Thursday, December 20, 2007

Keegan

Keegan: Mangino at KU to stay

By Tom Keegan

Advertisement

Mangino named AP Coach of the Year

KU head football coach Mark Mangino has been named the Associated Press' Coach of the Year!

It's fourth and short, and the kicker's leg is warm and ready to boot the 40-something field goal. But the coach waves off the special teams and puts it in the hands of his quarterback, who hands it off to the fullback, who gets stopped short of the first down.

The fans in the stands turn to each other. The father of 2.2 children talks to his television. The message boards light up with fresh material. They all utter the same refrain that has become so popular into today's society that demands instant gratification.

"Fire the coach!"

The team recovers from the failed first-down attempt and wins the game, but a week later, a breakdown in coverage results in an easy touchdown and a seven-point deficit.

"Fire the coach!"

And so it goes in football stadiums across America.

Except here. Nobody is allowed to say, "Fire the coach!" anymore with any credibility. Mark Mangino won't have to spend the $50,000 bonus he earned Wednesday to fire-proof his ears. The Associated Press, choosing from a field of 119 Division 1-A football coaches, named Mangino its Coach of the Year for 2007.

And get this: Mangino actually is spending the days leading up to the Orange Bowl, played Jan. 3 in Miami, preparing his team for the game. That's not a given anymore. The proliferation of bowl games means a coach's job isn't necessarily safe just because his team has made it to one of them. The one-sided nature of coaches' contracts means many of them desert their teams for another job, thus diluting the importance of bowl games everywhere.

If the coach isn't getting fired by his school, it seems, he's looking to fire his school to fatten his wallet and his ego.

And then there is Mangino, saw in hand, contract secure, eyes trained on the same goal as those of Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, winning the Orange Bowl.

This is Beamer's 21st year as coach of the Hokies. He found a school where he fits and has grown the program into a national force with staying power.

Mangino seems far more likely to follow that path than to play the coaching gypsy. His family has deep Kansas ties, and that can't ever be overlooked. He keeps things pretty simple: work and family.

Sure, the Penn State job would seem to have a romantic appeal to Mangino. He's from western Pennsylvania, and his late father played football there, even played for Joe Paterno on the freshman team.

The line of suitors will be long for that job, when it opens, and might even have Rutgers' Greg Schiano standing in it.

And then there is the matter of when that job will open. Paterno has 371 career victories, and Florida State's Bobby Bowden has 373. They both appear determined to stay on the job for one more year after the other guy retires. By the time that duel ends, Mangino already will have established himself as the most high-profile football coach in Kansas history.

Mangino was the perfect guy at the perfect time to build a Kansas football program from the ashes. There will be more bumps in the road for him at KU, starting with next year's much tougher schedule.

Just remember, when his team has a bad day, the three-word refrain no longer is an option. No more, "Fire the coach!"

Comments

KEITHMILES05 (anonymous) says...

This must be a subtle attempt to correct the outrageous blooper which this paper broadcast last night.

December 20, 2007 at 5:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

byron (anonymous) says...

I see the outrageous blooper and the statement saying it was a blooper have both been erased. It's as if they never happened.

December 20, 2007 at 7:11 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

carterpatterson (anonymous) says...

I wonder how many people read the "hoax" last night, screamed, beat the dog, and went to bed.

December 20, 2007 at 7:31 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

ttoulouse (anonymous) says...

Fill us in guys - didn't see that of which you write

December 20, 2007 at 7:49 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

ttoulouse ...

it was a doozy, message boards flashing, phones ringing, presents being tossed out windows into the snow!!!

http://boards.kusports.com/showflat.p...

***

I *DO* worry that he might go to Penn St or Ohio St ... but not many other places ...

December 20, 2007 at 7:55 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

This was my homage to it:

http://www.beakem.org/images/MM2WVU.jpg

December 20, 2007 at 7:56 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jimmy_Dean (Alan Halvorsen) says...

Good article Keegs. Your right that crap "fire the coach, hire so and so" crap better be over.

December 20, 2007 at 7:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jimmy_Dean (Alan Halvorsen) says...

crap was used twice.

December 20, 2007 at 8:04 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Brock (anonymous) says...

New rant: "Fire the Journal-World!"

Brock

December 20, 2007 at 8:11 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

ttoulouse (anonymous) says...

Thanks sevenyear!
Hey, it's KUBand reunion time! I'll be at the game! we should hang - email me

December 20, 2007 at 8:27 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KU (anonymous) says...

Speaking of coaching rumors......Has anybody heard the ones about Tim Beck, our receivers coach, going to Nebraska to be the running backs coach? Apparently he went to high school with Bo Pelini.

December 20, 2007 at 8:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

So what was big deal last night? I can't get to the "boards" to read the messages. What did the LJ report?

December 20, 2007 at 8:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jimmy_Dean (Alan Halvorsen) says...

you don't want to know.

December 20, 2007 at 9:08 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

So I saw on the main site that an imposter claiming to be Mangino's agent said Mangino was in discussions with WVU. Is that all that happened?

December 20, 2007 at 9:17 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

This is a USER'S account of it:

So here is how this deal went down....This was a very professional hoax.

Apparently, Wood gets a call around dinner from somebody that there are rumors surrounding Mangino to West Virginia and he is given the number to Neil Cornrich who is indeed Mark Mangino's agent.

Ryan calls that number and gets a very professional voicemail saying that this is the office of Neil Cornrich. Wood leaves a message.

Moments later a man calls wood claiming to be Cornrich and says he is releasing the news of Mangino and his contract negotiations with West Virginia .

Ryan posts the quotes and the story and waits call backs from the Sports Information Dept and other sources.

Eventually they call and tell Ryan he has been tricked. Wood changes he story on the website.

***

TT, sending you a PM!

