NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -Kansas State wasn’t a popular pick to be the front-runner in the Big 12 North this season. You sure wouldn’t know it by talking to the pair of Bill Snyder disciples on the coaching staff at Oklahoma.
“I’m not surprised at all,” said Sooners coach Bob Stoops, who got his big break on Snyder’s staff with the Wildcats. “You do see a lot of similarities to all of coach Snyder’s teams: good solid defense, discipline, an excellent rushing attack. That’s where they always begin, along with the quarterback run game and every way conceivable to run the football and gain an advantage,”
“Good disciplined football, and sure it’s what I expected to see.”
After three years of struggles under Ron Prince, K-State (5-3, 3-1 Big 12) is right back in the championship race heading into Saturday night’s game at No. 22 Oklahoma (4-3, 2-1).
y team picked to finish behind K-State in the division in the conference’s preseason poll.
Snyder’s return got off to a shaky start with a four-point win against Massachusetts of the Football Championship Subdivision and then losses to Louisiana-Lafayette and UCLA. But what will matter is how the Wildcats finish.
After Oklahoma, the rest of their schedule features consecutive games against the teams expected to contend for the North title: Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Those games will determine whether K-State can return to the conference title game for the first time since 2003, when Snyder picked up his lone win against Stoops in six tries.
“Things didn’t go as well as they would have liked to early in the year, and he’s got the perfect demeanor to keep the ship righted and in the right direction and keep the waters calm and continued to focus every minute and every detail of every day,” said Sooners defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who played for Snyder before joining his staff.
“You just push to get better, work harder than you did the day before and stay focused. He provides that type of leadership and fosters that type of environment for his team to improve daily.”
a “tremendous amount” of his coaching style and he figures the same keys to Snyder’s previous success- a detailed plan, tireless work ethic and determination – are at the heart of his team’s current success.
“It’s not a bunch of schemes and tricks and a magic formula in how you play well,” Venables said. “It requires a great deal of investment, belief and work ethic to get consistency.”
The Wildcats’ success so far has been built around a strong running game led by Daniel Thomas that averages 186.5 yards per game. The Sooners will test that with the third-best rushing defense in the country, allowing just 70.1 yards per game. Oklahoma is also yielding just 10.1 points per game, the second-fewest in the nation, to give the offense a chance in every game despite the loss of Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and tight end Jermaine Gresham to season-ending injuries.
“Obviously, the defense is very impressive,” Snyder said. “All of the numbers would indicate that. The coaching background there would indicate that. Maybe equal to that is their ability to overcome the loss of their quarterback and replace him with young guys who are playing lights out.”
of the time.
“He’s more of like an old-school guy,” Sooners linebacker Travis Lewis said of Snyder. “He’s going to find little ways to hurt you and they’re going to put the ball downhill. They’re an option team, they like to run with that quarterback and I think they took on the personality of their coach because they’re a 10 times different team than they were last year.”
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