiting has finally caught up with Snyder.  He can’t coach up the kids to be competitive against the top of the Big 12 anymore.  In comparison to other Big 12 teams, Snyder’s roster is slow, undersized and unskilled.  At the age of 79, Snyder will be unable to perform turnaround number three.  It’s going to be a difficult, multi-year process to get this football program turned around.  The next coach has quite a difficult job on his hands.  I don’t envy them.  The fan base is ready for Snyder to move on, and this time he’s not going to go out a hero like he did in 2005.  I believe it’s going to be a quiet retirement with no celebration.  And that is sad.  However, Snyder has brought this on himself.  He’s a stubborn guy and he wanted to stick it out as long as possible to try to get his son Sean enough experience in hopes that the administration would give him the head coaching job.  That’s definitely not going to happen now.

Would Brent Venables or Jim Leavitt come to K-State with the current condition of the program?  It would take quite a sales job to lure them to come to Manhattan at this point.  It would also take another “Miracle in Manhattan” to get this program turned around.  I’m not sure who has that in them or if anyone has that in them.  Gene Taylor has a difficult job on his hands.

It’s a pretty depressing time to be a K-State football fan.