Before Coach Bill Snyder initially arrived in 1988, Wildcats fans could expect a win on the gridiron in one of every five appearances. Five years later, in 1993, he would lead the program to 11 consecutive bowl games. His all-time record is 142-73-1. He has awards, statistics and accolades galore to prove his greatness, and yet it is almost a task to make him talk about football.

At the weekly press conferences, while he candidly responds to questions and elaborates generously, he takes the liberty, every so often, to inform the reporters that there are other topics he would really rather discuss.

His children and grandchildren. The Kansas Mentor program. The new Leadership College of the university. All that football knowledge, and yet there is so much more to the namesake of Snyder Family Stadium. His legacy is etched on paper but also on the lives of many men who have gone through the football program.

"I would say, if somebody doesn't really know a lot about the system; they're just K-State fans, they're going to say it's the wins," said junior kicker Josh Cherry of Snyder's legacy. "But people that have been around the system, they're going to say it's what he's done for them individually."

Cherry said Snyder always reads the team letters former players have sent saying, "I've been around your players, and I see you're still putting those 16 Goals to Success in, and I just want to thank you because they've helped me along the way with life after football." Cherry said when he hears stories like this one he knows Snyder's lessons are still going to pertain to him after football.

Wait, 16 Goals? What are the 16 Goals? Junior offensive lineman Wade Weibert explained it eloquently.

"They're kind of your checkpoints as a person and as a player, things that you have to do," Weibert said. "They're all things that from the outside looking in, they look like they could be about just sports, but you can tell he crafted them directly towards life."

Freshman kicker Ryan Doerr said Snyder gives each player a card at the beginning of the year with a little poem on the back to enable players to memorize the 16 goals, which help them overcome several difficulties, Doerr said. Weibert said the goals are also brought up often in team meetings.

"A lot of guys, they just follow them, whether they plan to or not," Cherry said. "Coach Snyder was very right when he implemented them into the system, and I think it's shown with the success that he's had since he's been here."

COMMITMENT.

"I think everyone will remember the wins, but everyone will be impacted by the players who come out of this program," Weibert said. He said he has never heard talk of Snyder's wins apart from talk of what he has done for young people. "The wins, they'll always be there on paper, but the glory of it will fade," Weibert said. "But I think you'll always be impacted by a good person, and that's what he's trying to produce out of here."

UNSELFISHNESS.

Snyder contemplated the possibility of a new rule where all teams, not only those who earned bowl eligibility, would get an extra 15 days of practice after the regular season. While he said he would not want to see the competition get an advantage, his priorities were elsewhere.

"To take 15 days of practice and do it without that carrot existing at the end is probably self-serving and not in the best interests of our youngsters," Snyder said.

Following Snyder's example are the many players who switched from the position they played and were a star at in high school to help the team out where the coaches recommended. Just a few examples of this are sophomore safety Tysyn Hartman, freshman wide receiver Collin Klein and Cherry, all of whom played quarterback.

UNITY.

"You don't have to be an athlete; you don't have to be a K-State football player or even a K-State fan to appreciate the 16 goals," Weibert said. "I think everyone can learn something from that."

When asked about the camaraderie between athletes at K-State, Snyder said that would be true not just with athletes but with anyone.

"Have good relationships, for people to care about each other," he said. "They all have a university that they're a part of and that they represent in a very visible way, and I think to be positive with and about each other is a very positive thing in that regard, but why wouldn't you have a good relationship with any student at Kansas State?"

IMPROVE.

At the proposition of proving doubters wrong this weekend at Nebraska, Snyder said, "I'm not in a position to attempt to try to prove anybody wrong. That's not in my line of thinking. That's not why we play the game, and that's not why we practice, and that's not my commentary to our players. I do think about us getting better. I think about us eliminating mistakes we have made throughout the course of the season and to stay on constant movement towards being able to eliminate those mistakes and to improve. That's just us. That's what we try to do."

BE TOUGH.

Snyder said he is encouraged most by the little victories that are not on the scoreboard but just in terms of how some young people have been able to respond to some of life's lessons that maybe they couldn't deal with. They learned through different mechanisms how to deal with some of those things, and it helped make their life a little bit better.

"They become very evident to you as you understand what their circumstances are, what their issues are, what their problems are, and you see those through the nature of athletics," Snyder said. "You see them begin to find the answers to those dilemmas in their life."

SELF-DISCIPLINE.

Senior linebacker John Houlik said the main difference between playing under former head coach Ron Prince and Snyder was structure.