During our [KU Sports Hour football podcast][1] Monday, Matt Tait asked me to throw out a guess off the top of my head as to the number of assistant football coaches Kansas has had in the eight seasons since Mark Mangino was forced to resign.
I guessed 35. Pretty close. The correct answer is 38, including three men who were assistants under Mangino. David Beaty was Turner Gill’s wide receivers coach in 2011. Clint Bowen was hired as special teams coach by Charlie Weis in 2012 and took over as defensive coordinator in Weis’ following seasons and has remained in the position under Beaty. In 2014, John Reagan was Charlie Weis’ offensive line coach and his offensive coordinator, the latter a responsibility Reagan lost a couple of weeks into Bowen’s time as interim head coach after Weis was fired four games into the season.
KU has had a great deal of staff turnover in recent seasons at certain positions. For example, six different men have served as the program’s offensive coordinator in the past five seasons. KU has had five wide receiver coaches in five seasons and four defensive line coaches in the past four seasons.
Kansas went 50-48 in eight seasons under Mangino and with three games left in the eighth post-Mangino season has a 15-78 record.
If Kansas makes a change at head coach, it will be interesting to see if the next head coach is someone who has had the majority of his staff together for a number of years, which would save the step of a coaching staff meshing and assistants growing familiar with the head coach’s way of conducting business.
| Position | 2010 (Turner Gill) | 2011 (Turner Gill) | 2012 (Charlie Weis) | 2013 (Charlie Weis) | 2014 (Charlie Weis) Clint Bowen interim |
2015 (David Beaty) | 2016 (David Beaty) | 2017 (David Beaty) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offensive coordinator | Chuck Long | Chuck Long | Charlie Weis | Charlie Weis | John Reagan then Eric Kiesau |
Rob Likens | David Beaty | Doug Meacham |
| Defensive coordinator | Carl Torbush | Vic Shealy | Dave Campo | Clint Bowen | Clint Bowen | Clint Bowen | Clint Bowen | Clint Bowen |
| Special teams | Aaron Stamn | Aaron Stamn | Clint Bowen | None | None | Gary Hyman | Joe DeForest | Joe DeForest |
| Offensive line | J.B. Grimes | J.B. Grimes | Tim Grunhard | Tim Grunhard | John Reagan | Zach Yenser | Zach Yenser | Zach Yenser |
| Defensive line | Buddy Wyatt | Buddy Wyatt | Buddy Wyatt | Buddy Wyatt | Buddy Wyatt | Calvin Thibodeaux | Michael Slater | Jesse Williams |
| Running backs | Reggie Mitchell | Reggie Mitchell | Reggie Mitchell | Reggie Mitchell | Reggie Mitchell | Reggie Mitchell | Tony Hull | Tony Hull |
| Linebackers | Carl Torbush | Vantz Singletary | DeMontie Cross | Clint Bowen | Clint Bowen | Kevin Kane | Todd Bradford | Todd Bradford |
| Wide receivers | Darrell Wyatt | David Beaty | Rob Ianello | Rob Ianello | Eric Kiesau | Klint Kubiak | Jason Phillips | Dough Meacham |
| Defensive backs | Vic Shealy | Robert Wimberly | Clint Bowen | Dave Campo | Dave Campo | Kenny Perry | Kenny Perry | Kenny Perry |
| Tight ends | Jeff Blasko | Jeff Blasko | Jeff Blasko | |||||
| Quarterbacks | Ron Powlus | Ron Powlus | Garrett Riley | |||||
| Asst. D-Backs | Scott Vestal |
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/podcasts/ku-sports-hour/2017/nov/06/are-you-still-watching-ku-football/
