Timing finally right for K-State QB Michael Bishop and College Football Hall of Fame
One of the best quarterbacks in Kansas State history is heading toward college football immortality.
After many years of waiting, Michael Bishop was selected for the College Football Hall of Fame on Monday. He will enter the hall as a member of its 2023 class along with other former notable players such as Reggie Bush, Derrick Johnson, Jeremy Maclin and Tim Tebow.
“Widely regarded as the best all-around quarterback in Kansas State history, Michael Bishop helped College Football Hall of Fame Coach Bill Snyder turn the Wildcats into a national powerhouse with an overall 22-3 record during his two-year tenure in Manhattan,” said HOF president Steve Hatchell. “His accomplishments place him among the best to have played the game, and there’s no doubt he deserves to be immortalized in the College Football Hall of Fame.”
Bishop joins a short list of other former K-State football coaches and players in the HOF. The others are Darren Sproles, Mark Simoneau, Gary Spani, Charles Bachman, Lynn Waldorf and Bill Snyder.
K-State fans remember Bishop as the quarterback who led the Wildcats at the height of their powers under Snyder.
After transferring to K-State from junior college he led the Wildcats to 22 victories in just two seasons as the team’s QB1. They went 11-1 in 1997, beating everyone on the schedule other than old nemesis Nebraska. Then they started 11-0 and earned the school’s first No. 1 ranking in 1998.
Only a double-overtime loss in the Big 12 championship game prevented them from playing for a national title.
Bishop threw for 4,401 yards and 36 touchdowns during his time with the Wildcats. He also rushed for 1,314 yards and 23 touchdowns — all without spending any time in Snyder’s system until he before he arrived on campus a few weeks before his first game.
“He made a lot of mistakes, but the great thing about Michael was that he made up for mistakes,” Snyder said last year. “I always said Michael was the greatest sandlot football player that ever existed. He just loved to play the game and went out there and played. All the X’s and O’s didn’t mean all that much in the beginning. I probably tempered his talent by trying to make him learn more than time allowed.”
Bishop went on to become a Heisman finalist, a consensus All-American and the Davey O’Brien Award winner in 1998.
Those accomplishments were enough to continually get him nominated for inclusion in the Hall of Fame, but never enough to gain him membership into the club. Until now.
The long wait is over.
This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Timing finally right for K-State QB Michael Bishop and College Football Hall of Fame."