The Sumner County Catbackers converged at Wellington Golf Club Friday for golfing, socializing, fund-raising, eating, drinking and Jayhawk bashing.
Although the annual event was lacking the star power of years' past when K-State football coach Bill Snyder or Wildcat basketball coach Frank Martin came to town, there was still a large group of Catbackers in attendance, including 90 golfers.
This was the 28th out of 29 Catbacker tour events. Wyatt Thompson, voice of the Wildcats; Michael Smith, wide receiver football coach; former return specialist David Allen and Kristi Knight, women's golf coach were in attendance.
"We are killing them!" Smith said of the current players under the guise of Snyder's program. "We're back to the old ways of doing things. We're back to doing things right."
That's welcome news for the Catbackers, who are ready for some good news after a rather tumultuous year in which K-State fired a head football coach, removed an athletic director, and was rocked with several scandals thereafter.
"I know what you've been reading in the papers has not been positive, but it will get better," Thompson said. "We have a new university president, a new athletic director and Snyder is back."
The name "Snyder" automatically brings energy to the crowd and his second reign begins Saturday, Sept. 5 when K-State hosts Massachusetts.
Lon Floyd, development officer and director of Catbacker clubs for K-State Athletics, told everyone in attendance that they had no excuse not to be there to welcome Snyder back to coaching.
"I want a sold-out stadium on Sept 5 to welcome Bill back, and I expect every single one of you to be there," Floyd said. "We'll have all kinds of promotions in the coming weeks so there will be no excuses."
Afterwards, the Daily News, talked to Thompson about the current state affairs at K-State:
The past plight of the athletic department:
When news came to light about that former athletic director Bob Krause's secret deal that paid former head football coach Ron Prince $3.8 million in a bailout, Thompson said he was troubled.
"I can't really can't comment at this time on what was going on," Thompson said. "But it was frustrating and something K-State is in the process of fixing.
"An athletic director has to be so many things — a good manager, a good fundraiser, good at handling internal matters, good at hiring and firing. If you're weak in any particular area, you could be headed for trouble."
Snyder's return:
Thompson thought Snyder's return after a three-year hiatus was simple and noble.
"He saw that the K-State fan base was hurting and he wanted to calm the waters," Thompson said. "I don't think it is anymore complicated than that."
Thompson did admit that Snyder probably was bored with retirement as well.
Current state of K-State football:
Thompson said the most notable difference between the Prince and Snyder programs' is the coaching staff.
"I am in no way putting down the previous coaching staffs under Prince," Thompson said. "But this new staff is as good of coaching staff as any BCS-level school out there. Not many programs, for instance, will have an offensive line coach like Charlie Dickey."
As for Snyder itself, has he changed any since the first time around?
"I haven't noticed anything," Thompson said. "Of course it's hard to tell at this juncture of the game, because K-State hasn't started playing yet.
As far as predictions, Thompson said it would be inappropriate for him to make any.
"It's going to be tough, when you have good quality opponents like Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State in the south, who are going to be in everyone's top 10," he said. "Then there is KU and Nebraska, who will be better. Heck, even Baylor will be better.
"The thing with Snyder is you have a chance of being in the game late in the fourth quarter in any of these games. That's all you can ask for."
K-State's men's basketball team:
Thompson said K-State's current recruiting class may be as good as anyone's out there.
"These are exciting times for K-State hoops fans," Thompson said. "We have four to six really good players coming into the system that addresses almost every need."
With the four returning starters, K-State should be an NCAA tournament caliber, he said.
Trouble is, so will everyone else.
"It's wild — outside Blake Griffin at Oklahoma, every great player is back in the Big 12," Williams said. "Next year will be the best year in Big 12 conference history. I think you can see as many as five teams in the top 20 at one time."
State of the other sports:
Thompson said things are booming in other sports.
"We came off the best year in our history in college baseball," Thompson said. "Both our women volleyball and basketball teams made the NCAA Tournament.
"Yes, there has been negative news concerning K-State sports. But there has been a lot of positives coming out of Manhattan as well."
Argonia, Kan. —
