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Friday, May 4, 2007

Mayer

Mayer: Gridiron success crucial

By Bill Mayer

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Kansas University football is in dire need of a breakout season.

A 7-5 record would top last year's disappointing 6-6, steer the Jayhawks to some second-rate bowl game and give Mark Mangino his second winning season in six tries. That won't be good enough for most fans who are figuring it's time for a major upturn, like 8-4 or better.

The Memorial Stadium stands need a lot of filling to produce the loot and attention KU craves and badly needs. While a 45,000-and-up crowd average is teetering on the brink, another caretaker season could let a lot of air out of the bag, improved facilities and all.

Even though the Lew Perkins money machine seems to be purring along, and men's basketball is poised for another red-hot season, things are not in top shape in other departments at the Mount Oread Supermarket. Women's basketball continues to struggle. Baseball and softball aren't creating any major tremors. Track and field tends to be more field than track. Golf, soccer, swimming, tennis and volleyball cry out for some major surges.

The Bill Self Gang can't continue as the total savior. Football must get cracking.

The Big 12 Conference has gridiron venues that lure hordes of people and generate big money. Nebraska, Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma are justifiably boastful of their fan support. But even they fall short of the kinds of population explosions the Big Ten sees at Michigan and Ohio State.

Michigan State had a paltry 4-8 record the past fall and fired coach John L. Smith. Even so, the Spartans averaged 75,000 people for home games. Even the Big 12's bell cows struggle to top that.

We keep hearing everything is in place for Mangino and Clan to burst upon the scene and win twice as many games as they lose. Quarterbacks Todd Reesing and Kerry Meier seem poised to generate thrills, and we hear they have some notable support. They better have.

In the five seasons to date, Mangino has managed to raise KU to a level of respectability, but hardcore faithful want more, with good reason, and now. KU must go 4-0 to start the season before going to Kansas State on Oct. 6. Then there have to be at least four more victories.

Would Lew Perkins replace Mangino after another 6-6? Considering Lew's Al Davis approach of "just win baby," don't bet against it.

¢ What a batch of sausages the Kansas City Chiefs' talent-hunters seem to be. They go out and line up guys for the recent draft, and it turns out two or three of them are rather dubious in character as well as talent. Then they let a fine, able, versatile footballer like Kansas' Jon Cornish go home to Canada. I hope he's sensational and makes interminable money.

Kansas City repeatedly fights back from the precipice of success in assembling people. Cornish is a versatile guy who, at 215 pounds, can run intelligently, catch passes, block better than Larry Johnson and could help the club a lot on special teams. He'd also have a local fan base and would be good insurance if Johnson falters. K.C. seems to go out of its way to bungle at draft time; losing Cornish is just one more dumb mistake.

¢ Too few are criticizing Kansas basketeer Brandon Rush for diddling long enough to cost Bill Self a good recruit or two. He deserves harpoons. If he flops and comes back, how much more uncertainty would he create? Self owes Rush nothing, and if he returns, let's hope the lineup shows Bill's through babying Rush's erraticity.

Comments

  1. actorman (anonymous) says…

    Mayer is once again showing what a decrepit fool he is. Brandon could have declared two months ago and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference. Players are allowed, within the rules, to come back if they don't sign with an agent. Since Brandon hasn't signed with an agent, what difference would it have made if he had made his decision earlier??? Recruits still wouldn't have known if Brandon would be coming back or not.

  2. bmcmich1 (anonymous) says…

    Actorman,
    I can only speculate, but I think his comment was made under the general assumption that Brandon is all but gone, and moreover, his point was that if Brandon decided to declare--no matter when, or whether he signed an agent or not--Coach didn't owe him the courtesy of not recruiting anyone to fill his spot. One of those deals like "go ahead and declare, but don't expect your scholarship to be waiting should you want to come back because I have a job to do here with or without you." It sounds cold, but, like they say in the movies "it's not personal, it's just business."

