Who will be the Jayhawks’ new football coach in 2002?

Yes, this is a rather sensitive subject, especially since the Jayhawks already have a football coach, Terry Allen. But unless he wins six or seven games and gets KU to a bowl game in 2001 a task that seems at the very least improbable he’ll be gone after the season. It is Bohl’s No. 1 task, after all, to fix the football program.

Bohl cut his teeth as a young administrator at Ohio State, where football is rather important. He moved on to Toledo, then to Fresno State. He’s known as a “football guy,” whatever that is.

KU, meanwhile, is a “basketball school.”

How will a “football guy” fare at a “basketball school?”

We’re going to find out. Kansas has been humiliated by its football misfortunes in recent seasons and finally seems ready to address the situation.

While victories have been difficult to come by, the biggest problem has been putting fans in the seats at Memorial Stadium, where only 32,200 per game showed up last season. Only Baylor drew fewer fans in the Big 12.

Fresno State, meanwhile, has been to bowl games the past two years under Pat Hill, the coach Bohl hired in 1997. And the Bulldogs sold out their football facility, which seats 41,031.

Hill, you would think, could become a candidate at Kansas when and if Allen leaves.

And here’s another name to think about: Glen Mason.

Pick up the broken pieces of your coffee cup and hear me out on this one.

Bohl and Mason go way back, to their days together at Ohio State.

It was Mason who helped talk Bohl into pursuing the AD’s job at KU.

“He told me what a great opportunity Kansas was,” Bohl said.

Mason was the most successful KU football coach of the past couple of decades during his nine-year reign from 1988-96, leading the Jayhawks to two bowl games and a Top 10 national ranking for much of the 1995 season.

But many of Mason’s backers felt scorned when he took the Georgia job following that 10-2 season in 1995. Even though Mason had second thoughts and returned to KU, the damage had been done. The Jayhawks fell to 4-7 in 1996, after which Mason left for Minnesota.

He has had so-so success with the Gophers, enough to become a candidate for his dream job at Ohio State when John Cooper was forced out last year. Mason, though, wasn’t hired.

Bohl said he knows Mason regrets the way things ended at Kansas, and called Mason “an outstanding football coach.”

It sounds outlandish that Mason could actually come to Lawrence for a third time. But there are people who haven’t forgotten how successful he was at least for a while.

And Mason has always spoken fondly of Kansas and his years there.

Of course, Bohl was adamant about helping Allen become successful with the Jayhawks. Like everybody who has ever talked to Allen, Bohl will like the guy. He’ll want him to succeed because Allen is a quality person.

But it’s probably too late for a turnaround.

As successful as KU basketball has been and Allen Fieldhouse is packed for every home game — that hasn’t been enough to pay the bills. In a conference such as the Big 12, you better put a solid football team on the field or you’re going to be in trouble.

“I’m going to spend some time gathering information,” Bohl said. “You don’t just jump in and change things. That would be like a coach coming in and saying who the starters are before he knew his team.”

Obviously, Bohl needs time to settle into his new surroundings and get to know his staff. Athletics directors don’t make big decisions until they get a lay of the land.

However, as much as it might make you squirm, Bohl will probably be choosing a new football coach in a few months. That one choice will make or break him as KU’s athletics director.