Okay, Snyder at KSU has been a few seasons and a couple titles better than Riley was at OSU.I'd say that Snyder was also competing directly with NU, considering the distance between Lincoln and Manhattan is only 136 miles. Missouri is 250 miles away and OU is 300 miles away. By comparison, Corvallis only has one other DIA school within 500 miles of it (UW at 250 miles).
That "nice 7-8 year run" actually included an 11-year stretch where KSU finished ranked in the top 20 10 time and in the top 10 six times. KSU had never finished a season ranked before Snyder, let alone ranked in the top 10.
Nothing on Riley's record at OSU is comparable to that (he didn't even post the highest ranked football team during the 18 seasons from his first to his last at OSU. Erickson did that with a #4 ranking in 2000.
The comparison was both men took a perrenial bottom feeder and turned them into a respectable team capable of pulling upsets and winning seasons.
Fair enough?
Yes, I agree with the bolded statement. But that's not what was originally stated. And the space between "respectable team capable of..." doesn't really capture the difference between Snyder and Riley. And that's ok. Snyder is arguably the greatest coach in the history of CFB not to win a national championship. I don't expect Riley to be as good as Snyder, just like I don't expect him to be as good as TO.