Sean Snyder grateful for Kansas Sports Hall of Fame honor

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Sean Snyder has a long list of accomplishments, and this can be added to his resume.

Not only is he the son of K-State legend Bill Snyder, Sean told 13 Sports that the coolest part of his honor is sharing that with his dad.

“Some of the things that we’re really Impactful to me was the way he treated me in the environment with the rest of the team. It was, you got to earn your way and there was almost a little bit more of a bigger expectation in the moment,” Snyder said. “For me, what I learned was, I’ve got to really work hard and I’ve got to separate myself in order to to be and justify the position that I’m going to take.”

When Chris Kleiman took over the program back in 2019, 13 Sports asked Snyder about what stands out for Klieman.

“Back when Dad started there, obviously, there was nothing there. It was starting from very scratch from facilities, I mean, you name it, the team roster too,” Snyder said. “The good thing is that things have been built and as times has grown and when Dad came back the second time and develop the team, I mean the good thing was is there was a roster. When Coach Klieman came in, he was able to kind of pick up there and do his thing and he’s done a nice job since he’s been there.”

Snyder was a Consensus All-American punter during his playing days at K-State which originally started at Iowa. He was also the National Special Team Coach of the Year with K-State.

He coached with his dad for many years and had other pits stops along the way, USC, Illinois and this past year at KU.

Snyder stepped away from coaching to focus on running his own kicking camps but he was hired to be the punter and kickers coach for Oklahoma State.

He said he was blown away by getting that call but there was a bigger goal.

“Everything to me was get out, work hard and do the best you can do. That was never a goal to be an All-American, there was never a goal to be in a Hall of Fame. It was to do the best you can for the team at the time and that’s kind of the way I’ve always done things in my life. Whether it’s working at K-State, whether it was working at USC, Illinois or here at KU, it’s about being the best you can in the moment and so that’s how it was for me and I just never really looked at it or that wasn’t something that I was really trying to to get into,” Snyder said.

13 Sports asked Snyder during his one season in Lawrence, what had made Lance Leipold so successful so quickly.

“I mean I appreciate everything he’s (Leipold) has done for me and he’s done a really good job here and the thing that was meaningful to me when I first came here was, what is the infrastructure look like, Hhw are we handling it? The players, is it a player-led program, is there some accountability in it,” Snyder said. “The thing is, it was really good with when I start talking with Coach Leipold is that the infrastructure of the program is very similar to what Dad (Bill) had done over the years. With the players and having accountability and development and those things are important to me. It’s the football field and that’s where we go play the game and we have fun. It’s all the other stuff about teaching these young men about life, about how they’re going to handle life and now, especially when you got all the moving parts of the transfer portal and NIL, how are they going to manage their money and especially when they’re getting a lot of money. There’s a lot of things that these these kids need and be coached on for life and unfortunately, there’s a lot of programs that don’t do that. It’s very important to be at a program or that infrastructure is in place and there is a head coach that that’s important too. That’s one of the things with Coach Leipold here where I think a lot of his success is coming from and that he’s surrounded with really good people. He has a very good staff here and they care.”

The induction takes places on October 13th in Topeka.

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