Norman, Okla. – Working together, Bill Snyder and Bob Stoops were able to celebrate victory at Kansas State for the first time in years.
The 20-17 win against North Texas on Sept. 30, 1989, ended a winless streak of 30 games for the Wildcats and was the first triumph for Snyder at Kansas State. Stoops, then 29, was the defensive backs coach for the Wildcats.
He would go on to become the defensive coordinator at Kansas State and Florida before landing at Oklahoma and taking the Sooners to the 2000 national championship.
But he still remembers that first win at Kansas State as one of his favorites.
“We rang a victory bell that was outside the locker room that hadn’t been rung in I don’t know how long,” said Stoops, now in his seventh year at Oklahoma. “I don’t think they ring it now. That was the only time it’s ever been.
“You never saw a group of people that needed a win so bad.”
Sixteen years and one day later, Stoops and Snyder will meet on opposite sidelines when the Wildcats (3-0) play at Oklahoma (1-2) on Saturday.
The two coaches won 46 games together and lifted the Wildcats to the top 10, but Stoops still remembers the situation when he arrived – less than a week after Snyder was hired.
“It was absolutely, unbelievably bad,” Stoops said. “I think at the time – and this is no lie – when you were allowed to have 95 scholarship players, I believe we had 50 to 55 in spring.”
Stoops recalls having only four defensive linemen in that first spring, and only two were on scholarship.
“When we would practice team against each other … we would have to stop, give them water, hose them down while the other guys stood around to let them regroup and start again because they had no one to rotate with,” Stoops said. “That was unbelievable. You have no idea.”
Two years later, Brent Venables joined the Wildcats. He played two seasons at Kansas State before joining Snyder’s staff as an assistant.
“You always believed in the coaches and the system. They were very confident in their methods and never bending in their demands,” said Venables, Stoops’ defensive coordinator at Oklahoma since 1999. “Because of their consistency in the things that they asked you to do and the positions that they put you in, you always believed that at some point in time, you would have success.”
With Stoops and Venables on his staff, the Wildcats went to three straight bowl games and after Stoops left in 1996, Venables stayed on for three more bowl games.
In those eight years at Kansas State – two as a player and six as a coach – Venables came to respect Snyder’s foresight and his even keel, never letting on that players might have cause for concern.
“I can’t even begin to explain the meticulous daily operation of his mind and how he helps you become a better coach and more accountable,” Venables said. “That’s their program. That’s what they stand for. Consistency. Accountability. Every guy pulling (his) rope.”
That made the Sooners’ first trip to Manhattan in 2000 an emotional one. But even after four meetings with the Wildcats in the last five years, the Oklahoma coaches still have pride in what they accomplished at K-State.
“You keep it in a very small, reserved space deep inside for all the right reasons,” Venables said.
Oklahoma has won three of the past four meetings between the two schools, which have combined to win the last three Big 12 championships. The lone loss came in the 2003 Big 12 championship, ending the Sooners’ hopes for an undefeated campaign after a 12-0 regular season.
As for the victory bell, it no longer exists – perhaps a victim of the success Snyder and Stoops started at Kansas State. A single win is no longer cause for celebration for the Wildcats.
But a win for either of the two coaches Saturday would still be something special.