    Now, on to the meat of the article: KU Football. I tend to agree with Mayer in that we need to drastically improve from last year in the W-L column. If we go 6-6 again, I would have no problem with getting rid of the fat man. I thought this was true of last year, too, but this year truly IS do or die time for Mangino. So many strides have been made from Department's side that Football now has to produce or become a HUGE disappointment and for all intents and purposes a waste of time and $. That said, I for one am extremely excited for the season, and I think that all these doomsday prophecies will be quickly forgotten after a stellar year. RCKUFB07!!

  3. BDub (anonymous) says…

    Is the fact that Bill Mayer is bitter, crotchety and entirely negative some kind of newsflash? That's just old hat around here. The tenor of his writing borders on the pathetic. It's easy enough to make one's point without all that bitterness, and especially without encouraging others to "harpoon" a kid who is just trying to figure out the best way to go in his career. Mayer - you're one of THOSE fans that everyone else hates. Retire already.

  4. bmcmich1 (anonymous) says…

    Good point BDub - haven't heard him say anything positive about a player or team who didn't play in the Eisenhower Era.

  5. Jimmy_Dean (anonymous) says…

    bmc- "the fat man" has a name...it's Mark Mangino, our coach. You don't need to degrade him as if a tiger or a cat would do.

  6. prairie_dog (anonymous) says…

    I agree Buddha needs a breakout season, but he probably does not have the horses. Key players to watch: Reesing/Meier (of course), Onyegbule (or someone who can generate a pass rush from the front 4).

    If it does not happen, what then? A big time coach to KU? Lots of luck. An up-and-comer? KU has been a stepping-stone job for how many coaches (Pepper Rodgers, you **@@!)?

    Buddha has been better than the others and seems (?) committed to the program. Let's give him every opportunity (no more #78 recruiting classes, Buddha). Patience, Hawk fans.

    PS Are we ever going to get an interview from Warriner?

  7. JayhawkPhil (anonymous) says…

    I have stated my dislike of Mayer before but Bdub and Bcmich1 did a better job of describing why intelligent KU fans should cringe every time he writes a column.
    Having said that, I agree with him and Bcmich1 that the football team has to show some progress this year after a step back last year in terms of performance and recruiting. Mangino absolutely has to win 6 games but might need to win 7 to retain his credibility with Perkins. I hope he does. I would hate to start all over again. As I said in a previous post, Mangino had a long ways to go just to get the team back to a mediocre level after Terry Allen loaded the team up with Div II talent. He still deserves some patience.
    Good series of Posts.

  8. actorman (anonymous) says…

    bmcmich, I understand your point about Brandon, but I don't think a coach is allowed to rescind a scholarship under those conditions, since it's within a player's rights to not sign with an agent and then choose to come back. Even if BS DID have the right to do that, it would probably hurt ku tremendously in recruiting. Imagine what other programs would tell a potential top recruit: Sure, you may want to go to Kansas and play for Bill Self, but don't ever change your mind about going to the NBA or you won't be able to keep your scholarship. It wouldn't be worth the risk for BS to do that. So that goes back to my original point about it not making any difference if Brandon had declared earlier.

    As for football, the thing that I find most discouraging about Mangino is his inability to manage games. Whether it be not using a timeout in an obvious situation (at Texas A&M), or inexplicably going for two with a 26-point lead against Texas Tech in a game that KU ultimately blew, or numerous other strange and curious decisions, Mangino does not seem to be able to make appropriate decisions when it comes to managing a game, especially in the closing minutes. I think he may be one of those classic examples of someone who's a good assistant coach but not a good head coach. Yes, he's made significant strides since the dog days of the Terry Allen era, but he's been given more than enough chances to get us to the next level of at least a DECENT bowl game. This year has to be make or break for him. As Mayer says (and yes, sometimes I do agree with him), KU has to win a minimum of 8 games this year. Otherwise, I think Mangino should go. Sadly, I don't think it will happen, especially given KU's abysmal road record under MM.

