Mike Gundy compares Lance Leipold's turnaround to Bill Snyder at Kansas State

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy was asked during his press conference Monday if there were any similarities between Kansas head coach Lance Leipold and legendary Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder.

Gundy, with a matchup looming this weekend versus the Jayhawks, said there are similarities between the two coaches.

“There’s some good similarities,” Gundy said. “Lance is a nice guy. I know him but I don’t know him. But I can watch tape and, to me, it looks like he believes in these things and this is what they do. They don’t get out of their box. They stick with it and they strive to improve. He’s had his coordinators with him for almost 20 years. He had ’em at Whitewater and then Buffalo. He’s had those guys with him so obviously, this is what he wants to do. He doesn’t have to vary from it much. They speak the same language all the time. I’m just outside, I don’t know, they can minimize and they don’t waste a lot of time doing things. That’s the same thing that Coach Snyder did.”

Synder took over the Wildcats for the 1989 season after spending the previous decade as the offensive coordinator at Iowa.

Kansas State had gone 3-40-1 over the previous four years prior to Snyder’s hire, and it wasn’t an immediate turnaround for the program. Snyder went 1-10 in his first year.

But in his third season, Kansas State had a winning record at 7-4. By Year 5, he was 9-2-1 with a bowl win — and the program’s only second-ever bowl appearance — under his belt. That year marked the beginning of a decade of winning seasons, including six years with 11 wins.

The Wildcats had won double-digit games once previously in 1910. They also had not had back-to-back winning seasons since 1953-1954.

“He ran a 4-3 defense, he played quarters defense and then if you started moving the ball on him, they went to Cover 1, played man and blitzed you and that was it,” Gundy said. “It’s what they did. You knew that’s what you were gonna get. They were good at kick returner. They were good at punt return. They tried to steal from you a possession and win the special teams yards, and then offensively he built it around who was quarterback was. They went empty sometimes and then sometimes they ran triple option based on who the quarterback was.”

Leipold is current in his third season at Kansas and has his team one win away from bowl eligibility for the second straight season. He had inherited a program in dire straights having gone 0-9 the previous year, the second winless season since 2015. The program hadn’t won more than three games since 2009.

The first season was also difficult as Leipold and the Jayhawks won just two games. But the program made a turnaround in 2022 with six wins and a bowl game.

“The comparison here is the same,” Gundy said. “Their defense hasn’t changed. They’re doing the same thing. They’re not real complicated, but they don’t get out of place much. They understand where to fit and they know their coverages. And then offensively, they’re designing everything around quarterbacks who can run triple option, and that’s the guys they’re recruiting and that’s what they’re looking for. The similarities are they stay in their box, in my opinion, they know what they want, they’re not real complicated, which allows players to compete and play fast. Then every year they’re recruiting a little bit better players.”