How newcomer Sean Snyder, son of K-State legend Bill Snyder, is aiding KU football team
Kansas Jayhawks assistant Sean Snyder hasn’t been part of the KU football program for long, but he’s already receiving rave reviews from head coach Lance Leipold.
Snyder, the 53-year-old son of legendary former Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, joined Kansas in April as a special assistant to Leipold. His duties include helping to coach the defense, working in football operations, helping with in-state high school football recruiting and, most notably, working closely with KU’s special teams unit.
Snyder spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons as USC’s special teams coordinator. He was honored as the special teams coordinator of the year in 2015 by both FootballScoop and Phil Steele. The latter also named him coordinator of the year in 2017.
“His ability through his years of not just knowledge schematically that he adds — It’s his philosophy with players and getting core guys to really be in it and doing things (they need to),” Leipold said Wednesday. “His contributions behind the scenes have been even better than I thought they were holistically, and his professionalism and humility about how he’s done It has really, really impressed me.”
KU’s special teams unit ranked No. 128 in ESPN’s SP+ last season. SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency.
After finishing last in the Big 12 in field-goal percentage (53.8%), KU spent this offseason reloading on special teams. Leipold added two transfer kickers: Seth Keller of Texas State and Charlie Weinrich of Nebraska. They also added Australian punter Damon Greaves.
Keller and Weinrich have battled with KU junior Owen Piepergerdes for the starting job. Leipold isn’t ready to name his starters just yet, but he likes what he’s seen from the special teams group.
“I am happy with Damon,” Leipold said. “The kicking game is starting to take shape. I feel our field-goal kicking is a lot more stable than we were last year — health-wise and in consistency. Seth, Owen — Charlie has been slowed down a little bit. (We are) trying to get him back into the loop there.
“With Owen, we’ve got a lefty, as well. It’s kind of like a bullpen. You kind of go to the righty or lefty. ... I like where we are at.”
Consistency on special teams would be a massive boost for a KU program that’s looking to take another step forward this fall. But that’s not to say everything will be cut and dried.
With football evolving, for instance, Leipold explained that there’s always an internal debate about whether to go for it on fourth down from the 30-yard line or kick a field goal.
And that’s where Snyder’s expertise figures to come in handy.
“I still think there’s the crunch moments you need those points,” Leipold said. “I’m very confident it’s going to be a group that comes through for us.”
