Isn't this great!  We've come a long way.  I know you will be interested in
this information!  Joyce
-----Original Message-----
From: Mitzi Frieling <MFrieling@K-State.com>
To: MFrieling@K-State.com <MFrieling@K-State.com>
Date: Friday, January 04, 2002 1:31 PM
Subject: to lift your spirits


>
>http://www.athlonsports.com/article.php3?story_id=1289
>
>No. 7 Present Day Program: Kansas State
>
>Athlon has ranked the Top 10 college football programs of the present day.
>In order to best determine the current health of a program without merely
>copying the final 2001 polls, both of which (AP and Coaches) are identical
>from No. 1 through No. 14, we have examined a time depth of from five to
ten
>years. This will also serve the purpose of weeding out the possible "flash
>in the pan," a one- or two-year phenomenon. The program must demonstrably
>stand on solid ground. Win-loss records, success against highly ranked
>opponents, conference domination and repeatedly high rankings all were
taken
>into consideration. And now, without further adieu, here are our findings.
>
>No. 10 Present Day Program: Oklahoma
>No. 9 Present Day Program: Oregon
>No. 8 Present Day Program: Virginia Tech
>
>
>No. 7 College Football Program of the Present Day
>Kansas State
>
>Some coaches are synonymous with their schools' rise to prominence.
>Florida's Steve Spurrier and Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer are two such
>coaches. Add Bill Snyder to the list.
>
>In 1989, Snyder took over as head coach of the worst program in
>major-college football. Kansas State was mired so deeply at the bottom of
>the all-time winning percentage list that as recently as 1996, after
winning
>28 games in the previous three years, the NCAA Football Records Book still
>ranked the Wildcats dead last at .394. But in the most recent standings,
>K-State stood at .422, fourth from the bottom and climbing steadily.
>
>Snyder came to Manhattan from Hayden Fry's staff at Iowa in 1989 with
Kansas
>State stuck in an 0-26-1 rut. Snyder's first campaign in as the Wildcats'
>head man wasn't much better at 1-10, but the one win was one more than they
>had registered in almost three years.
>
>In the 35 years previous to Snyder's arrival, the Wildcats won 97 games. In
>the 13 years since, they've won 105. They are one of only two Division I-A
>programs to have won 11 or more games in each season from 1997-2000
(Florida
>State is the other), and they posted nine or more wins eight straight years
>from 1993-2000.
>
>The Wildcats' 6-6 mark this season is their worst since 1992. From
>1993-2000, they never finished lower than third in the Big Eight/Big
>12-North standings. They won three straight Big 12 North championships in
>1998, 1999 and 2000. That's the same division as Nebraska.
>
>In 1997, Kansas State posted the first 11-win campaign in its history and
>followed it up with three more. In 1997 and '98, the Wildcats strung
>together a 20-game winning streak, including an 11-0 regular season in
1998,
>before dropping the Big 12 championship game to Texas A&M 36-33 in double
>overtime. Following the 1998 season, Snyder was named National Coach of the
>Year by consensus.
>
>During the 1990s, Kansas state posted a 63-6-1 record at KSU Stadium, the
>fifth-best home record in the nation during that decade.
>
>In 93 years of football competition before Snyder, K-State had played in
one
>bowl game - the 1982 Independence Bowl. The Wildcats have now been bowling
>nine straight years. In 1993, Snyder's fifth year in Manhattan, came the
>school's first bowl win, a 52-17 shellacking of Wyoming in the Copper Bowl.
>In the 2001 Cotton Bowl, the Wildcats mugged Tennessee 35-21 in a game that
>wasn't as close as the score indicated.
>
>The health of the Kansas State program promises an upswing in 2002 from
this
>year's disappointing showing. A dozen years ago, a 6-6 record would have
>been considered a crowning achievement at K-State. These days it is a
>disaster, and it still gets the Wildcats into the postseason.
>
>
>
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