Mark Mangino would like to see more of Travis Watkins.
More specifically, Kansas University’s football coach would like to see more of Watkins on the field, and a lot less of the Jayhawks’ co-captain on the sideline.
“Travis Watkins has the potential to be a very fine player in our program. However I have not seen Travis play very much since I’ve been the head coach at Kansas because of his injuries,” Mangino said Monday during a chat on kusports.com.
Watkins started 10 of 11 games for former coach Terry Allen as a red-shirt freshman in 2001 and made 38 tackles with two sacks. A foot injury limited his effectiveness during his sophomore season — Mangino’s first — and Watkins made 37 tackles with zero sacks in 12 games.
The 2002 season was the defensive tackle’s nadir. He suffered a broken foot during a preseason scrimmage and played in only two games.
“Travis will be 100 percent this spring, and he will practice the entire spring,” said Mangino, whose team will begin spring drills March 14. “If his injuries slow him down in the spring, which I don’t think they will, I find it unlikely that he could be a major contributor in the fall. But as of right now, he looks good, is moving around very well and we have high hopes for him.”
Defensive line will be a point of emphasis in the spring for KU, which must replace senior starters Cory Kipp, Sid Bachmann and Reggie Curry. Juniors Monroe Weekley and Chuck Jones, who made five combined starts, left the program after the regular season.
Junior end David McMillan is the only starter returning on the line. Watkins and sophomore Tim Allen are the most experienced players among the returning tackles.
“Our defensive line must improve for our defense to improve overall,” said Mangino, whose defense allowed averages of 28.3 points and 392.6 yards in 12 regular-season games. “I think this spring will tell the tale on which veterans are going to line up in the fall, or if we’re going to rely mostly on newcomers.”
KU will have one new defensive end on campus for spring drills — Tyler (Texas) Community College transfer Jermail Ashley. More help will arrive in the summer in the form of Beaumont, Texas, end Anthony Collins; Minnesota West Community College end Charlton Keith; and Garland, Texas, tackle James McClinton. Coaches also will have to decide which side of the ball Olathe East standout Todd Haselhorst will be used.
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Looking ahead: When Kansas runs through its first open spring practice March 15 on the field behind Anschutz Pavilion, fans will have a chance to check on the progress of redshirts such as freshman receiver Tony King and junior linebacker Zach Mims.
“As is the case with most of our red-shirted players, Tony King needs to continue to have a great winter conditioning and spring ball,” Mangino said. “He is very talented and must mature physically and emotionally, as is the case with a lot of our young guys, so that he can contribute this fall. Zach Mims has gotten stronger and more physical. We look for him to contribute to the improvement of our defense.”
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Office space: Mangino reiterated that he wants a football-only facility at Memorial Stadium.
“We need to upgrade in nearly every area,” said Mangino, who would like to move the football offices to the stadium. “Our stadium looks good, and our press box represents our program very well. But KU football needs to have its own facility, like most of its competitors in the Big 12. Currently, with the exception of the stadium and press box, KU football has very little else that it calls its own.
“I am very proud of our new weight facility that Dana Anderson and his family have provided for us. That facility is state of the art. And even though the stadium is ours, we still share that with track events.”
The athletic director who hired Mark Mangino was fired in April.
His new boss axed Wichita State’s football program in 1986, but more recently he worked to elevate Connecticut’s football program to Division I-A status.
“I’m hoping for the latter,” Mangino quipped Tuesday after former WSU and UConn athletic director Lew Perkins was introduced as the successor to Al Bohl at Kansas University.
Perkins won’t be lowering the boom on Mangino’s program.
“They’re hard decisions, but it was the right decision at Wichita State,” said Perkins, who was WSU’s athletic director from 1983 to 1987. “I might be the only person in the history of college athletics that has dropped football and has taken a football program to I-A. It’s not me personally or philosophically, it’s what the institution (needs), the goals of the institution.
“Personally it was very hard on me. It was a very difficult time and something that I’m not very proud of, but it was something that had to be done.”
Perkins, who had been AD at UConn since 1990, spearheaded an effort to build a $90 million football stadium that will open this fall. The 58-year-old thought strengthening the Huskies’ football program would bolster Connecticut’s overall athletic program.
He’ll take a similar approach at Kansas, which hasn’t had a winning football season since 1995.