  9. klineisanazi (anonymous) says…

    Uncle Bill finally got one right....Mangino needs to start delivering the goods. Football is too important as a revenue-generator, and Mangino is being paid too much money for much more mediocrity. And before anyone brings up the bowl appearances, it says more if a team doesn't go to a bowl than if they do. Any team with a .500 record is elgible for a bowl. So consecutive non-bowl seasons are unacceptable, in my opinion, at this stage of the Mangino regime.
    I disagree with Uncle Bill's take on Rush, however. As others have pointed out, unless Rush would have hired an agent, making his decision irrevocable, the same uncertainty still would have chased off top recruits. And don't look for Self to start pulling scholarships. That would be the kiss of death to recruiting any more elite players, who all see themselves as one or two and done, and as wanting to test the NBA waters. Rush could have handled the announcement of his decision better, but the decision itself is no surprise. And the same situation will arise again in the future as long as Self continues to recruit elite players.

  10. bmcmich1 (anonymous) says…

    Actorman,
    I totally see your point as well, and thanks for responding without any venom--I wasn't disagreeing with you as much as offering a less abrasive version of what I think Mayer was trying to get across. As many have said that Brandon could have handled his announcement better, I think Mayer most definitely could have handled the last paragraph of this article better--I can clearly see why many fans have such a low opinion of him...there was no reason to publicly trash Rush like that--it's just unprofessional.

    In reading all of your above posts, I'm glad pretty much everyone is in agreement about KU Football this fall--this is a pretty huge season coming up, and it's fantastic to see a) people actually CARE, and b) that you are all in agreement that 6-6 and even 7-5 would be disappointing and mildly disappointing, respectively. For too long it seemed that KU fans either didn't care or were satisfied with mediocrity when it came to Kansas Football, and to read all of your posts and (grudgingly, yes) Bill's article shows that KU fans want more for their Football program and aren't going to tolerate mediocrity anymore. That's the first step in the right direction. I truly believe that there is no reason why KU can't have BOTH a great football AND basketball program.

  11. Jimmy_Dean (anonymous) says…

    "I truly believe that there is no reason why KU can't have BOTH a great football AND basketball program."

    Well said bmc, I just wish you would speak of our coach with a little more respect.

  12. kevbo (anonymous) says…

    i agree with mayer about rush... but not about cornish. kc has two good rbs. no need.

  13. ohioburg (anonymous) says…

    Cut Brandon some slack. He's making a decision that affects the rest of his LIFE. I have no problem with him taking all the time allotted him and leaving himself an out to come back.

    As for Coach Mangino, I'm tired of coaches making KU a stepping stone. Coach is committed to KU and has helped upgrade the facilities like no other KU football coach. He deserves a longer leash than any other Kansas football coach in a long time.

  14. JBurtin (anonymous) says…

    I'm with ohioburg and Jimmy_Dean. People are freaking out about a team that got within one win of the same win total that made them all happy the year before.

    newsflash: When you lose a bunch of seniors that have been staples of your team for several years, you are probably not going to improve your record the next year.

    Mangino brought this team to respectability using Allen's D-II recruits and that has allowed him to recruit true D-1 recruits like Meier and Reesing. Something people must realize is that these recruits are still young and even Vince Young sucked as a freshman.

    Also,

    The recent recruiting class was hurt by two major factors: 1) the limits on Juco recruiting that we sorely needed for last year's team and 2) the NCAA hearings were still looming in midst of the major recruiting season. Nobody knew whether KU might end up with a post-season ban and that is not a good sign for an incoming recruit. I believe that the violations were a one-time affair with Mangino and if you want to see KU build a program you have to give him a Mulligan on that one.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again. Rome wasn't built in a day and we are just now getting many of the things done that Mangino asked for when he arrived (new facilities, decent marketing, fan support hint hint, etc . . .). Of course our expectations for wins should increase over time but in any major project you are going to hit some bumps in the road. We've just passed a rough patch and now have a very clear and open path to success that can be taken advantage of, and the last thing in the world we need right now is for our own "fans" to take cheap shots at our coach. I understand that anytime a person has a serious problem with obesity he/she is going to come in contact with discrimination, but for god freakin' sakes morons show a bit of freakin' loyalty. i expect our rivals to take shots about his weight, but if you are insulting your own coach you are a total douchebag.

