Bill Snyder Defends Decision to Deny Corey Sutton Scholarship Release

Kansas State Wildcats head football coach Bill Snyder provided his rationale behind denying the scholarship release of wide receiver Corey Sutton during a booster event Thursday.

"It doesn't make sense to not try to prevent [Sutton from leaving]" Snyder said, per Mitch Sherman of ESPN.com. "If you're a No. 2, you probably want to be a No. 1. If you have the option to leave, and you have 22 No. 2s on your team leaving, you don't have much of a team left."

Snyder also said Sutton failed two drug tests during his time with the Wildcats.

Snyder's comments came after Sutton said in an interview with Kellis Robinett of the Wichita Eagle the coach denied the receiver's request to be released after being presented with 35 potential transfer destinations.

According to Robinett, Sutton said his list of 35 schools featured zero Big 12 teams and nobody on future Kansas State schedules. What's more, some of the schools were in the FCS and Division II.

"Coach Snyder told me today that when I signed my letter of intent that was my commitment to him, that I was going to be there for four years," Sutton said, per Robinett. "I heard that and told him, 'Coaches can leave. So why can't a player leave? You made a commitment to me that you were going to treat me the right way, and that's not what you're doing.'"

Robinett pointed out NCAA rules will let Sutton transfer with or without Kansas State's release, but he can only receive financial aid from a different program next year with the release.

Sherman noted Sutton sent out a series of now-deleted tweets criticizing Snyder, including one that read "Can you stop being a slave master and give me my release?"

Sutton played 10 games for the Wildcats during the 2016 season and tallied just four catches for 54 yards.