Manhattan ? Kansas State has hired Virginia offensive coordinator Ron Prince to replace Bill Snyder as head coach, athletic director Tim Weiser said Sunday.

Weiser said the school would formally announce the hiring today.

The 36-year-old Prince, raised in Junction City, becomes the fourth black head football coach in major-college football, joining Washington’s Ty Willingham, Mississippi State’s Sylvester Croom and UCLA’s Karl Dorrell.

A lineman at Dodge City Community College and Appalachian State, Prince spent five seasons at Virginia, the last three as offensive coordinator. He also coached at Dodge City, Alabama A&M, Cornell, South Carolina State and James Madison, and spent four seasons as an NFL Minority Fellowship intern with Jacksonville, Washington, Atlanta and the New York Giants.

“The most important thing for Kansas State was to find the right fit,” Weiser said. “And though that could be defined in a lot of different ways, we believe that included someone who had familiarity with Kansas State football, the state of Kansas and the unique culture and tradition of the university.

“Coach Prince clearly meets all of those criteria, among many others, and we are extremely excited to be announcing him as our head football coach tomorrow.”

Two of Snyder’s former assistants who had been mentioned as candidates took themselves out of the running last week. Jim Leavitt agreed to a contract extension as South Florida’s head coach, and Brent Venables said he wanted to remain defensive coordinator at Oklahoma.