Charley Dickey Excited To See Sean Snyder Join Oklahoma State Staff

STILLWATER – We wrote a couple of days ago that our opinion on the hiring of Sean Snyder, a long-time staff member and special teams coordinator for his father Bill Snyder in his second stint as the head coach at Kansas State. Sean, a former All-American and All-Big Eight punter at K-State that earned a place in the Kansas State Football Ring of Honor, has also been a special teams coach or analyst at USC, Illinois, and Kansas. 

Snyder continues a theme with Mike Gundy’s staff at Oklahoma State of adding coaches with experience of being with the Hall-of-Fame coach that is retired. Current Cowboys assistants in co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Joe Bob Clements played and also coached some for Bill Snyder and offensive line coach Charlie Dickey spent 10-of-his-37-years in coaching with Snyder at Kansas State.

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Dickey at Kansas State, with head coach Bill Snyder (left).

Talking with me on my radio show on Triple Play Sports Radio on Friday (July 19) Dickey talked about the advantages of Sean Snyder joining the OSU staff as special teams coach and kickers and punters coach. 

“I’m super excited to have Sean with us,” Dickey started. “He is going to do a great job. He is a fantastic coach and is great in his craft, really good with special teams. His ability and great insight on coaching the kickers and the punters and all of that, what he did a great job on at Kansas State. We had some really great specialists at Kansas State.”

With Sean Snyder in charge Kansas State was in the Top 15 of the ESPN Special Teams Efficiency rating five times, including first in 2017, second in 2015 and third in 2012. The Wildcats were also in the top 25 of the Football Outsiders Special Teams Rating six times, including first in 2017, third in 2014 and 2019 and sixth in 2012. Snyder was named the national Special Teams Coordinator of the Year in 2015 by FootballScoop and Phil Steele and in 2017 by Phil Steele.

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Sean Snyder at K-State

Under Snyder, Kansas State's special teams units set or tied eight team records and 20 individual marks. 

More recently in 2020, USC's special teams were ranked No. 1 nationally by Football Outsiders, and the Trojans were in the national top 25 in kickoff return defense (10th at 17.0) and net punting (25th at 40.8). 

During Snyder’s years at Kansas State, we’ve documented the success of the Wildcats and often coming up with big plays in the games with Oklahoma State.

“The background with all the special teams stuff I’m sure will help us in the other areas with special teams like returns and coverage units,” Dickey added.