    I would like to see eight or more wins this year, but I also understand that the gaps may not be filled as well as they normally would be due to some constraints on recruiting. I think we have a team that is capable of eight wins, but it will still take a bit of luck (for once) to do so. However, if we do get a bit unlucky and don't reach this total, I am not about to jump on a bandwagon of "fire Mangino" just when he has finally gotten things going in the right direction. He is my coach and I will not hang him out to dry when he has shown this school nothing less than incredible loyalty. He has made changes here that KU will benefit from for generations to come and we owe him a chance to use the things that he has worked so hard to bring about.

  15. bmcmich1 (anonymous) says…

    Listen,

    My referral to coach in a previous post obviously has offended a few people, and for that I apologize.

    However, before you crucify someone for discrimination, do you ever once think that maybe, just maybe, some people would use that phrase affectionately?? i for one know that most all of my friends, family, and fellow fans in our section at Memorial, many of whom are most definitely not MORONS and have been season ticket holders since the Pepper Rogers era which, in my mind, shows a bit of freakin' loyalty, all endearingly refer to Coach as "the fat man." That may seem appalling to some, but many have embraced his girth and rallied behind it. What about the football-faithful students at each game wearing "our coach is phat" t-Shirts? They LOVE his size! They get behind it, they embrace it, and (WOW!) they also show support for their Football team in the process! Should we kick them out and crucify them and "may they rot in hell" and all that?? The fact is our coach is obese, and I sure as heck don't think he would put himself in such public a position as a D-1A head coach if he wasn't used to and comfortable with it being the size he is.

    What's more, if I were truly out to "disrespect," "insult," or "cheap shot" Coach, wouldn't I use a little more venom than that? I've seen what other teams' fans call him as I'm sure most everyone has, and it sure as hell isn't as tame as "the fat man." Maybe something more like "total douchebag"...... To assume disloyalty and cruelty off of one small phrase is absurd.

    All that said, though, I still do apologize for any offense taken from my earlier post. This is an inappropriate forum for slang nicknames used during tailgates and games. My fault. I truly do, though, use that phrase regularly with absolutely no cruelty or disrespect intended--honest truth. Whether some of you believe that, however, is up to you.

  16. Jimmy_Dean (anonymous) says…

    bmc thats cool but, when you say I wouldn't mind "getting rid of the fat man." (Implying that he should loose his job). That doesn't sound very affectionate.
    Also I don't understand how anyone could have been a KU football fan for longer than four years and not worship the guy.

  17. bmcmich1 (anonymous) says…

    Back to football. As I hope I cleared up in the last post, I have no certain hatred for Mangino, but I think we can all agree that this is a HUGE year coming up for him. If you look at comparable programs (i.e. not big time, not small time), you will find that after 6 seasons Dan McCarney at Iowa State was 9-3 and Greg Schiano at Rutgers was 11-2. After only five seasons, our very own Glenn-o Mason went 8-4. And, it makes me sick to my stomach to say it, but we need look no further than right down the road at Snyder. After 5 years he took a program that was much worse off than the one Mangino inherited from TA and went 9-2-1.

    Those are just a few examples. This is Mangino's sixth year at KU, and he has gone 2-10, 6-7, 4-7, 7-5, and 6-6 in that span and is 1-1 in Bowl Games. Not exactly stellar numbers, but enough to be treading water. I understand Rome wasn't built in a day, but that was an empire and this is College Football. In College Football, it's "I want results, and I want them NOW" from most of the fans and from the AD especially.

  18. JBurtin (anonymous) says…

    Fair enough bmcmich1,

    I didn't address you directly for a reason, you are not the only one who uses slurs against our coach and I was speaking openly to a wider audience that may not refer to him as "the fat man" in an endearing way. Another poster was referring to him as Budha. I'm sure from that poster's tone that this is meant to be an endearing term, but I also feel that it is disrespectful.

