K-State Football: Is it time for a new approach in Manhattan

News broke on Thursday, as former ESPN college writer Brett McMurphy shared on his Facebook page that K-State football had a plan to transition the head coaching position to former assistant Jim Leavitt.

There is so much to break down on this! It seems so straight-forward, but the reality is, there’s a lot to speculate on. Thankfully, I’m more than happy to speculate!

First, the link to the McMurphy post is here. There is also now a counter-post from Footballscoop suggesting the reports were false. The story has been picked up by every major sports media outlet. None of this is a good look for head coach Bill Snyder, his son Sean, or K-State football.

Let’s be honest. The transition from a legendary head coach is basically impossible. Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno had an ugly and deserved fall from grace. A year after his retirement, former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden was quoted as saying he was forced out.

When coaches spend such a long time and are responsible for most or all of the program’s success, they naturally develop the idea that only they can save the program. There are few examples of any transition working smoothly and everybody being happy in the end.

However, every program has basically handled it the same way. They all bent over backwards to accommodate the legend in charge, which is why it’s time to do something different. Let’s start breaking this all down.