And if football coaches Kirk Ferentz and Dan McCarney are feeling a little thin in the wallet, Bill Snyder might have helped them out with their bosses.

Snyder, whose 12^th-ranked Kansas State team is a 10 ½-point favorite to defeat No. 21 Iowa State at 6 p.m. Saturday in Manhattan, Kan., gave rave reviews to both guys.

Ferentz’s sixth-ranked Iowa team has records of 9-1 overall and 6-0 in the Big Ten heading into an 11:05 a.m. game Saturday against Northwestern at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

Snyder, Ferentz and McCarney—whose Iowa State team has records of 7-3 overall and 4-2 in the Big 12—were among those on Hayden Fry’s staff at Iowa in the 1980s.

"I know all of us have a great appreciation for our opportunities to be with Hayden and each other,’’ said Snyder, who was Fry’s offensive coordinator at Iowa and has been a Master Builder in bringing Kansas State’s program back from the dead.

"I’m excited about how well each of them are doing. I’m excited about Kirk Ferentz at the University of Iowa.

"You know, there was some criticism over that hire…..But Kirk has an unbelievably talented approach to the game of football, how he coaches people and how he teaches the game."

The "criticism" Snyder was referring to centered around the wishes of a sizable number of Iowa fans that the successor to Fry should have been Bobby Stoops, a former Iowa player who now is doing a sensational job as Oklahoma’s head coach.

But….

Snyder said Ferentz is "one of those guys that you know is always going to be successful. I go back to when we first had the opportunity to hire Kirk (at Iowa). I think he was a volunteer or part-time coach (at Pittsburgh). It seemed like a little bit of a risk, but in his first year there we went to the Rose Bowl and won the Big Ten Conference title.

"He was as instrumental in the success as anyone."

"Barry Alvarez (another former Fry staff member), of course, is doing well (as Wisconsin’s head coach). We always talk about the fact that maybe the best of all was Bill Brashier, who stayed on as defensive coordinator and retired at the University of Iowa.

"He was never, unfortunately, given the opportunity to do some of the things we do. He was probably the most talented of all."

"We certainly echo that. Having known Dan a long time, we’ve never been in doubt that he would bring great success to that program (at Iowa State). He certainly has done that."

Asked to be more specific about why he never doubted McCarney would bring success to Iowa State, Snyder said, "I’ve known Dan McCarney for a long period of time. When you work with someone for a 10-year period of time, you get a good feel for their capabilities.

"Regardless of what the environment is, or was, the thing I know about Dan is that he’s a tenacious worker. He’s a compassionate person with young people. There’s no doubt in my mind that he has won the young people over. He’s a tireless, relentless worker in all facts of his program.

"He was always a great recruiter, so you know he’s going to get quality players in his program. And you know he’s going to coach his young people hard and still have great compassion for them from a personal capability standpoint.

"I think those kinds of things will allow him to be successful in whatever he does—as a head coach, an assistant coach or running a corporation. There are some people you know who will be successful no matter what they do."