Most people consider Saban the best-in-the-business now and I understand that. No one said that when he was at Michigan State though and was finishing slightly above .500 each year. He gets Top 5 recruiting classes every year at 'bama. To me, no one gets the most value out of their players as Snyder. KS was a football waste-land when he got there. They would let people in for free at the games just to have some people in seats. Unbelievable what he has done.
Snyder has done a phenomenal job at K State. An old acquaintance of mine in New Orleans, the late "Vegas" Vince Gibson, was a very highly touted assistant coach under Bill Battle at Tennessee when he got the head coaching itch too fast and took the K-State job from 1967-1974. It was a major career misstep as he was then a second-tier college coach getting fired at K State, finishing his career at Tulane. In the words of another late friend of mine, former college and pro assistant coach, C.W. "Wimp" Hewgley, "God couldn't win at Kansas State." Until Bill Snyder came along.
I had a carefully chance to watch a pretty good football coach in Bill Arnsparger at LSU, even though he hated the job of being a head coach. And I had a glimpse into the world of Nick Saban when he was at LSU. As good as Arnsparger was at game prep, Saban takes it to an entirely new level. His ability to organize and teach such a detailed system is nothing short of marvelous. I hate him now in Tuscaloosa, but I respect him as much as I can respect another professional. Sure Saban gets great recruits at Bama--but he earned that position. Kids weren't knocking the doors down in Tuscaloosa when he arrived. To me, Saban embodies the comment that Bum Phillips indeed made about the legendary Paul W. "Bear" Bryant.
