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Kansas City, Mo. — Kansas State coach Bill Snyder will be back on the sideline next season.

The 78-year-old coach told his assistants during a short meeting Tuesday that he will return for his 27th season with the Wildcats, a person familiar with his decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Snyder has not announced his plans.

Snyder said after a Cactus Bowl victory over UCLA last week that he was still mulling whether to return next season or retire for a second time. He stepped away briefly after the 2005 season.

Snyder was diagnosed with throat cancer last offseason, but hardly missed a practice and headed into the year with high expectations. A series of early losses scuttled Big 12 title hopes, and it took a run at the end of the year just to become eligible for a bowl game.

“I would just as soon have won all those ballgames in the middle of the season that we lost,” said Snyder, who is 210-110-1 since taking over the program in 1988. “But by the same token there’s some great value in that as well, for life, for the young people in our program.

“They recognize it,” he said. “They realize the value in life and I think it helps add to their value system, so to speak, and makes them better people, I think.”

Now, the Wildcats will return most of their starters from a team that ultimately went 8-5 and won its second straight bowl game. Alex Delton and Skylar Thompson, the two quarterbacks who took most of the snaps, will be back along with a veteran offensive line and several skill players.

Their defense should also be stout next season, too, even though standout cornerback and return man D.J. Reed has announced plans to skip his senior season for the NFL draft.

Snyder has a contract that rolls over each year, which means he can essentially choose when to walk away. And he has said the last several years that he makes that decision on a year-by-year basis, based primarily on his health but also the wishes of his family.

Now that his decision has been made, Snyder can go about replacing offensive coordinator Dana Dimel, who left for the top job at UTEP. Dimel had grown unpopular with many Kansas State fans eager for a fresh start, and there are several candidates on the staff who will get consideration, among them former Heisman Trophy candidate Collin Klein and wide receivers coach Andre Coleman.

Snyder can also begin putting the finishing touches on a recruiting class that was nearly filled during the fall, and begin preparing for a season that should again be full of expectations.

Along with its regular conference games, the Wildcats have a trio of home games highlighted by a visit from Mississippi State in early September that should provide a good early barometer.

“It’s pretty obvious we’d have to change course because we didn’t take advantage of the strong finish that we had last year,” Snyder said after the Cactus Bowl. “As you know, we were not a real good football team earlier in the season. So whatever that approach was, we’re going to have to change it.

“The main thing is every year’s different. And the dynamics are different regardless of how many young guys you have back, et cetera. And it’s still about the same process. And you’ve heard that, so I won’t repeat all the things that we talk about, what our program’s about and what the process is about, but that is indeed — they understand it. It’s just a matter of doing it.”