Barfknecht: Vintage Bill returns

After covering Kansas State's spring football game last May, I recall thinking on the drive home that the Wildcats looked like a glorified small-college team.

Not very big. Not very fast. Not many playmakers. Not much of anything special.

Except for one thing.

There was this guy who wears gray slacks, a purple windbreaker and old-time Puma shoes. Coach Bill Snyder is his name and fixing up broken football teams is his game.

During the summer, K-State got a couple of late roster additions — junior college tailback Daniel Thomas and sixth-year quarterback transfer Grant Gregory from South Florida. Both have been solid.

Still, by late August, this had the look of a three- or four-win team.

Through some early season struggles, such as a loss at Louisiana-Lafayette and a 52-point drubbing at Texas Tech, someone we'll call Gentle Bill Snyder appeared.

Gentle Bill, often with a smile and self-deprecating humor, talked openly of his team's struggles and how he was teaching his players how not just to play but how to practice also.

While everyone pounded the drum in the Big 12 North for Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, the Wildcats quietly put together a win here and a win there.

Now look.

After Saturday's 20-6 win over Colorado, K-State (5-3, 3-1) leads the North Division by a game over Iowa State, which it already has beaten, and by two and three games over the supposed favorites.

The bigger news, though, is Gentle Bill has stepped aside and Vintage Bill has returned.

Vintage Bill is a perfectionist. Vintage Bill can be grumpy if his teams don't get better day by day. Vintage Bill demands that the game be played to a certain standard.

Vintage Bill pounds his fist on the podium in postgame press conferences, like Saturday, even when his team wins but doesn't do it the right way.

“You don't want to hear what I said to them,'' he hissed.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, a longtime protégé of Snyder, chuckled Monday at how his former boss operates.

“I know he's always looking for more,'' Stoops said. “I spent a long time with Coach Snyder — seven years at Kansas State and I was around him for 10 years at Iowa. So I know all about him.''

Snyder was still unhappy Monday about Kansas State's second-half play against Colorado.

“It wasn't good, for a lot of different reasons,'' he said. “I was probably a little angrier than I should have been. Nevertheless, it's apparent we've got some improvement to make.''

All this is bad news for the rest of the North because the return of Vintage Bill means one thing: Snyder senses a real opportunity to win this division.

The three teams picked to finish atop the Big 12 North (Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri) have a combined seven-game losing streak. Kansas State has more conference wins than those three schools put together.

K-State, after a trip to No. 22 Oklahoma this week, plays Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska in consecutive weeks — the first two at home.

The trademark of Snyder's teams is to improve as the season goes on. If that continues while the favorites founder, Snyder could add one of the more unlikely titles to his Hall of Fame résumé.

ISU hoopla

If you're a sucker for old-fashioned school spirit, check out this video of Iowa State celebrating its win over Nebraska on Saturday. It's worth two minutes of your day.

Even Nebraska fans will have to appreciate the spirit and emotion flowing during the locker-room scenes.

“In 21 years, I've been blessed to be a part of a lot of great wins,'' ISU coach Paul Rhoads said Monday, “but never as a head football coach. That probably makes it a little more special. That was a happy football team.''

Fat girlfriends?

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach swears he tried to warn his team about a letdown before the Texas A&M game. He feared one because of score comparisons from the previous two weeks: Texas Tech 66, Kansas State 14 and then Kansas State 62, Texas A&M 14.

Leach painted the following scenario to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal about how A&M got bushwhacked first:

“We pound on Kansas State. So A&M looks at the film all week. The (Aggies) strut around and laugh — you know, ho-ho-ho, ha-ha-ha — and they listen to their fat little ol' girlfriends and pretty soon, what happens in Manhattan happens.

“Well, the first thing we do is we go in our meeting (for Texas A&M) and we talk about we're going to respect everyone, we're going to fear no one. We're not going to compare scores and we're not going to listen to our fat little girlfriends.''

Consider that message missed, regardless of how bluntly it was phrased.

Texas A&M, playing 18 freshmen, clobbered Texas Tech 52-30, killing the buzz the Red Raiders got from beating Nebraska the week before.

Quarterback Taylor Potts, in his first action since suffering a concussion three games ago, got booed off the field late in the first half to the chant: “No more Potts! No more Potts!''

Leach, who eventually inserted third-teamer Seth Doege, said he ignores fan commentary, calling it “free speech.''

But the grumbling has affected Potts' confidence.

“It's an issue,'' Leach said. “Confidence is probably the most important asset a quarterback has. No matter who you are, there are things you've got to fight through.''

Contact the writer:

444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com

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