If nothing else, you must respect the honesty of Kansas State&#8217;s firing of Ron Prince.</p><p>Jon Wefald and Bob Krause took decisive action 17 days before the conclusion of the season, denying Prince the opportunity to thwart their execution by lifting the Wildcats to bowl eligibility.</p><p>K-State&#8217;s only risk now is embarrassment, and after watching Wefald and his former athletic director boo-hoo when Bob Huggins jilted K-State, we know that public humiliation isn&#8217;t much peril to the current administration.</p><p>So Ron Prince will walk the green mile in a little more than two weeks and after a road game at Missouri and home games against Nebraska and Iowa State. Anything is a possibility &#8212; from 3-0 to 0-3. Prince is the coach with a sparkling 2-0 record against top-10 Texas squads.</p><p>The outcomes no longer matter. He&#8217;s gone. And I have little interest &#8212; at the moment &#8212; in discussing the fairness of Prince&#8217;s situation. College coaches love the huge contracts and now they&#8217;ll have to learn to live with the itchy trigger fingers big salaries provoke. Midseason firings are quickly becoming the norm in the college game.</p><p>What isn&#8217;t the norm is the bizarre, late-starting teleconference that K-State held Wednesday explaining the Prince decision. Krause and Prince took questions from the media. Prince, to his credit, refused to whine. Despite a respectable 16-18 overall record and the chance to qualify for a bowl game for the second time in three seasons, Prince accepted his fate without lashing out. Meanwhile, Krause painted a picture that K-State has a concrete, easy-to-implement plan to replace Prince.</p><p>If I heard Krause correctly, K-State will try to have a new coach named before the end of the regular season. And when pressed on the issue, Krause indicated that none other than K-State legend Bill Snyder would be a candidate for the job.</p><p>I&#8217;m serious. Three years after retiring, Bill Snyder could return to the sideline at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.</p><p>That would be one explanation for Prince&#8217;s demise being announced before he faced fellow Big 12 North cupcakes Nebraska and Iowa State.</p><p>Or maybe Krause plans to tab Gary Barnett, Dennis Franchione, Lane Kiffin or some other out-of-work former head coach. Those choices aren&#8217;t nearly as fascinating as Snyder returning.</p><p>Bringing Snyder back would make sense. It would be another honest admission, a declaration that Wefald and Krause are not equipped to fix the K-State football program.</p><p>Bill Snyder was a one-man army, and Wefald and Krause were Snyder&#8217;s best cheerleaders. There&#8217;s no reason for Wefald and Krause to saddle a new school president (Wefald is retiring) or athletic director (no way Krause is a long-term A.D.) with a head coach.</p><p>If Snyder only came out of retirement for one season (2009) and allowed the new president to get comfortable before giving the athletic department a clear direction, that would be a positive for K-State.</p><p>But I believe a motivated and rejuvenated Bill Snyder could be effective for a sustained period. He&#8217;s 13 years younger than Joe Paterno, who has the Penn State Nittany Lions in the national-title hunt. Snyder is 10 years younger than Bobby Bowden, who still has Florida State in the top 25.</p><p>Yeah, I&#8217;d give Snyder a five-year contract and let him build a brand-new coaching staff. I&#8217;d beg him to come out of retirement.</p><p>K-State is one bad hire from destroying all of what Snyder built. Prince&#8217;s worst crime is fracturing the K-State family. His bold and daring personality turned off many Wildcats fans. His brave words promised a level of success that he delivered on just twice &#8212; victories over Texas.</p><p>K-State fans would&#8217;ve preferred less talk and victories over Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. That&#8217;s the recipe that made Snyder a beloved figure. Wildcats fans adored his humility.</p><p>Maybe they&#8217;ll get to love him again. Sounds crazy, but it actually makes a lot of sense.