OK, all good calls. We got something to talk about now. I'm sure
every school has had occasional "player problems". My definition of "doing it the right way" is not getting hit with any serious NCAA penalties.
Snyder/KSU (1989-2005; 2009-Now): IMO, the greatest building job ever. I think KSU had like 1 winning season in the previous 20 or 25 years when Snyder took over. The 2 things that jump out here are he scheduled absolute wins in the OOC games and leaned very heavily on the JUCO system. On the latter point, KS has a pretty good JC system so they could follow the JUCO programs pretty closely. The other big in state school was a basketball power just like UK and, for whatever reasons, never really went in for Big 8 football. Snyder won early and never really stopped. This guy is just a damn good coach that knows how to practice and prep a football team.
KSU was hit with some NCAA minor penalties in 1999
Beamer/VPI (1987-2015): I'm not going to "research this again" but, IIRC, VPI was pretty damn good under Beamer's predecessor but got hit with some penalties that resulted in his ouster. Beamer had a pretty rough go his first 5 or 6 years at Tech. I think they played as an independent early in his career but took off and never looked back after a couple of years in the Big East. Aside from developing a great defensive identity with long time DC Bud Foster I think Beamer was first to figure out that HS football in VA was pretty good, especially in the VA Beach/Tidewater areas. Maybe VA's ACC membership kept them thinking more about basketball than football further opening the door for VPI? IDK.
To my knowledge no NCAA penalties during Beamer's tenure
Alvarez/WI (1990-2005): Good call. I had forgotten about his work at WI. He took over a pretty bad program and had 4 losing seasons before going 10-1-1 with a Rose Bowl win in his 5th year. Only 2 losing seasons in the next 12. I really don't know how he did it but it sure as Hell worked. I'm not sure I can "characterize" what Alvarez did to build the program but I always think of WI football as BIG RBs running behind VERY BIG OLs.
WI was hit with some NCAA minor penalties in 2001
Probably the only common denominator is these guys proved to be very good coaches.
Peace