“Football at Kansas is going to be extremely important, but not at the expense of obviously men’s basketball, women’s basketball,” Perkins said. “There’s no reason why we can’t have a total athletic program. One of the jobs that I have is to help educate the people of Kansas and the alums that football is very important. You run out of revenue sources after a while. When you can’t sell any more basketball tickets, you have to look for other revenue sources and football is obviously a place where we could generate a lot more revenue.
“One of the things people need convincing of is that a true Jayhawk fan will do anything for the university. They have to understand that we have to be very, very supportive of football and all the other sports. You just can’t pick one sport and tell me you’re a supporter.”
KU’s second-year football coach was encouraged after meeting Monday and Tuesday with Perkins and listening to the AD’s introductory news conference.
“I’m very pleased,” Mangino said. “Chancellor Hemenway had promised that he was going to find the best athletic director available in the nation. I think he achieved that goal today. I’m really pleased with the selection, and I’m really looking forward to working with Lew and building our program.
“There’s no mistake about it. Our entire athletic department needs a lot of attention for every sport from top to bottom, but I’m very pleased with his approach and his philosophy about football and its role at a Big 12 institution.”
Mangino laughed at talk-radio speculation that he would be on the hot seat this fall after posting a 2-10 record in his first season.
“Nothing surprises me now,” he said. “That’s the way this profession works, but I don’t see that at all.”
He also wasn’t worried about working for someone other than Bohl, the man who hired him.
“The university, the chancellor is very much supportive of me and the program,” Mangino said. “Lew has already said he’s going to do everything he can — not only to improve football but the entire athletic department. We really need a lot of things. We desperately need great leadership here, and he’s going to provide that.
“Do I feel any added pressure? No. All the pressure I have is self-induced.”
Perkins expressed confidence in KU’s coach.
“People here feel that he’s an excellent football coach,” Perkins said of Mangino. “I obviously did my homework, and every place and everybody I talked to has assured me that, in their minds, he is the guy that can get the job done here. I’m excited about working with him and look forward to helping him develop a football program.”
Mangino likely will seek Perkins’ help in raising funds for a multi-million dollar project that would move KU’s football offices to Memorial Stadium. The coach wasn’t talking about specific needs Tuesday.
“We are laying the foundation,” he said of his team — not the stadium project. “I’ll tell you what I need. I need a strong athletic director to come in here to help me get a roof on this thing. I’m not sure I could do that without a strong athletic director, somebody that will support you, help you, gather resources for you. He’s the guy. There’s no question in my mind that he’s the guy.”
Kansas City, Mo ? On one side sat his former boss, Bill Snyder, maybe the most popular sports figure in the state of Kansas.
On the other side sat two of the area’s top football coaches Pittsburg State’s Chuck Broyles and Northwest Missouri State’s Mel Tjeerdsma, who share three national championships in the 1990s.
And in the middle? First-year Kansas University coach Mark Mangino, the question mark among this elite group, the man thousands of KU alumni in the Kansas City area are counting on to build the Jayhawks’ program to the point it’s comparable to his mentor’s Wildcats to the west.
Snyder shared a private laugh with his protg before publicly praising him Thursday at the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission’s Fifth Annual College Football Kickoff Luncheon at the Arrowhead Club.
“I’m proud of him,” Snyder said of Mangino, after Snyder reiterated that he wished the “apple had fallen a little farther from the tree.”
“I’m proud not only because of his work while on our staff, but also because of his recent accomplishments. Mark is very knowledgeable about the game. He understands every aspect and how it relates with the others.”
Mangino, an assistant under Snyder from 1991-98, said he appreciated the glowing remarks from his former boss.
“I knew he felt that way about me,” Mangino said. “I feel the same way about him.”
Mangino didn’t promise anything at the luncheon.
“Today was just a great day to sit up here and listen and share stories with three fine football coaches,” Mangino said. “It was a good day for college football in the area.”
Mangino shared his hopes for the upcoming season and candidly addressed some of his concerns.
“For us, things are a bit different,” said Mangino, who was the assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Oklahoma last season. “We’re excited by all the expectations, and we’re hoping to have a quality season. We just won’t know exactly how things are going to go until we get started.”
Mangino, as he has done before, told a few hundred people in attendance that he couldn’t copy what he had learned from Snyder or Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and magically make it work at Kansas.
