Overview
After three seasons of retirement and watching his grand kids play sports, 69-year-old Bill Snyder is back working 15-hour days as Kansas State's head football coach. From 1989 to 2005, Snyder was the architect of college football's most remarkable coaching jobs. He turned the Mildcats into Wildcats. A laughable loser before Snyder's arrival, in 1998 Kansas State was 15 minutes away from playing for the national championship. After three seasons of football mediocrity, the Wildcats have again turned to Snyder to work his magic.

Who's missing
After three seasons, quarterback Josh Freeman decided to skip his senior season and apply for the NFL Draft. The defense must replace defensive end Ian Campbell, who spent his junior and senior seasons confused by the coaching staff's ever-changing defensive alignments.

Who's moving
Kansas State kept searching for a productive running back last season. One of the experiments involved moving Lamark Brown from wide receiver to running back. He started six games and led the team with 412 yards rushing and five touchdowns. But during spring practice, the junior is back at wide receiver.

Fresh face
During his first tenure at Kansas State, Bill Snyder won with running quarterbacks (Michael Bishop, Ell Roberson) and with pocket passers like Chad May, Matt Miller and Brian Kavanaugh.

When it comes to deciding who will take over for three-year starter Josh Freeman, it appears that Snyder will have a choice.

Freeman's heir apparent is Carson Coffman, a 6-3 junior who spent the last two seasons as Freeman's back up. Last season, he played in six games and completed 61-percent of his passes for a total of 282 yards and a touchdown.

"I've been waiting for this opportunity for a long time," said Coffman, the younger brother of former Missouri All-American tight end Chase Coffman. "Obviously, it was hard playing behind Josh. ... I feel like it's my time to take over."

The other option could be Daniel Thomas, a junior-college transfer who won't arrive in Manhattan until this summer. Last season Northwest Mississippi Junior College, he rushed for 562 yards and six touchdowns while completing 24-of-51 passes for 450 yards and two touchdowns.

Spring buzz
* Last season as a junior, Keithen Valentine was a walk on from Mississippi Delta Community College who won the starting running back job and held it for the first three games. Then he lost and by the end of the Wildcats' 5-7 season he wasn't even playing. In spring pracices so far, he's back on the first team. “They’re letting me use my ability and I feel comfortable, letting me do what I do,” he said.

* Snyder talks of restoring "intrinsic values" to the program. Players say that under previous coach Ron Prince there seemed to be divisions between the offense and the defense. Snyder is encouraging all of the Wildcats to get to know each other. After each offseason workout, players unfamiliar with each other were required to hold deep, personal conversations. “I think the closer the team is as a unit, the more you win,” wide receiver Brandon Banks said. “He’s trying to get us to come together as one.”

* Brandon Banks, is a 5-7, 150-pound receiver who was voted the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year last season. Obviously, at that size, he's not a defensive lineman. As a wide receiver, he used his speed and quickness. Banks is similar to a former mighty mite receiver who played in the first Bill Snyder era - Aaron Lockett (5-7, 165 pounds). "Brandon is the smallest young guy I've ever seen in my life and one of the fastest," Snyder said. "He has talent, he has the ability to run and there is a number of things you can do with someone that has the kind of quickness and speed; and he has the capacity to make people miss."

Coach speak from Bill Snyder
* On how close the team is to being where he wants it to be:
“I can’t see there from here. It’s a long ways away from where I would like for it to be for a lot of different reasons. It’s nothing that has anything to do with anything other than trying to get young people to accept responsibility to do the things we need to do and be able to practice with the same intent as their coaches. It’s just going to take some time. I have concerns about every facet of our program.”

On his reputation of putting in long hours:
"I don’t think that part of it has changed. I find myself probably putting in a little bit more time than I might have in previous years, if at all possible. I don’t think there are any particular concessions when it relates to effort and work habits and focus, etc. In terms of family, I will make whatever concessions are necessary.”

On positive signs he has seen during the spring:
"From day one the improvement level has been very, very inconsistent. ... I do think we are making some headway in regards to how we practice. What I mean by that is: learning how we want to practice and how we are going to transition into that.”

On the team adjusting to new schemes on offense and defense:
"That lends itself to some of the inconsistency, and that creates issues as to how quickly a young person can react. You have to do a lot of thinking when there's so much on your plate and that slows down the tempo, slows down your capacity to react as fast as you need to be able to."

2009 Schedule