MANHATTAN, Kan. | Bill Snyder can&rsquo;t relate to his players through Twitter or rap music, and at 70 he isn&rsquo;t likely to learn how anytime soon. But at this point, it wouldn&rsquo;t make a whole lot of sense for him to adapt his old coaching ways to the present times. </p><p>They seem to be holding up just fine.</p><p>The killer hours, the demanding practices, the always-pushing-to-be-better mentality &mdash; even after wins &mdash; they have the Kansas State football team on the right track today just like they did when Snyder first came to Manhattan.</p><p>&ldquo;Not much has changed,&rdquo; said Snyder&rsquo;s son Sean, K-State&rsquo;s associate athletics director for football operations. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still extremely focused and he still works the same long hours. It&rsquo;s the same way he&rsquo;s done it his whole life. He&rsquo;s the same ol&rsquo; coach.&rdquo;</p><p>And his influence on his team is as great as it ever was. Deep down, he still knows what is most important. He still looks at his team as a family.</p><p>Sean says Snyder has always understood that players want three things above all else: to be coached, respected and looked after. It&rsquo;s what he provided then, and it&rsquo;s what he&rsquo;s providing now.</p><p>&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter if you are 60, 70, 18 or 10, a family is a family,&rdquo; Sean said. &ldquo;Once you get into the family and buy into the family there is a comfort level there.&rdquo;</p><p>Not everyone expected that comfort level to be so evident this early on. The situations between Snyder&rsquo;s first stint at K-State and now are just so different.</p><p>Snyder first came to Kansas State in 1989 as a relatively unknown coordinator from Iowa and guided a program that had hit rock bottom to 11 consecutive bowl games and a Big 12 championship. After 17 years on the job he stepped away from the game and retired.</p><p>The team he came back to three years later wasn&rsquo;t hopeless and he was no longer an unknown, but there were questions.</p><p>The Wildcats needed to replace a NFL quarterback and their best returning defensive lineman has only played in one game because of injury. A new running back needed to be broken in and the secondary needed upgrading.</p><p>Nine games into the season, a different question is being asked. Instead of wondering who should play quarterback, fans are now trying to figure out how high these Wildcats can climb.</p><p>Snyder has a team that few expected to contend for a bowl game &mdash; and lost to Louisiana-Lafayette in its second game of the season &mdash; sitting atop the Big 12 North with a 3-2 record and overall mark of 5-4. </p><p>With a win against Kansas on Saturday, the Wildcats will reclaim bragging rights in their own state. With two more wins, they will be bowl eligible. With a strong enough finish, they will be headed to Dallas to play for the Big 12 championship.</p><p>With those possibilities in mind, some are pushing Snyder as a Big 12 coach of the year candidate. If he can deliver another division title to Manhattan, few will be able to argue his credentials.</p><p>K-State senior quarterback Grant Gregory certainly won&rsquo;t.</p><p>&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t a very good team at the beginning of the year,&rdquo; Gregory said. &ldquo;From where we started to where we are now, we&rsquo;ve improved a lot. &hellip; We&rsquo;ve gotten better offensively, defensively and in special teams since then.&rdquo;</p><p>There are many reasons for that progression, but at the center of it all is Snyder. </p><p>For three straight years he watched Kansas State games &mdash; missing only two or three, he guesses &mdash; from a stadium suite and didn&rsquo;t deeply embed himself in what was going on with the team.