Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy announced the addition of former longtime Kansas State coach and Ring of Honor inductee Sean Snyder as the new punters and kickers coach for the Cowboys.
Snyder comes to Stillwater after most recently serving as the special assistant to the head coach at Kansas for the 2023 season, where he also played a role in assisting the Jayhawks’ special teams unit.
He announced back in January that he was leaving Lawrence to pursue his own kicking and punting private tutoring business as a way to get back to hands-on coaching. He told The Mercury in an interview in January that he wasn’t sure if he’d be interested in another on-field role, but the prospect of finding one relatively close to his family in Kansas was apparently enough to get him back in the college coaching saddle.
“Sean brings years of experience with kickers and punters and special teams concepts,” Gundy said in a written statement. “We’re really excited about what he brings to our coaching staff.”
Prior to his season in Lawrence, Snyder spent the 2022 season as the special teams coordinator and specialists coach at Illinois, and he was the special teams coordinator at USC in the two seasons before that.
Snyder was at Kansas State for a total of nearly 30 years before moving to USC for the 2020 season, playing the role of punter from 1990-92, part-time assistant coach in 1994 and 1995, director of football operations from 1996-98, assistant athletic director for football operations in 1999 and 2000, associate athletic director in 2001 and senior associate athletic director from 2002 to 2010. He then moved into his role working with K-State’s special teams as the special teams coordinator and associate head coach from 2011-18 and as a special teams analyst in 2019.
During his time in Manhattan, Kansas State was in the Top 15 of the ESPN Special Teams Efficiency rating five times, including first in 2017, second in 2015 and third in 2012. The Wildcats were also in the top 25 of the Football Outsiders Special Teams Rating six times, including first in 2017, third in 2014 and 2019 and sixth in 2012. Snyder was named the national Special Teams Coordinator of the Year in 2015 by FootballScoop and Phil Steele and in 2017 by Phil Steele.
Under Snyder, Kansas State’s special teams units set or tied eight team records and 20 individual marks. He coached four Big 12 Special Teams Players of the Year, including three consecutive (returners Tyler Lockett in 2013 and 2014, Morgan Burns in 2015 and Joshua Youngblood in 2019). Lockett was an All-American first team kickoff returner in 2011 and punt returner in 2014. Burns earned All-American first team honors in 2015 as a kick returner when he led the country in kickoff return touchdowns (4). Youngblood was a Freshman All-American first teamer in 2019 when he ran back 3 kickoffs for TDs and helped Kansas State top the nation in kickoff return average (29.5).
Placekicker Matthew McCrane was a Freshman All-American first teamer in 2014 and All-Big 12 first team pick in 2017, while kicker Jack Cantele made the All-Big 12 first team in 2015. Kick returner Byron Pringle was All-Big 12 first team in 2016 and returner D.J. Reed was so honored in 2017.
Snyder was a consensus All-American and All-Big Eight first team punter under his father, hall of fame head coach Bill Snyder, at Kansas State as a senior in 1992, averaging 44.7 yards per punt. He was the Big Eight Defensive Newcomer of the Year as a 1991 junior, with a 40.5 punting average. His 43.0 career punting average was a school record. He played in the 1992 Blue-Gray Game. He was inducted into Kansas State’s inaugural Ring of Honor Class in 2002 and into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
Snyder redshirted at Iowa in 1988, then saw action in two games for the Hawkeyes as a redshirt freshman in 1989 before transferring to Kansas State. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Kansas State in money and banking in 1994.
He signed as a free agent with the Phoenix Cardinals in 1993 and the San Diego Chargers in 1994. He and his wife Wanda raised a daughter Katherine and sons Tate and Matthew. They also have several grandchildren.
Snyder joins fellow former Wildcat player and coach Joe Bob Clements, who is now the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, and long-time Bill Snyder assistant, offensive line coach Charlie Dickey.
