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

[MelroseHawkins]

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.

I can't disagree with anything you stated .

Pertaining to the bold, I get a kick out of Nebby fans. You go over to their site and 90% of them profess that their real true rival is Wisconsin. This when Nebby hasn't been relevant for 20+ years now and can't beat the likes of Iowa, NW, ILL, Minny, etc. on a consistent basis.

They spout that their true rival is the team that usually wins the division. Yea, you might want to lower the bar a bit and knock off the mid tier teams in the division first Nebraska!! D......fuckin.......lusional!!

 

[99topdawg]

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.

I honestly don't remember his situation. If he wouldn't have had a nickname, I probably wouldn't have remembered him.

I agree. It is awesome to watch and see them all live the dream, probably assuming they're going there because none of the winning schools wanted them.

 

[99topdawg]

I can't disagree with anything you stated .

Pertaining to the bold, I get a kick out of Nebby fans. You go over to their site and 90% of them profess that their real true rival is Wisconsin.

They spout that their true rival is the team that usually wins the division.

Just like how our true rival is OSU. Hell, they may have won 4 of the last 7, but we have 2 wins by 26+ points and they have none. They're basically our bitches.

Go over to OSU's website and I'm sure that all that's on their rivalry board is talking about how much they hate Iowa, their biggest rival.


I guess I lived in Nebraska too long. Sometimes I think like them.

 

[99topdawg]

I can't disagree with anything you stated .

Pertaining to the bold, I get a kick out of Nebby fans. You go over to their site and 90% of them profess that their real true rival is Wisconsin. This when Nebby hasn't been relevant for 20+ years now and can't beat the likes of Iowa, NW, ILL, Minny, etc. on a consistent basis.

They spout that their true rival is the team that usually wins the division. Yea, you might want to lower the bar a bit and knock off the mid teams in the division first Nebraska!! D......fuckin.......lusional!!

Since Nebby joined the Big ten, they've beaten Wisky once. Wisky turned around and put up 70 on them in the Big Ten Championship game (Legends/Leaders era).

 

[okeefe4prez]

Since Nebby joined the Big ten, they've beaten Wisky once. Wisky turned around and put up 70 on them in the Big Ten Championship game (Legends/Leaders era).

The Blackshirts only gave up 539 yards rushing that day. They damned near had Wisconsin beat.

 

[WinOneThisCentury]

Wow...watched the Documentary. That was great. Man...i knew that program was bad...I didn't realize how bad K-State was when Snyder took over. Holy crap...that took balls to take that job. I also forgot that Stoops went with him. Snyder was always a clever OC...knew how to exploit a defense's weakness.

Snyder used the same blueprint that Hayden did...although...I don't think there was a shortage of money at Iowa...or it wasn't as big a problem...as there are some deep pockets in our donor circle.

 

[Northside Hawk]

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.

Didn't he have to enroll at a junior college after being a Prop 48 casualty? Then go to Kansas State from there?

Prop 48 was a horrible rule then and would get absolutely crucified now. It penalized kids who came from areas where the schools weren't as good, and that was no fault of the kids whatsoever.

As for Evan (and I could have swore his last name was Christianson) he was officially listed at 5'11, 315 lbs. When he was in Iowa City for a visit he walked into the FieldHouse club wearing a jacket that said "If You Think I'm Big You Should See My Mama!"

Unfortunately it looks like he just got bigger after college. He had to be pushing 400 lbs in the documentary, if not 450.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Wow...watched the Documentary. That was great. Man...i knew that program was bad...I didn't realize how bad K-State was when Snyder took over. Holy crap...that took balls to take that job. I also forgot that Stoops went with him. Snyder was always a clever OC...knew how to exploit a defense's weakness.

Snyder used the same blueprint that Hayden did...although...I don't think there was a shortage of money at Iowa...or it wasn't as big a problem...as there are some deep pockets in our donor circle.

You still had the loser's mentality at Iowa, as well as outdated facilities. Alvarez ran into the same thing at Wisconsin when he accepted that challenge. And like Snyder, Alvarez had to weed out some bad apples and start recruiting from scratch.

Alvarez would probably have gone to Kansas State with Snyder as Defensive Coordinator had he not left for Notre Dame two years earlier. It's intersting that Snyder didn't tab Kirk as his OC. He promoted Dell Miller instead.

 

[hwkifan4evs]

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.

They actually still haven't had a head coach get a successful gig anywhere else, at least not D1. Prince is the only other coach besides Snyder until Klieman.

 

[MattinColumbus]

You still had the loser's mentality at Iowa, as well as outdated facilities. Alvarez ran into the same thing at Wisconsin when he accepted that challenge. And like Snyder, Alvarez had to weed out some bad apples and start recruiting from scratch.

Alvarez would probably have gone to Kansas State with Snyder as Defensive Coordinator had he not left for Notre Dame two years earlier. It's intersting that Snyder didn't tab Kirk as his OC. He promoted Dell Miller instead.

Practice facilities were terrible when Fry got there....in fact, they were non-existent. We used to practice on the Kinnick turf, which was that old crappy turf that had a grain running from one side to another. We had to ‘water’ the turf with fire hoses before every practice to try to cut down on knee and ankle injuries. It was also hard as a rock.

Then we moved across the street to the area next to the Rec Center and had the grass practice field that was surrounded by a black tarp. People used to try to watch practice from the hospital parking garage and we’d have to go shoo them off.

The Kinnick locker room was cavern-like, nothing like what I see today on Greg Morris’ twitter feed.

Facilities were horrible. It’s just a new world seeing them now.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Wow...watched the Documentary. That was great. Man...i knew that program was bad...I didn't realize how bad K-State was when Snyder took over. Holy crap...that took balls to take that job. I also forgot that Stoops went with him. Snyder was always a clever OC...knew how to exploit a defense's weakness.

Snyder used the same blueprint that Hayden did...although...I don't think there was a shortage of money at Iowa...or it wasn't as big a problem...as there are some deep pockets in our donor circle.

Yeah at that time with Iowa having been stinking for so long a lot of those donors were sitting on their wallets predictably so. Well once Fry got there and after a couple yrs with his pedigree and all he put his foot down and openly and just flat out threatened to leave if he didn't get the practice bubble. Well that got the ball rolling and the rest is history

 

[MelroseHawkins]

They actually still haven't had a head coach get a successful gig anywhere else, at least not D1. Prince is the only other coach besides Snyder until Klieman.

I think they are very lucky to get Klieman. I think highly of him. I know a guy who played defense with him at UNI on those early UNI teams got good in the late 80's. Klieman was the QB of the defense calling out plays and positioning players on the field. The guy I know says he's a football genius.