December 20, 2007 at 9:32 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

Thanks, 7

December 20, 2007 at 9:55 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

LAJayhawk (anonymous) says...

I definitely think the title of this, at least, is to make up for the mistake last night.

I saw many who thought it was a mizzou prank, which it could have been, but I give more weight to it being a VTech prank. An attempt to distract the players and cause Mangino to have to explain it to them ala Les Miles. Of course, that didn't really hurt LSU, and I don't expect it to hurt us either.

Wood's one of the reporters on here that I really respect. It was a mistake, but one he can hopefully learn from.

December 20, 2007 at 10:51 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

vmwskywalk (anonymous) says...

Hey Ryan....

Ding....Wanna get away?

December 20, 2007 at 11:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

fundamental (anonymous) says...

Ryan,

Hang in there! We all have bad days and have bad things happen to us. Keep your chin up. You do a great job, and there's no reason to hang your head about this. Just remember, today's newspapers line tomorrow's wastepaper baskets.

December 20, 2007 at 11:29 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KU (anonymous) says...

Ryan......You can redeem yourself by getting to the bottom of the Tim Beck-to-Nebraska rumors! :-)

December 20, 2007 at 11:58 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

fabio (anonymous) says...

Keegs- Anybody can support the coach when he is 11-1. Funny though, I didnt see any articles like this last year. Some people stood behind this guy after the Baylor loss and he could of used more support like this back then. Now, your just playing Captain Obvious. Are all journalist like this?

December 20, 2007 at 12:26 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

kickazzkurtz (anonymous) says...

Best prank I ever heard of was between Harvard and Yale. I can't remember who did it to who, but some grad students dressed up like students of the opposing school and handed out signs to their rival students to hold up. They used computers to figure out how to do it.

I forget what they told students the signs would say but when they held them up it said We Suck or something
like that. There was a picture in Sports Illustrated but I don't have it anymore.

check this article out that I googled:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007...

December 20, 2007 at 12:49 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KUDB99 (anonymous) says...

Could the hoax be considered criminal? Attempt to defraud or what not?

Just Curious.....

December 20, 2007 at 12:50 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

hawkman1031 (anonymous) says...

yes. it is always a misery or mildcat prank. they always want us to lose our coach and try to do it with stupid posts and even calls to the coaches radio show.
If it seems to hoaxie, it could be a hokie.
Never believe it.

What band reunion, ttoulouse?

December 20, 2007 at 1:08 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

hawkman1031 (anonymous) says...

a good journalist can get someone to angrily fill us in as to his age and his manhood :D
I'm still rolling over that one. In Norman a car dealer got on tv and advised the public that it should buy cars from him because he is a man and he is 40. What a hoot.
It is also a hoot how mu fans still criticize our schedule and say it's not real. I think we had the same schedule as last year except beat all but one. Seems real to me.

December 20, 2007 at 1:23 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jayhawk86 (anonymous) says...

KU, The RB coach for NU has already been hired. They just won't name him till after the bowl games. Word has it that he is coming from LSU.

December 20, 2007 at 2:37 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

walkdog262 (anonymous) says...

It's hilarious how some of you rip the J-W for having the wrong story about Mangino going to West Virginia then say you are dying to know if a KU assistant is leaving. This is exactly why the Internet has ruined solid sports journalism - people on message boards press and press for breaking news and being able to know stuff right when it happens, then when it goes wrong you thrash the writers. It's a storm of your own making.
In the Internet world, there is no room for triple-checking sources. You go with what you can get. The type of thing that deserves your ire is the Mitch Albom controversy of a couple years ago when he made up a narrative about some guys attending a college basketball game when in fact they didn't attend at all. That's just lazy reporting. What Wood did ended up biting him in the ass (through little fault of his own), but it was only because he was working hard to get a story.
I'm happy to see a lot of people being supportive, though!

December 20, 2007 at 3:05 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Sparko (anonymous) says...

I saw the Paterno connection on another website; was that possible? The Little Bear was born in 1957, and that would make his father a very late Freshman if true. Is this one of those self-referencing quotes that was never verified?

December 20, 2007 at 4:54 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

seattlehawk_78 (anonymous) says...

After the famous Cal-Stanford game, some Stanford students published a phony Cal student newspaper with a story that stated the outcome of the game had been reversed. They distributed copies on campus and apparently fooled quite a few people including members of the Cal football team.

That beats dialing in a bogus phone call by a mile.

December 20, 2007 at 4:59 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Sparko (anonymous) says...

I see Paterno was an assistant Coach at PSU from 1950-1965, so I gather the two paths did cross answering my own question. This is one of those ironic twists that may staunch the bad karma from the last Orange Bowl--Our coach is linked to the coach who benefited from the 12th man call. Let's end the cycle and repair the rift that opened in the universe from that game!

December 20, 2007 at 5:12 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

Research I posted elsewhere speculating on the age of Coach Mangino's father, and his age at death ...

***

well, Tom Mangino was alive in 1985 (I found an old news article that referenced this ...

***

played for "freshman Coach Joe Paterno"

Paterno was an assistant from 1950-66, head coach from 1966 until the present ...

***

Coach Mark Mangino is fifty ... born in 1957

***

let's assume the elder Mangino was 18 in 1950 (born in 1932), 25 when his son was born, that sounds logical!

let's again assume he died in 1986, that's about "two decades ago," according to someone's article.

That would have made Tom Mangino about 54 ...

So Mark Mangino is getting close, too close, to the age that his father was when he passed!

December 20, 2007 at 5:58 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

peter56321 (anonymous) says...

It was nice to read an article without the dreaded "Kansas University." I guess they figured getting the story AND the name of the school wrong would have been a little much. Even for the Journal-World.

December 20, 2007 at 7:56 p.m. ( | suggest removal )