    The "Our coach is Phat" t-shirts spell the word P-H-A-T for a reason. It shows that we know that our coach is a big man and we don't give a damn. I don't personally wear one and I wouldn't choose to because I am not going to focus on something as insignificant as a person's weight. If a K-State fan wants to say something about his weight I will respond by telling him or her that the only reason he/she is focused on his weight is that they can't insult him on a coaching level. He has beaten them 2 out of the last 3 years and gave them quite a thumping last year. The same could be said for Missouri fans who have only tasted victory against him once in the last four years.

    If you want to focus on something about our coach, perhaps focusing on him being one of the great kitty cat tamers in the history of the school would be a good start.

    Leave the disrespectful nicknames to those who are bitter about getting their butt's kicked.

  19. bmcmich1 (anonymous) says…

    I don't particularly have the patience to wait a decade for someone to turn a program into a winner. Granted, Mangino has been integral in the construcion of new facilities and fan support, which is all well and good, but at some point the team has to deliver on the field. If after six years you haven't done better than 7-5, something's wrong--plain and simple. Sometimes to better yourself you have to emulate the best, and I daresay the Michigans, Ohio States, Floridas, Oklahomas, and Texases would be satisfied with 7-5 as their high water mark over a six year span. I know there were scholarships taken away, but that was brought upon ourselves, and a convenient excuse. Luck? Yeah, we haven't had much, but you use bad luck as an excuse and the floodgates open with more of 'em and pretty soon there you are: mediocre. It starts with mentality, and I'm tired of making excuses, I'm tired of being loyal to a coach rather than the program, and I'm tired of KU Football being mired in mediocrity. Since 1995, there has been virtually nothing to cheer about on the field, and I'm at the point where after six years if 7-5 is the best Mangino is gonna get us, then it's time to get someone who will get us (gasp!) double-digit wins. Greg Schiano did it last year at Rutgers--rutgers! What have they got that we don't have?? Don't tell me that their Big East schedule was easier than our watered-down BXII one, and non-con was virtually similar too. They WON close games, is what they did. At what point do you stop thinking it's KU's "bad luck" and start realizing it might just be subpar coaching?

    I WANT to eat those words, I WANT Mangino to become BXII Coach of The Year next year, I WANT Kansas Football to go to a respectable Bowl next year. I WANT to be saying "you know, I had my doubts, but Mangino proved me wrong--maybe he is the guy." All I'm saying is that if it's another 6-6 disappointment of a season, I'm sure as hell NOT going to be saying "oh, just give him a couple more years and he'll turn it around," and I don't think I'm alone. That is why this is such a HUGE season coming up--but I'm extremely excited for it just the same--guess that's just the 'Hawk Football fan in me!

  20. bmcmich1 (anonymous) says…

    Jimmy Dean and JBurtin,

    I appreciate you guys being cool about the matter. I also understand where you are coming from, and that's cool because I think that we are all KU Football fans at heart. Rest assured I will try not to slip like that again. I guess it's unfortunate that unrelated things like weight get brought in to things like football, but it is what it is I guess. I hope we can still have positive banter about KU Fooball. I hold no ill will towards you two, and I hope you feel the same towards me. Rock Chalk.

  21. JBurtin (anonymous) says…

    I wouldn't say K-State's program was any worse off than the post TA team that Mangino inherited. When Mangino took over we had a team that regularly lost to Div I AA schools like Southwest Missouri State. Also, when Snyder took over he was one of the first D-1 coaches to show that a team could have tremendous success recruiting from the Juco ranks. He realized that Kansas had a tremendous wealth of Juco talent despite not having a great high school talent pool. Now that the cats out of the bag about the Juco guys the two schools are having to compete with big time programs for the best of the Juco recruits.

    Dan McCarney got fired last year after having his temporary success go down the tubes. Rutgers plays in easily the weakest BCS conference that was decimated for talent when BC and Miami left, leaving them with no competition outside of an up and coming Louisville. And Glen Mason was playing against some lousy K-State, Missouri and Iowa State teams in his first few years.

