Miracle In Manhattan - Documentary on Kansas St. and Bill Snyder.

MelroseHawkins

MelroseHawkins

Well-Known Member
People have heard HOW BAD Kansas St. has been in football in past years, but I'm not sure how many know really how bad they were and it was. This was the proverbial cemetery for college coaches. This was the worst program in college football by 60 losses to the next worse team. They had no money, horrific high school level facilities and a horrible culture. It was so bad they had such bad attendance and based on attendance the NCAA threatened to put them down to Div II. I didn't know the NCAA used that as a standard.

Anyway, this is a great documentary on how bad Kansas St. was and how they brought Bill Snyder in to change it. Mike Rowe narrates.

www.youtube.com

Miracle In Manhattan, Narrated by Mike Rowe w/ Music Composed by A$AP P

The true story of the greatest turnaround in college football history.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
MelroseHawkins said:
People have heard HOW BAD Kansas St. has been in football in past years, but I'm not sure how many know really how bad they were and it was. This was the proverbial cemetery for college coaches. This was the worst program in college football by 60 losses to the next worse team. They had no money, horrific high school level facilities and a horrible culture. It was so bad they had such bad attendance and based on attendance the NCAA threatened to put them down to Div II. I didn't know the NCAA used that as a standard.

Anyway, this is a great documentary on how bad Kansas St. was and how they brought Bill Snyder in to change it. Mike Rowe narrates.

www.youtube.com

Miracle In Manhattan, Narrated by Mike Rowe w/ Music Composed by A$AP P

The true story of the greatest turnaround in college football history.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Click to expand...
Definitely going to watch that when I get home. Thanks.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
People have heard HOW BAD Kansas St. has been in football in past years, but I'm not sure how many know really how bad they were and it was. This was the proverbial cemetery for college coaches. This was the worst program in college football by 60 losses to the next worse team. They had no money, horrific high school level facilities and a horrible culture. It was so bad they had such bad attendance and based on attendance the NCAA threatened to put them down to Div II. I didn't know the NCAA used that as a standard.

Anyway, this is a great documentary on how bad Kansas St. was and how they brought Bill Snyder in to change it. Mike Rowe narrates.

www.youtube.com

Miracle In Manhattan, Narrated by Mike Rowe w/ Music Composed by A$AP P

The true story of the greatest turnaround in college football history.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Click to expand...
Finished watching it. Thanks Melrose so much for sharing this. This is an absolute treasure to watch. It just goes to show how much positive influence was spread out of the Iowa program throughout the country.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
Interesting to see the Hayden Fry influence on the QB dropping back to pass with that drop back shuffle.
Click to expand...
I noticed that as well.

It's interesting seeing the influence from Hayden and the Iowa program when he rebuilds the K-State program.

The strict schedule of every minute accounted for. The branding with the "Cat" as a nationally identified logo only they have. The intense workouts that was a wake-up call for the players. Bringing an offense that is different and difficult to defend.

Eerily similar. Really a great documentary.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
I noticed that as well.

It's interesting seeing the influence from Hayden and the Iowa program when he rebuilds the K-State program.

The strict schedule of every minute accounted for. The branding with the "Cat" as a nationally identified logo only they have. The intense workouts that was a wake-up call for the players. Bringing an offense that is different and difficult to defend.

Eerily similar. Really a great documentary.
Click to expand...
Barry Alvarez did the exact same thing at Wisconsin. Dan McCarney, to an extent, at Iowa State.

Even Iowa itself had fallen behind from a physical standpoint when Hayden retired and Kirk took over, which was most evident vs Michigan State and the Wisconsin game when Ron Dayne broke the NCAA career rushing record. It took Kirk a couple years to catch up.
 
Northside Hawk said:
Barry Alvarez did the exact same thing at Wisconsin. Dan McCarney, to an extent, at Iowa State.

Even Iowa itself had fallen behind from a physical standpoint when Hayden retired and Kirk took over, which was most evident vs Michigan State and the Wisconsin game when Ron Dayne broke the NCAA career rushing record. It took Kirk a couple years to catch up.
Click to expand...


Damn right. He did the exact same model. Attention to detail and they also created a nationally identified logo with their "W".
 
