MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Brad Lambert remembers quite vividly the dark days of Kansas State football.

Now the coach at Charlotte, Lambert was born in the small town of Hoxie and starred as a defensive back for the Wildcats in the mid-1980s. It was a period under coaches Jim Dickey and Stan Parrish that the program won so few games there were thoughts about kicking it out of the Big Eight.

"They've really done a nice job there of building their football program," said Lambert, whose 49ers visit the No. 19 Wildcats on Saturday. "What coach Bill Snyder has done there is well-documented."

Snyder was...