Oklahoma State announces hire of Sean Snyder as punters and kickers coach
Oklahoma State football made a notable staff move during the week, bringing in Sean Snyder as the new punters and kickers coach for the Cowboys, according to a press release. Snyder is the son of legendary Kansas State coach Bill Snyder.
Snyder was on staff at Kansas during the 2023 season, where he helped coach special teams. Prior to that stop, Snyder was the special teams coach at Illinois and USC.
“Sean brings years of experience with kickers and punters and special teams concepts,” head coach Mike Gundy said in the release. “We’re really excited about what he brings to our coaching staff.”
Prior to taking the job at USC, Snyder had spent approximately three decades playing for and working alongside his father with the Wildcats.
Gundy took a bit of a jab at some former assistants during Big 12 Media Days
Gundy certainly talked his way into a few eyebrow-furrowing headlines at Big 12 Media Day this week, including one about his old defensive coordinators.
But he also made some interesting comments on the state of his actual football team as well, particularly on the defensive side. After finishing ninth in the country in scoring defense in 2021, Oklahoma State regressed a bit in 2022 and 2023, giving up more than four touchdowns’ worth of points per game to rank right around 90th in the country in scoring D for those two seasons.
However, in the second season under defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo, there’s optimism for big improvement.
“Well, we’re we’re gonna be better on defense,” Gundy assured reporters at media day. “Bryan Nardo, our coordinator, is in Year 2. I know he came from a smaller school, but there’s a comfort when you’re in a system year after year.”
Gundy expressed a slight bit of frustration at having to change coordinators over the years, but is confident in Nardo ahead of his second season.
“And we’ve had to change coordinators on that side of the ball at Oklahoma State. Guys have left and moved on and got better jobs, in their opinion. And so he’s more comfortable.”
When it comes to the personnel, Gundy loves the speed.
“And we have some speed on defense. We can run,” he said before addressing his linebackers. He sees one A+ player in that room for the Cowboys. “You know, you’re talking about our linebackers. The guy here, Nick Martin, had 150 tackles, whatever he did. It’s crazy. He loves to play football, he’s an old-school throwback guy, east Texas guy, just likes to run and hit. Hard to find guys like that nowadays. He loves to play football and he would do it for free.”