Bill Snyder plans to coach Kansas State in 2018 (while turning 79 midseason), per report

Looks like he won’t be retiring after this season.

Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder isn’t going planning on retiring after this season. The 78-year-old coach is reportedly planning to coach the Wildcats during the 2018 season. Per the K-State Rivals affiliate:

Four separate sources have now confirmed to K-StateOnline.com that Bill Snyder plans to return to coach Kansas State in 2018.

Multiple sources also said that the mood within the Vanier Football Complex and K-State program is "good" heading into bowl season - despite speculation to the contrary.

Kansas State went 7-5 this season, and the Wildcats will face UCLA in the Cactus Bowl on Dec. 26. The reports come nearly a month after reports surfaced that now-Florida State defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt had reached a “verbal agreement” to become Kansas State’s coach-in-waiting and eventual Snyder successor. Brett McMurphy reported the deal scrapped because he wanted his son, K-State associate head coach Sean, to get the job instead. Snyder didn’t directly refute the report, but had this to say when he was asked about it:

“I appreciate Jim a great deal,” Snyder said via the Wichita Eagle. “He has always been a close friend, and I would love to have had him here as a position coach, but I didn’t have a coordinator spot for him, so I couldn’t offer him that.”

He didn’t address the other part of McMurphy’s report directly, but he did add this:

“We had a vacancy on our staff and I had offered Jim the opportunity to come,” Snyder said via the newspaper. “The rest of it is something that I’m not totally aware of. The administration would be better served to answer that.”

Here’s more from McMurphy’s original report:

Sources said Kansas State’s top officials, including president Richard Myers, and the school’s highest-profile boosters were all on board with Leavitt, then a Colorado assistant, joining KSU's staff and then replacing the legendary Snyder after the 2017 season. Leavitt and the school had an agreement, guaranteeing Leavitt $3 million if he wasn’t named K-State’s coach by Jan. 1, 2018.

However, last December, Snyder pushed back on Leavitt, a former KSU assistant, being named his replacement because Snyder wanted his son Sean, currently KSU’s associate head coach and special teams coordinator, to replace him, sources said.

The decision to return to K-State next season may come as a surprise, given Snyder’s age, and the fact that he was diagnosed with throat cancer in February. Despite the diagnosis, he planned to remain as the Wildcats’ coach for 2017.

Snyder is 202-105-1 overall in Manhattan, and he’s currently finishing up his 26th year of coaching. As Bill Connelly pointed this summer, the coach is worthy of two Hall of Fame inductions during his two stints at K-State.

His late-1990s Wildcats were genuinely terrifying, with hungry and talented assistant coaches, devastating defenses — 11th or better in scoring defense nine times between 1994 and 2003, first in 2002 — and an offense that always featured a dynamic dual threat, a heavy-load running back, and absurd play-action wideouts.

The Wildcats won at least nine games 10 times in an 11-year span and finished in the AP top 10 six times. They won the Fiesta Bowl in 1997 and the Big 12 in 2003, and the only reason they didn’t end up with more conference titles is that their peak coincided with Nebraska’s final run of dominance.

KSU trailed off in his final pre-first-retirement years, but his brick-by-brick building and sustained run of dominance were easily Hall-of-Fame worthy.

His second career began after Ron Prince went 17-20 as his successor. Snyder returned in 2009 and has won 66 games and another conference title (2012). KSU went 21-5 in 2011-12, then won nine games in both 2014 and 2016.

We’ll see how long the Snyder Era will live on in the coming seasons.