How the ‘stars aligned' to put Sean Snyder in Kansas' other college football town

LAWRENCE — Reflecting Friday, Collin Sexton said he viewed himself as the conduit that connected Lance Leipold and Sean Snyder.

Sexton is Kansas Athletics’ associate athletic director for strategic initiative and chief of staff. He works with the football program. He’s invested in the program Leipold, the Jayhawks’ head football coach, is building.

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Sexton also played college football at Kansas State. He did so while Snyder was on the Wildcats’ staff, at a university Snyder spent more than two decades working at while Snyder’s father was the head football coach there. The two had an opportunity to build a relationship and have kept in touch in the years since.

So, last summer when the two were talking, Sexton said he ran the idea of joining Leipold’s program by Snyder. Sexton felt Snyder, who’d spent 2020 and 2021 at USC, was receptive. It just didn’t end up happening, with Snyder saying earlier this month he wasn’t at a point then where he wanted to take an off-field staff position.

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But fast forward to this year, after Snyder spent the 2022 season at Illinois, Sexton said the two of them were talking again. That led to conversations for Sexton with Leipold and Rob Ianello, Leipold’s general manager. And after the two sides continued to see what might be possible, Kansas announced during spring ball that Snyder has joined Leipold’s staff as a special assistant to the head coach.

“Once I left and once I was gone, to me — any job, if it’s the right fit, it’s a good job,” said Snyder, whose father last coached at Kansas State in 2018 and who left himself following the 2019 season. “And so, for me, I was dead set on, ‘I want to work for good people and I want to be in a place where everybody’s marching in the same path and the same direction and everybody’s got hands on deck.’ And that’s how it was for us back when dad and I were back at K-State. And so, I’ve tried to be able to get into positions to where I’m working for good people.”

Snyder and Sexton both understood the varying reactions that would follow this move, considering the rivalry. Snyder will forever be tied to the Wildcats, both because of his own history there and his father’s. Sexton noted they thought about it a little bit, and that it was in the back of his head.

Clearly, though, the potential negative reactions from those partial to Manhattan over Lawrence didn’t dissuade them. At the end of the day, Sexton explained, the goal every day is to make Kansas’ program better. He believes they did that by adding Snyder, someone he respects as much if not more than a lot of coaches in the industry.

Snyder said he hasn’t looked too much at social media. He revealed he and his father have talked about the move, and that his father is supportive of any decision he makes when it comes to his coaching career. If someone has his phone number, that’s the type of person he wants to receive a message from.

“The fact that (Snyder) spent 20-plus years of his career right down the road in Manhattan, and knows the state of Kansas better than anyone, all of those factors of what we’re trying to build here, and what coach Leipold’s trying to build here, all went into play and kind of my thinking of, like, ‘Hey, this could be a really good fit,’” Sexton said. "And knowing that, personally for him, he wants to be back around his family. And so, it was kind of a best of both worlds. Stars aligned.”

It’s still early in Snyder’s time in Lawrence. The specifics of what it’ll mean to be the special assistant to the head coach could change, and he envisions discussions with Leipold that’ll further form that role. But among the many things Leipold highlighted, are analyzing what the Jayhawks are doing on special teams, being a part of Kansas’ in-state recruiting plan and contributing to the renovation efforts that are currently underway.

Leipold said earlier this month it was too good of an opportunity to not explore this option with Snyder. As Sexton later said, the program has the chance to get better because of it. Staff members Leipold consulted with were on board with the move, too, according to Leipold.

That Snyder is set to work with the special teams unit comes as no surprise, given he’s worked with special teams units for years at Kansas State, USC and Illinois. Many of the special teams units he worked with were highly rated. And while explaining how he was able to do that, he pointed to building relationships.

“One of the things that I do as a person, if I have a strong belief in somebody and a great respect for somebody, I’m going to work as hard as I can for them,” Snyder said. “And I really think with players — I mean, yes, there’s schemes and there’s other stuff that you mix into it. But if the players believe in what they’re doing, they believe in you as a coach and you have a great relationship with them, and respect, they’re going to fight. And you can get a lot done with guys that are going to fight.”

In Snyder’s short time with the program, he said he’s seen a program with players who are fighting like that. He described Leipold has having the team in a good place. And they’ll continue to move forward trying to do the best they can.

It is still surreal for Sexton to see Snyder wearing Kansas gear. The first time Sexton saw Snyder wearing that, Sexton actually thought it was kind of strange. But according to Sexton the two of them give each other a hard time about it, and Sexton told Snyder he’ll get used to wearing it.

“I was like, ‘I bet you never thought in a million years we’d both be in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2023, working for KU football and working for Kansas Athletics,’” Sexton said. “So, it’s pretty awesome.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Sean Snyder, former Kansas State coach, is on the KU football staff