“I think Chuck summed it up best,” Mangino said.
Broyles, whose Gorillas will take on MIAA rival Northwest Missouri State on October 17 at Arrowhead in a game called “The Clash of the Champions,” said a coach’s plans are always changing.
“You do what you can, but we also borrow from each other,” Broyles said.
Mangino gave a succinct scouting report about his squad and then reminded everyone that he didn’t take the job at Kansas just to challenge K-State.
“I took the job because I want to build a great football team here,” he said.
Part of the formula for that could be beating the Wildcats to recruits out of the Kansas City area.
“Today kind of shows that Kansas City is really becoming a hub for college football,” Mangino said. “There’s a lot of excitement going on here with football and Kansas City is right in the heart of it.”
After briefly shaking a few guests’ hands, Mangino was whisked away to take part in a coach’s meeting in Lawrence.
“I’ve been ready to go months ago,” Mangino said. “I’m really pleased with how our players have approached our task at hand.”
Scott McClurg/Journal-World PhotoWhen Mark Mangino was trying to figure out his next move after accepting the job as Kansas University’s head football coach, he spoke with someone who’d been through a coaching change before.
Mangino, a former Oklahoma assistant head coach/offensive coordinator, talked to OU head coach Bob Stoops, who left Florida to join the Sooners around this time three years ago.
“I talked to coach Stoops about it and he told me he had absolutely no problem with me getting here, going to work and getting started,” Mangino said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon at Hadl Auditorium. “Coach (Steve) Spurrier at Florida told Bobby, ‘Bobby, you’d better get going. You’ve got a lot of work to do. Don’t worry about us.’ That’s about what Bob said to me.
“He said, ‘Mark, you had better get up there. You’ve got a lot of work to do.'”
Not exactly a comforting thought for someone whose only experience as a head coach was a season at Ellwood City (Pa.) High in 1990.
What Mangino lacks in head coaching experience, he more than makes up for with on-the-job training. While he was with Kansas State from 1991-98 and OU the past three seasons, the Wildcats and Sooners posted a combined record of 101-30-1 overall.
He also received the Frank Broyles Award as the top college assistant for his role in the Sooners’ national championship last season.
“These are uncharted waters for me,” Mangino said, “but I have been very, very fortunate to have worked with two of the best football coaches in America and I don’t know if anybody in this room will dispute that in Bill Snyder and Bob Stoops.
“The only thing I can tell you, I took good notes in the meetings.”
After being offered the job on Sunday and accepting it on Monday, Mangino planned to spend Tuesday and some of today in Lawrence before returning to Norman, Okla., to “tie up some loose ends.”
He said he was going to begin making recruiting calls Tuesday and hoped to have a few staff members in place when he returned to Lawrence in a few days. He also said the only way he’d be going to the Cotton Bowl with the Sooners was as a spectator.
Mangino likely will use a combination of coaching philosophies from both Stoops and Snyder.
“Our offense will look similar in some ways to OU,” Mangino said, “but there will be some things that I had planned to implement at OU next year that we will work on to implement here at KU.
“On the defensive side, who wouldn’t want to have a defense like OU? That’s our goal to put together a defensive unit and defensive style that we have at OU.”
As far as the K-State flavor, Mangino said he’d use some junior college players to help build his program early, but wouldn’t rely on them as much as the Wildcats. He did admit he might take a page from Snyder’s scheduling playbook, though.
“I believe in the infant stages of our program we should be playing people we have a chance to compete with early on in nonconference,” Mangino said. “We are going to gradually build into middle-of-the-road conference teams, maybe one top-25 team.
“But I think here to get our feet going, sure, we’ve got to play teams we have a chance to compete with early on in the season.”
Mangino said there was as much support from Bohl and KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway at Kansas as there was from the Kansas State powers that be while he was there.
He also said the Jayhawks are in position to succeed.
“I have viewed the University of Kansas for 11 seasons from the other side of the field,” Mangino said. “There has been many times we’ve looked across the field or we’ve been right here in this stadium and said, ‘Why? Why aren’t they better?’
“I’ve talked to different people who have coached in this conference like I have for many different years and there wasn’t one assistant coach in this conference that didn’t believe that KU had everything, and with the commitment that we have here now, to be a successful program. I think we can be.”
Chat wrap with coach Mangino