Mangino says KU starting tradition

Mangino in Florida for Orange Bowl Kickoff Festival

The Kansas football team doesn't touch down in Miami for the Orange Bowl until late December, but head coach Mark Mangino made a brief stop in the Sunshine State this afternoon.

Luis M. Alvarez/AP Photo

ansas football coach Mark Mangino talks during a news conference at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla. Mangino and his Virginia Tech counterpart, Frank Beamer, met the press Wednesday to talk about their Jan. 3 Orange Bowl showdown.

Luis M. Alvarez/AP Photo

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer speaks during a news conference Wednesday in Hollywood, Fla. Virginia Tech will face Kansas in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3.

Hollywood, Fla. — Against all odds, coach Mark Mangino found himself at a South Florida casino Wednesday.

Mangino's surprising Kansas University football team earned a Bowl Championship Series at-large berth and a trip to the Orange Bowl to face Atlantic Coast Conference champion Virginia Tech on Jan. 3. Mangino and Hokies coach Frank Beamer appeared at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to promote the game.

"Our football tradition is not really a great one," Mangino said. "But anyone can have a bad century."

Kansas (11-1) will play in the Orange Bowl for the first time since 1969 and in a bowl for only the 11th time. Beamer said the Jayhawks are not to be taken lightly.

"What a great story," Beamer said. "I really believe there's going to be so much excitement around this game with them, and certainly we'll have some fans that get excited, also."

Beamer's Hokies (11-2) have a story to tell this season, too. They provided healing at the school after 32 people on campus died at the hands of Seung-Hui Cho before he killed himself April 16.

"How the people of Virginia Tech handled that tragedy and how they responded is really how we'll be remembered," Beamer said. "I can tell you, after that tragedy, Tech people just wanted to be with Tech people.

"And I think football games, and being able to get in that stadium and scream and have some happiness - to be able to win the ACC championship - sometimes I think it was just meant to be."

For the Jayhawks, a trip to South Florida seemed unlikely after they lost to Missouri. The result gave the Tigers the Big 12 North division crown, but their BCS bowl hopes fizzled with a second loss to Oklahoma in the conference title game.

The Jayhawks set a school record for victories, but played a weak schedule. Missing were Texas and Oklahoma, and the nonconference games included Central Michigan, Southeastern Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International.

Still, the Orange Bowl selected Kansas over Missouri.

"We had to make a choice. And we did the best we could to make that decision," Orange Bowl committee member Eric Poms said. "And it was tough."

Missouri (11-2) will face No. 25 Arkansas (8-4) in the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day. Because of the Tigers' loss in the Big 12 title game, Mangino said he was not surprised to receive the Orange Bowl bid.

"If you get a chance to play in the championship game, you probably have to win it," he said. "Because the last game that you play the day before the bowl announcements are made is the last game that a lot of people remember. I empathize with Missouri, but we were 6-6 last year - that means bowl eligible - and we didn't get a bowl bid last year. So we understand."

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klong (anonymous) says...

"Anyone can have a bad century".

I have say that's pretty funny. It's good to see that we have the right man that is getting that turned around.

It's starting to show up in recruiting already. We have several big timers considering us now, who were already commited elsewhere. Rivals just had a story on a DE that had chose NU but is now thinking KU or MU. He is a 4 star guy. If Mangino can do this well with 2 and 3 star guys, just imagine what he can do with 4 and 5's!

December 6, 2007 at 4:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

Gotta love Coach Mangino!

I have an idea for starting a tradition as well:

http://www.beakem.org

December 6, 2007 at 5:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

JBurtin (anonymous) says...

That is good stuff klong,

"Anyone can have a bad century"

Oooh, and the ref takes a point away!
That's hittin' below the belt!
lol

A couple of D ends have decommited lately after visiting us. D.J. Marshall has put himself back on the market after pulling back on his commitment to Iowa State. Scout.com says that he has high interest in us with medium interest in Iowa State and No interest in anyone else. Sounds like he wants to discuss it with his family, but he would also be a great commit if we can swing it.

I'm not so worried about star ratings. I just want us to land the players that are first on our coach's lists. They've shown time and time again that they are much better talent evaluators than Rivals or Scout. I think that's the biggest difference you'll see over the next couple of years. It's not that we'll pull a huge amount of 4 and 5 star players, it's that the coaches will be able to pull the ones they really want instead of settling. Sometimes that will mean that they get the commitment from the 2 star guy that they know is really underated and he turns out to be the next Aqib Talib.

If we stay close enough to the top, you'll see the same thing happening to our recruiting classes that continuously happen at Texas and Oklahoma. Guys will sign with us, then magically grow a couple of inches, gain a few pounds of muscle, and get faster within a week. Suddenly our recruiting classes will be ranked much higher than the individual players were when they first committed.

Seriously folks, it's time to stop obsessing over the star rating nonsense. Rivals allows you to watch one video per day even if you're not a member. Just go into the player's profile and click on one of the videos. When you're done, erase your cookies and the website won't know that you've already watched a video that day.

Do yourself a favor and watch the video for trevor marongelli (remember that name, you're going to hear it alot over the next few years). He was yet another 2 star recruit when he signed with us. Now that we're getting more national respect he gained an inch in height the same week he verballed to us.

Trust me on this one, this is a guy that Texas is going to be sorry they didn't offer a scholarship to in a couple of years.

December 6, 2007 at 5:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jayhawkinatl (anonymous) says...

I agree, JBurtin, about how overrated the star-rating system is. Down here in the ATL, my GT friends constantly harp about the 4-star commits that they get and how high their classes rank every year in the ACC...but they consistantly go 7-5 and end up in the Humanitarian Bowl.

