Kansas University football coach **Mark Mangino** was in Dallas on Thursday for the National Football Foundation football forum to discuss issues facing college football. Not much I could do about this from afar, but the power of e-mail saved the day. I got the whole transcript sent to me Friday. Thanks to South Oak Cliff and the he’s-corrupt-no-he’s-corrupt-either-way-**Darrell-Arthur**-doesn’t-know-what-pi-is drama that’s dominated the news way more than it should have, I didn’t have time to post it yesterday.But here we go. Mangino was on a panel that featured other big-time college football people such as Ohio State coach **Jim Tressel**, Washington coach **Tyrone Willingham** and **Archie Manning**, who not only had a good football career but had a great career [as a stud.][1]**- Among the things Mangino was asked** about by Fox broadcaster **Chris Rose** was his [infamous meltdown][2] after the Texas game in 2004. Here was some additional insight into that outburst.”Well, the way I approached it, first of all, is I had a reason to do it,” Mangino said. “My reasons are such that we had lost some difficult ballgames that year, and our kids after that game were just crushed. I had never been around a team that had been so disheartened about a loss.”So I just warned people, some administrators on my way to the pressroom, what I was going to do, and it was to save the team. I knew I was going to get criticism for it and take some bullets, but Kansas hadn’t had a winning program for many years, we were trying to get it on its feet, we were getting close but just couldn’t get over the hump. So I took a bullet for it.”But I do understand that that’s not the way to do it. I learned a lesson that there’s other ways to get that done. But at the time I felt that was the best way to do it.”**- Mangino on how he approaches his media sessions:**”I think as coaches we make no bones about … we live in a sound byte society, and I am careful what I say in press conferences and after practices, meetings with the media,” Mangino said. “I’m not trying to withhold anything, but I work under the premise, number one, I don’t criticize our players publicly. If I want their trust, certainly I have to earn it.”**- Mangino has long made it clear** that he doesn’t discuss injuries, even as us writers constantly try to squeeze it out of him for the sake of our readers. Here’s his explanation for that:”The only people that need to know about injuries are gamblers and the opponents,” he said. “I don’t see why they need to know.”**- Later on, he was asked** about the constant lure of the professional ranks. Specifically, he started talking about how to keep agents away.”If we see anybody that looks like a runner or an agent around the place, we call security and throw them out,” Mangino said. “I mean, we just don’t fool around.”They want to come to pro day and things like that. A couple of them who are KU grads said, ‘Well, as an alumnus I have a right to watch pro day …’ and I said ‘Not as long as I’m the coach you don’t. Now, the alumni center is up the hill, and you can walk up there any time.'”**- A question was posed** about monitoring players 24/7 because, when someone screws up, the coach ultimately gets the heat.”We made a conscious decision in the winter of 2004 that we were going to do extensive background checks, even if we had to hire an outside firm, which we do sometimes,” Mangino said. “We felt, number one, you’re better off being around kids of character. Sometimes they won’t be the most talented but they’ll do the right things, you can count on them when things are tough in a game, and also, which I think is key, I spend more time around our players than I ever have around my children.”My wife and I, we’ve worked hard to try to raise our kids with good values and try to do the right things. I don’t want to go to work every day with 105 knuckleheads running around, and you’re like a warden rather than a football coach. I had some assistant coaches on my staff who thought that was a terrible idea, that you have that old saying, you need a couple of thugs or criminals. I don’t buy that. We may recruit some kids that had some problems in the past, but we’ve checked them out and they’ve made a mistake.” [1]: http://www.icebin.net/upload/milk/mannings_l.jpg [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuCqE8tMfEs