Kansas State Football: Who will replace Bill Snyder if he retires after 2018?

Brent Venables –  Clemson Defensive Coordinator

Brent Venables may be the most wanted name and may very well cause fans to get drunk with excitement. A linebacker in the early years of the Bill Snyder era, Venables would go on to work his way up to linebacker coach of the Wildcats before leaving to join Bob Stoops at Oklahoma. He was linebacker coach and defensive coordinator there until 2011 when he left to take the coordinator job at Clemson, a post he has held ever since.

Born and raised in Kansas and a graduate of Kansas State, Venables would certainly appear to mark off a majority of the boxes fans and administrators would look for in the next head coach. Energetic to say the very least, Venables has shown an ability to both recruit and develop football players at both Clemson and Oklahoma.

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Clemson has also recently shown an ability to pull talent out of the Midwest, as two players from Kansas (Xavier Kelly of Wichita and Isaiah Simmons of Olathe North) and have a commitment from 2019 prospect Etinosa Reuben of Park Hill South in Kansas City.

There is a question with Venables on if he even wants the job. His name was mentioned early in the process when the job came open after Snyder retired the first time, but was not known to have been interviewed or even contacted about the job.

Also, Venables is the second highest paid assistant in the nation at 1.7 million, so what is Kansas State able and willing to offer Venables to make him the coach? It’d have to be more than that.

Also, there are rumors of issues between Venables and either Bill Snyder himself and/or the boosters. There was a rumor back in the day that Venables intentionally benched the best players during the 1998 Big 12 Conference Championship game in an effort to keep the-then top ranked Wildcats out of the National Championship game. Venables was announced at Oklahoma the following day.

However, Venables and Snyder certainly appeared friendly during the College Hall of Fame ceremonies in which saw Snyder and Venables together making the rounds, so any ill feelings at least between Brent and Bill appear to have been resolved.