December 6, 2007 at 8:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KUDB99 (anonymous) says...

You don't need to look any further than K-State to realize how lame the star rating system really is. They have a stud 5 star QB who is 6'6" and "looks" like he should be a great QB. But, as Lou Holtz once said "body like Tarzan, but plays like Jane".

We just need to keep finding kids who can play the game. Bigger and faster is better, but they still have to be players.

December 6, 2007 at 8:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

justanotherfan (anonymous) says...

In football, as with other sports, the star ratings really only matter for the top and the bottom. The top 25 or 50 players are going to be legit guys. The one star guys are going to struggle. Everywhere in between is up for grabs.

That said, our success this year will put us in the hunt for better talent to begin with. Right now, I believe that teams like OU, LSU and USC still have better physical talent than we do. We may be developing our guys at a faster rate, but they start out ahead. Before this season I had been preaching our need to upgrade our speed, and we did that. However, I think we still have one more level of speed to go. We also need to upgrade the size of our defensive line (i.e. weight room).

Next season, we may need to consider getting Reesing out of the pocket more. Against teams that have good pass rushes, he will get more balls knocked down because of his size, even if those teams don't get to him for sacks. We may need to roll him more to prevent that.

Defensively, I like what we did this year, but we need a little more speed at LB so we can turn up the aggressiveness. I like that we stuck with our base package against the spread, but we only rushed 3 a lot of times to compensate by dropping an extra guy in the flat. That works against teams that can't block 3 with 5, but against better teams we need to generate a pass rush, which means sending four more often. That means that the LB's will have to cover the flat and the short middle of the field, leaving the corners on the outside and the safeties over the top. That means our LBs will have to be able to get to and tackle WRs like Maclin out in the flat, as well as cover up the short dumps over the middle.

I think all of this is very doable. I feel good about what is possible next year. I wish we could get Arthur Brown (best player in Kansas, 6th ranked prospect in the country) because of the message that it would send to everyone - you can't take the best players from Kansas anymore because those kids are staying home to win championships!

December 6, 2007 at 9:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

It's too bad we probably won't end up with Arthur Brown. The timing was bad on that one, because when he made his list of schools he was considering it was before this great season. You are right, justanother, sending the message that it's gonna be real tough to steal Kansas kids from us is key--I think the next Arthur Brown that comes along will be ours!

December 6, 2007 at 10:23 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

Regarding Arthur Brown, here is a previous post:

------------------

Posted by rohdek (Kyle Rohde) on November 28, 2007 at 8:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Nope - a friend of mine is a teacher at East and talks to Arthur fairly often, thinks he's going to end up at LSU, as the Browns have family there and he'd be a great fit for the LSU defense. The final schools are lsu, usc, unc, Miami and a couple others I can't remember, but OU even got taken off the list. He was still considering KSU though.

December 6, 2007 at 10:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

notabandwagonfan (anonymous) says...

Probably? We never, ever, ever had a chance with Arthur Brown. And I dont think you are accurate with that statement. Arthur is looking for a whole mix of things. The right school, environment, coaching staff, location, other recruits in the class......etc. Until mangino can start winning big 12 titles and offer more to any big time recruit anything other than playing time, we are going to continue to miss on kids like him. Dont get me wrong here, I love Mangino and I'm absolutely impressed by the job he has done at ku, but we have to continue to build on this success.

December 6, 2007 at 10:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Jimmy_Dean (Alan Halvorsen) says...

You're right about the team speed justanotherfan, I watched the OU ends fly off the edge with LB speed and annoy the hell out of Daniel. That was the difference maker. When we played him, our ends had pretty mediocre speed and he would just side step them and look down field and make a good throw. The speed made a difference, hopefully we can get some of that Defensive speed.

December 6, 2007 at 11:07 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

seattlehawk_78 (anonymous) says...

Our current roster is proof enough that Rivals et. al. are over rated. Our current roster is also proof that you don't need the best players to win. Mangino and his staff have found fundamentally sound players at each position and that will always translate into competitive teams.

I don't think the level of talent has improved much but the depth of talent has improved dramatically. Todd Reesing is Bill Whittemore with a better supporting cast.

December 6, 2007 at 11:28 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

justanotherfan (anonymous) says...

seattlehawk,

You don't need the best players to win games and get to a bowl every year, true enough. However, you do need some of the best talent to think about winning national titles, conference titles, etc.

I have read your posts and know that you want the winning to continue past this year. I respect your opinions and have agreed with you a lot.

Our current roster proved that you don't have to have great talent to be competitive if you execute. However, our current roster also proved that we need more talent and depth at some key positions (de, ol, db). We were handicapped vs. MU because we didn't have all of our front line players available and their backups (two and three star recruits) weren't as prepared to execute as the starters. Our starters succeed partly because of talent and partly because they know their job, understand it, and execute it exactly how they are supposed to. The backups, who are less talented, don't get as many reps and as a result aren't as prepared to execute to perfection. This gap leads to a substantial drop off in production.

Look at Oregon. They went from being a prolific offense to getting shut out just by loosing Dixon and then his backup. The supporting cast was more or less the same (they lost a couple other guys, but the difference from Dixon to Leaf, and then Leaf to his backup was drastic). This is why we need more talent. Not so much for the starters, but for the backups. Football is a long season. Injuries happen. Dixon's injury cost Oregon a shot at the national title. We can't afford that if we want to be considered a Football Program and not just a flash in the pan like '95.

December 6, 2007 at 12:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

TKELuke (anonymous) says...

Don't forget to keep voting for the big man for coach of the year. He is one of the finalists.

http://www.coachoftheyear.com

December 6, 2007 at 12:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )