At his weekly media session Monday, Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel sighed and shook his head at the sobering news from Toledo. Tom Amstutz, Pinkel’s former assistant and successor as Toledo’s head coach, had announced he’ll step down after eight seasons there. An overall record that’s 19 games over .500 couldn’t overcome a third straight losing season.

"It’s a tough business," Pinkel said. "Just a tough business."

Nobody knows better than Ron Prince, Pinkel’s coaching counterpart when Kansas State visits the 13th-ranked Tigers (7-2, 3-2 Big 12) tomorrow night, just three days after KSU Athletic Director Bob Krause fired Prince effective at the conclusion of the season.

In his third season since replacing iconic taskmaster Bill Snyder in Manhattan, Kan., Prince has compiled a 16-18 record at Kansas State - a better mark than Pinkel and Kansas’ Mark Mangino posted through 34 games at their respective schools - and has the Wildcats (4-5, 1-4) two wins away from qualifying for a second bowl game in three years.

Still, those slivers of promise couldn’t stand up to last week’s 52-21 loss at Kansas, an embarrassing defeat in the Sunflower Showdown that dropped Prince’s head-to-head record against Kansas and Missouri to 0-5. Similar to last year’s midseason meltdown, when KSU lost five of its final six games, Prince’s team has dropped four of its last five.

That was enough to convince Krause to dump Prince now and begin looking for his replacement - though Krause cryptically suggested during a teleconference Wednesday that he’s already identified a replacement. Media reports have speculated that Snyder, 69, a longtime ally of Krause in the KSU athletic department, could be the top candidate.

"He’s one person, along with others, that we’ll be consulting with in the near future," Krause said of Snyder, who coached the Wildcats from 1989-2005. "We’ll start out in a consulting basis, and it moves forward from there."

Two weeks after Snyder cruised into retirement with a farewell victory over Missouri at the stadium that now bears his name, Kansas State hand-picked the little-known Prince to restore a program that had started to fade in Snyder’s final two years.

Prince, 36 at the time, had been Virginia’s offensive coordinator for three years - with not a day’s experience as a college head coach.

Wednesday’s announcement came just two months after Krause handed Prince a contract extension and a raise that signaled faith in the coach’s long-term viability in Manhattan.

"We are pleased with the direction of our football program under the leadership of Ron," Krause said at the time. "He has a plan in place and is right on course with that plan."

On second thought …

"The reality is, if you coach in this business long enough, you understand this is a business where you’re hired to win championships and to graduate your players," Prince said during Wednesday’s teleconference. "We had moments where we were very good and showed promise."

So, what went wrong during Prince’s brief purple reign? The reasons are aplenty:

● Talent shortage: Snyder didn’t exactly leave the cupboard flowing with talent when he retired after the 2005 season. Recruiting had dipped under Snyder as Prince inherited a team that was coming off two straight losing seasons - 4-7 in 2004, 5-6 in 2005 - and included just two players who earned any postseason all-conference honors the previous year: wide receiver Jordy Nelson and safety Marcus Watts were honorable-mention selections on the coaches’ 2005 All-Big 12 team.

The talent drop-off is seen on Sundays, too. Just nine Kansas State players were chosen in the last five NFL drafts. The five previous drafts (1999-2003) produced 27 KSU players.

● Coaching carousel: From Prince’s original 2006 collection of coordinators, position coaches and other personnel staffers, 14 are no longer working for Kansas State. In three seasons, the Wildcats have gone through two offensive and defensive coordinators, while at least two assistants have been responsible for coaching quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, linebackers, defensive backs and special teams. Only offensive line coach Tim McCarty and defensive line coach Mo Latimore hold the same positions from Prince’s first season.

● JUCO splurge: Over the past two years, a rash of player turnover sapped Prince’s roster of upperclassmen, leading to a risky recruiting philosophy that might have been his ultimate undoing. Since last season, KSU signed 19 junior college players to national letters of intent, 15 of whom joined the roster this year. At the cost of building long-term depth with high school prospects, Prince hoped the infusion would add instant experience. Nine of those transfers are first- or second-team players, including speedy wide receiver Brandon Banks and linebacker Ulla Pomele, the team’s leading tackler.

The Wildcats have 35 JUCO transfers on their roster - a staggering number, even for a program that’s historically embraced the junior college supply line.

● Erratic QB: Sometimes a college coach is only as good as his quarterback, especially in Prince’s case. Midway through their first season at K-State, the coach named freshman Josh Freeman his starting quarterback, launching a player’s career that would ultimately reflect Prince’s stay at Kansas State.

"He’s got the strongest arm in the country. I’m not kidding you," Missouri defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus said of the 6-foot-6, 250-pound junior. "You talk about the throws he makes, my goodness. We played against a guy named Daunte Culpepper way back in the day" at Toledo. "That’s what he reminds me of, in terms of being big, strong and having the ability to throw the ball. It’s just amazing."

But with a splotchy offensive line that Prince has failed to fully develop, Freeman’s talents haven’t translated into results.

His completion percentage has fallen this year, from 63.3 in 2007 to 61.1, while his career touchdown-interception ratio (39-34) barely skims the positive side. Here’s the most important number: The Wildcats are just 13-16 with Freeman as their starting quarterback.

A tough business, like Pinkel said, becomes a lot tougher with troubling trends like those.

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