anyone born in the 70s or earlier that cared the slightest about college football remembers vividly
reddit 8 years ago:
A lot of newer CFB fans don't realize how awful Kansas State used to be. They were, inarguably, the worst program in college football. Before Bill Snyder got there in 1989, they had appeared in only one bowl game in their history (and lost). Between 1940 and 1990, they had nineteen (19) seasons (or 38% of their seasons) in which they won only one game or less. In that same time frame, 7 of those 19 seasons were completely winless seasons - that's that's about 1.4 winless teams per decade. They only had FOUR (4) winning seasons in that same timeframe - that's fewer than one winning team per decade. They had more teams go completely winless than they had finish with a winning record. They were 3-40-1 in the 4 seasons prior to Bill Snyder's arrival (.068 winning %).
Upon Bill Snyder's arrival in 1989, they went 18-26 in his first four seasons before becoming a national power. In the next 11 seasons from 1993-2003, they finished ranked in the AP poll ten times. They finished in the top 10 of the AP poll six times. 1997 KSU went 11-1, with their only loss coming from the eventual undefeated national champions, the Nebraska Cornhuskers. 1998 Kansas State went undefeated through the regular season, only to lose to Texas A&M in double OT in the Big 12 championship game, ending their chance at a national championship game appearance. 1999 Kansas State also went 11-1, with their only loss coming to 12-1 Nebraska Cornhuskers, who finished in the top 3 in the AP poll and Coaches poll.