I hate watching crap like this, podcasts, etc, because I have no attention span.

This however was awesome. Loved every minute of it. Thanks for sharing!

By the way, (if anyone cares) the big dude that was crying when he was talking about getting cheered off the field at Nebraska is Evan "The Oven" Simpson, who started out at Iowa. He died of prostate cancer in May.
 
Watching that just makes one think how the hell did KSU even still have a program? It literally can't get any lower then that. I wish the rest of college football realized just how far down they were and this paints the picture pretty vividly of that. I mean it'd be easier to get Grinnell basketball to win the National title in hoops then do what Snyder did in a 3 yr window.

I don't think many folks have a clue just how impossible of a job that was to turn around. Freaking impossible. And that didn't even really go on to show just how good they ended up getting. Which was dang good.

I went to the game we played em in August of 2000 at Arrowhead where going in we had no chance and it played out that way. It was hotter then hell that day folks in the stands were getting hauled out with IVs. But that KSU team was like #3 if I remember right preseason and KF was still rebuilding ours.
 
99topdawg said:
I hate watching crap like this, podcasts, etc, because I have no attention span.

This however was awesome. Loved every minute of it. Thanks for sharing!

By the way, (if anyone cares) the big dude that was crying when he was talking about getting cheered off the field at Nebraska is Evan "The Oven" Simpson, who started out at Iowa. He died of prostate cancer in May.
Click to expand...
Really. That's too bad. So you remember his situation at Iowa?

This was just a really well made documentary. I may have to watch again.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Watching that just makes one think how the hell did KSU even still have a program? It literally can't get any lower then that. I wish the rest of college football realized just how far down they were and this paints the picture pretty vividly of that. I mean it'd be easier to get Grinnell basketball to win the National title in hoops then do what Snyder did in a 3 yr window.

I don't think many folks have a clue just how impossible of a job that was to turn around. Freaking impossible. And that didn't even really go on to show just how good they ended up getting. Which was dang good.

I went to the game we played em in August of 2000 at Arrowhead where going in we had no chance and it played out that way. It was hotter then hell that day folks in the stands were getting hauled out with IVs. But that KSU team was like #3 if I remember right preseason and KF was still rebuilding ours.
Click to expand...


Yea, it was bad. Most younger people probably don't realize how bad they and the program was. It was a wonder why Snyder agreed to go there as he could have most likely waited for a better job offer. Funny how coaches called him up telling him to get the hell out of there.

Not one coach prior to Snyder ever had a successful gig anywhere else after getting fired by KSU.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Watching that just makes one think how the hell did KSU even still have a program? It literally can't get any lower then that. I wish the rest of college football realized just how far down they were and this paints the picture pretty vividly of that. I mean it'd be easier to get Grinnell basketball to win the National title in hoops then do what Snyder did in a 3 yr window.

I don't think many folks have a clue just how impossible of a job that was to turn around. Freaking impossible. And that didn't even really go on to show just how good they ended up getting. Which was dang good.

I went to the game we played em in August of 2000 at Arrowhead where going in we had no chance and it played out that way. It was hotter then hell that day folks in the stands were getting hauled out with IVs. But that KSU team was like #3 if I remember right preseason and KF was still rebuilding ours.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was hard, but one of the guys in it said you couldn't do it today due to practice restrictions. I think they also said something about the program only having 47 guys suit up for the first practice, which was under half the scholarship limit at the time. That is unreal.

I don't want to disparage Bill because he is a great coach, but I would be shocked if that rebuild job wasn't carefully orchestrated with some well off benefactor running a slush fund to get some recruits in the door. KSU also had no qualms about juco guys. And I think they had some guys get into some trouble that was swept under the rug. I get that everyone was doing similar things at the time, and I'll bet there is a novel length treatise that could be written about Nebraska's and Oklahoma's transgressions back then, so I'm not faulting anyone because that was the price of poker.

There is a lesson in there for Hawk fans, too. It's that when you are one of the red headed stepchildren of the conference, you don't go into a rebuild thinking you're going to permanently displace the royalty of the conference. You go into it trying to take down the teams like Iowa or Missouri. Fitz and Snyder made a lot of money doing just that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top