Manhattan (AP) — Legendary former Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder says he misses being on the field but has no interest in returning to the sidelines more than 18 months after wrapping up a Hall of Fame career.
Snyder stepped away in 2018 after 27 seasons on the sidelines that included winning 215 games, reaching 19 bowls and claiming a pair of Big 12 titles. He said he’s now mostly at home spending time with his wife and family.
“I don’t wake up thinking, ‘Boy do I miss football,’” Snyder told The Wichita Eagle during a recent video conference. “I don’t really think about it all that much.”
Snyder said that when he first retired in 2005, it took him about half a year to get accustomed to the new role. And though he returned from retirement three years later, it’s never bothered him since.
“I can’t say that I don’t miss being on the field, but it’s not something that I think about going back to,” Snyder said. “The time has come and passed and I enjoyed it.”
Snyder arrived at Kansas State in the fall of 1988, a nondescript offensive coordinator from Iowa who once coached high school swimming before learning under legendary Hawkeyes coach Hayden Fry. During his tenure in Manhattan, which began in the Big Eight, he weathered seismic shifts in college football. Along the way he overcame throat cancer, sent dozens of players to the NFL and gave countless more an opportunity to succeed on and off the field.
Snyder said he still talks to many of his former players and recently made the case for Michael Bishop and Darren Sproles to join him in the College Football Hall of Fame
Synder said he’s always loved mentoring young players and imparting wisdom. He offered insight to anyone struggling with the unprecedented times we’re living through.
“I would like to think that it would be virtually the same,” Snyder said. “With all the turmoil that goes on, one thing that stands at the top is the quality of character and the type of person that you are and the value system that you possess.”