OSU FOOTBALL
New assistant Sean Snyder impressed OSU players in first 10 minutes, has them improving after only three days
- Aug 5, 2024 Updated 11 hrs ago
- OSU Sports Writer
STILLWATER — One of Oklahoma State’s biggest offseason additions, punters and kickers coach Sean Snyder, might go almost completely unnoticed in 2024 if everything goes according to plan.
“Coach Snyder, he’s been awesome,” kicker Logan Ward said. “We’ve only had him for three days, but everything he’s been doing, all the improvements he’s been able to make with us already, it is crazy. I mean, imagine what a week could do, a month could do, two months could do. It is really helpful and just inspiring.”
Ward said Snyder made a strong first impression and even described the first meeting as a “home run.” The Cowboys’ presumptive starting kicker wasn’t the only one impressed with Snyder.
“Honestly, in the first 10 minutes of meeting him, I knew that he was going to be good for us,” punter Hudson Kaak said.
Punter Hudson Kaak
“The meetings that I have been in with him have been very impressive,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. “Obviously, I never coached with his father, but when I listen to him talk and coach, it sounds just like his dad (former Kansas State coach Bill Snyder).”
DeForest split time between safeties and special teams throughout the first seven years of Gundy’s tenure. Since then, grad assistants have carried the load for most seasons.
In 2018, Oklahoma State hired special teams analyst M.K. Taylor. Under former rules that no longer apply beginning this season, analysts were limited in what kind of contact they could have with players on the team. That forced Taylor to rely on grad assistants to relay his instructions.
Oklahoma State’s current special teams analyst, Joseph Foteh, joined the Cowboys in 2022 after working as the special teams coordinator at Blinn College for three years.
Beginning this season, programs are no longer limited to 10 on-field assistant coaches, and analysts can coach players directly. Still, Gundy didn’t see a need to mess with the coaching staff’s chemistry, with one exception.
“If you’re a young man who punts and kicks, and you’re being recruited, and somebody thinks you’re a good player, why would you want to come to Oklahoma State if you don’t have a guy that can coach you?” Gundy said. “I wouldn’t want to come here because I would say, ‘You have the ability to hire a real kicking and punting coach, and you don’t have anybody to coach me?’
“Now, we’ve had great special teams guys here. They orchestrate the four units, but they don’t do the integral parts of kicking and punting. It’s like your buddy down the street says he can help you with your golf swing, and he really doesn’t know what he’s doing. And he tells you the basic stuff, and you go play, and you’re still no good.”
Kaak described Snyder’s addition to the staff as “refreshing.”
“Even just having conversations to bounce ideas off him,” Kaak said. “It has been huge. So he’s come in and he’s changed a few things, tweaked a few things with our technique and all that sort of thing. I think it will make us better in the long term for sure.”
Kaak and Ward mentioned Snyder’s ability to break down film with them as one of the biggest benefits. It’s one thing that will become even more critical during the season when specialists across the country find themselves looking for advice in a hurry.
“Because a lot of kickers around the country they got their guys that are outside guys, it is like a third party basically,” Ward said. “That you will have to get your film and you have to send it to them. And whenever they have time that they can get it back to you and all the reviews or comments whatever they want to make on it.
“It is really helpful to have that in-person, real-time instant feedback. Of ‘this is what you did wrong. Try this here. If this doesn’t work, I got another thing I want you to try, and we can kind of work around it.’ So, it is really helpful to have the guy here.”
Kicker Kason Shrum
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