    My point is that these teams were in the news in their sixth season under a coach because they were having an unusual amount of success considering the name on the uniform. You can't judge a coach's success based on the most unusual situations of the last several years, it is a completely unfair measure.

    Instead judge him against the norms and realize that a team improving over time doesn't mean that it is going to improve it's win total by one win per year each year until we win a national championship. Programs grow similarly to the way that the stock market rises. The stock is not going to rise every day but you should see a general trend of increasing success. The stock lost a bit last year from the year before, but when you factor in the loss of an incredible senior class, you will see that Mangino was able to put together six wins with a very young team. This bodes well for the future of the program because it means that the incredible senior class that we had was not a fluke. If KU football was on the stock market, I would be buying in right now.

  22. Jimmy_Dean (anonymous) says…

    No hard feelings bmc you sound like you really know, and care about KU football.
    Rock Chalk!

  23. JBurtin (anonymous) says…

    Ditto,

    I think we all agree on a lot more than we disagree on. I do agree that a 6-6 season woud be disappointing considering the four cupcakes on our early schedule.

    I just have a belief that you aren't going to have success with a program if you change coaches every five or six years. The best programs in the nation have all started with one legendary coach that built a program into something bigger than himself. This is a process that can sometimes take a decade or more and I think it's high time that KU finally had some patience and gave a coach its full support.

    Consider the alternatives:

    1) We hire an assistant coach from a big time program.
    (we already have that in Mark Mangino)

    2) We hire the absolute best coach from a lower division.
    (we tried this with Terry Allen and it was a complete bust)

    3) We hire a coach with a big name that has some excess baggage . . . ala K-State hiring Huggins or us hiring Glen Mason.
    (you dance with the devil and you're gonna get burned, we need a coach that will not use us as a stepping stone.)

    We currently have a coach that:
    1) Has ties to KU because his own daughter went to KU.
    2) Wants to coach in the Big Twelve (unlike Mason who wanted to be in the Big Ten and left us high and dry when he got his chance)
    3) Has been a part of an incredible turnaround of a school right here in Kansas and understands what it will take.
    4) Knows what it takes to run a true national powerhouse program from his experience at Oklahoma.
    5) Is building things for the future of KU that are bigger than himself.

    I can't think of anyone else in the nation that fits the needs of KU any better than Mark Mangino. Yes he has made some mistakes that have slowed the progress of the program, but if you start planning a program for instant gratification you will end up with temporary success and still have no real program for the future.

  24. fabio (anonymous) says…

    Well said JBurtin, as God awful as Allen was Im still glad Mason took that job at Minnesota. We dont need anyone that sticks their nose up at KU. By the way, I know he was fired last fall but I dont know where he wound up after that?
    Also, Im not sure that he liked the Big 10 better than the Big 12 as much as he just wanted to go to a program that he felt was better than KU. Remember in 95 when he accepted the job at Georgia and than backed out a year before he actually left for Minnesota.
    Even though I will admit Mason is a good football coach I am glad he left KU and I got a good laugh when he was fired. Though I admit his teams werent doing so bad that he should be fired for there performance on the field. Certainly makes you wonder if he was being an ass off the field?
    Its also nice to see we can have civilized debates on here without everything getting personal.

  25. fabio (anonymous) says…

    I almost forgot, my sister was Glen Masons waitress one night when he was still coaching here. You will just have to take my word for it when I tell you my sister is the nicest person in the world. Ive had several people tell me that. Anyway, good old Glen Mason gave her 2 quarters for a tip. Just to give the young people an idea that dont know about the guy.
    If KU fans want an x-coach to hate, it isnt Roy Williams, its Glen Mason.

  26. JBurtin (anonymous) says…

    I heard from a relative of mine that coaches high school football that Mason had Big Ten ties from before Ku and that was ultimately where he wanted to coach. I assume he must have been speaking the truth because I can't figure out any other reason why someone would pass up on a job at georgia for a job at minnesota.

  27. fabio (anonymous) says…

    Good point JBurtin. After I did a little digging on him I found out he is an Ohio State alum so I guess that would make sense.
    I wonder what he is gonna do now.