"the premise that Snyds as any option other than him coaching until he dies, was/is retarded."
While I don't completely disagree with you, comparing Kansas State to Michigan and Nebraska isn't a very good one. Almost regardless of who the coach is, Michigan will always attract talented assistants and very good recruiting classes simply because they're Michigan. Nebraska isn't Michigan, but they're not K-State either. The fact is, we can hire a better coach coming off 3,4,or 5 years of success than we could if we tried hiring from the bottom of the Big 12 and asking someone to pull off something "snyderesque". We messed up with Prince, but we have a rare opportunity to do it again. We have a wealth of talented assistants that only Snyder could assemble who most could be considered candidates after Snyder leaves. That is NOT something we had after Snyder the first time he retired or especially after Prince. Which if we do hire in house will maintain some recruiting ties and Off./Def. schemes. There are a lot of examples of good coaches leaving and a program never recovering, or at least taking a while to. The idea is not retarded and is the next best option to hiring a Patterson or Leavitt. I mean, who else could do what he is doing and do what he is about to do besides Snyder?