Fw: to lift your spirits

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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