ARIZONA STATE

Snyder, on the man who got him into college coaching:

“In the spring of 1960, I was teaching high school math in Eugene, Oregon, and I ran into John Robinson at a social function one night,” he said. “John was the Oregon freshman coach at the time. We’d both played at Oregon and Robinson asked me what I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to be a college coach.

“He told me: ‘OK, here’s what you need to do. Go see your principal Monday morning and resign. Make a clean break.’

“I told him I still needed to pay rent, but I did resign after that school year. Robinson got me in to see [Oregon Coach] Len Casanova, and I told him: ‘You can give me every crappy job you have, and I’ll still be here.’ ”

Snyder became a head coach at Utah State (1976-82) and Cal (1987-91) and went to Arizona State in 1995. He was a USC assistant in 1974 and ’75.

*

Arizona State returned to its slushy Citrus College practice field Saturday for a two-hour contact drill in the mud.

Pat Thompson, the 300-pound starting right guard, returned to practice after bruising a knee in a hotel fall Thursday.