By KEVIN HASKIN
TopSports.news
Much has happened since Mark Mangino last coached a college football team.
The game still hinges on the punt, pass and kick. And for that matter, run, cover and tackle.
Former Kansas head football coach and former Kansas State assistant Mark Mangino (left) will join K-State coaching legend Bill Snyder in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday. [Submitted photo]
However, oversight for a program, which Mangino managed as a winning coach and Orange Bowl champion in eight seasons at Kansas, can be far more turbulent. Among today’s issues:
- The onset of NIL collectives:
“I haven't talked to a college coach yet who didn't tell me it was a real pain,” said Mangino, who will be enshrined into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame during a ceremony Sunday at Topeka Hotel.
“It's really changed the way they operate. It's almost like a 24-hour job throughout the year just to pay attention to everything.”
- Robust activity within the transfer portal:
“I think a player should have the opportunity to transfer at least once if he sees a better opportunity,’’ Mangino said. “But this constant transfer thing … I don’t know if it’s healthy for the game. Guys who have played at three schools and played six to seven years, I mean, that’s not the spirit of college football.”
- Alterations caused by conference realignment:
“If I were in charge for a day,’’ said Mangino, “I'd put everybody back in the conferences they were in back in 1995.”
That year marked the end of Big Eight football. All members joined the Big 12, but four eventually left the conference. Colorado has since returned from the tattered Pac-12, but Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma are with the FBS power brokers, the Big Ten and SEC.
“People want to watch Oklahoma and Nebraska play, and some other old rivalries,’’ Mangino added. “I understand the economy and I don't know what the answer is. But I do know this: If things keep going the way they are, I believe there will be about a 40-team super league that is run NFL style.”
That arrangement would potentially leave both FBS programs in Kansas in precarious positions.
However, in his 17 years working in the state and raising a family here, Mangino engaged in one of college football’s greatest turnarounds at K-State and then proved KU could field a competitive program. The Jayhawks went 50-48 under Mangino and 3-1 in bowl games.
Although KU has surprisingly struggled to begin this season, that program still seems in good hands with Lance Leipold, while K-State remains consistently solid under Chris Klieman.
“To be part of that (K-State) turnaround was something else. That was special,” Mangino said. “And then to go to KU, that was another hard job. Kansas has got two hard jobs, boy. Really hard jobs. … You're in a place where there's probably more cattle than people.”
Yet during his time here, Mangino drove past much of that livestock along many backroads while either recruiting or following his son Tommy’s baseball exploits. Now, Mark and his wife, Mary Jane, travel occasionally to Texas to watch Tommy coordinate the offense for the heralded Lake Travis High School program, which produced Todd Reesing, Mangino’s record-setting quarterback at KU. The couple’s daughter, Samantha, and six grandchildren, will also celebrate Mangino’s KSHOF induction on Sunday.
Considering the response from family and friends when Mangino’s coaching path brought him to the state of Kansas, going into the state’s sports hall almost seems surreal.
“When we were leaving to go out there, people were crying in my driveway. I told them, it’s not like I'm going to Vietnam,” Mangino remembered. “Then, they’d come and visit us, and they didn’t want to leave. They’d cancel a flight for a couple more days, or even stay another week.
“They went from asking what’s the place called. Manhattan? Lawrence? And then they’d visit and find out those were great communities. They were awesome places to live, work and raise the kids.”
Strangely enough, the man who gave Mangino his shot coaching at the highest level of college football will also attend Sunday’s ceremony in Topeka. Bill Snyder will watch his son, Sean, a former K-State punter and assistant coach, get inducted.
Mangino, eager to meet up again with Snyder, recalled a conversation from the last time they saw each other. For years since he stepped away from coaching in 2015, Mangino kept boxes of files and film from every place he worked. He finally decided to clear space and have those artifacts removed. Mangino recalled the astonishment expressed by the man collecting the items that “cost a small fortune” to shred.
“The guy finally said to me, ‘How long did you coach at Kansas State?’” Mangino recalled. “I said, ‘Why do you say that?’ He said, ‘Well, about 50 of these boxes are from Kansas State.’ I said. ‘I took a lot of notes.’”
Kansas Sports Hall of Fame 2024 inductee Mark Mangino was part of football turnarounds at both Kansas State and Kansas, leading the Jayhawks to an Orange Bowl victory. [Submitted photo]
Notes that would come in handy at other coaching stops, namely KU, where Mangino earned the AP’s national coach of the year honor for a 12-1 run in 2007.
Again, that was a time when Mangino could take some early lumps but lean on proven structure (he also assisted Bob Stoops at Oklahoma) to develop a level of consistency.
Recruits mostly came from outside of Kansas, including stalwarts such as Aqib Talib, Chris Harris and James McClinton. Yet Kansans also flourished. Nick Reid, Jake Sharp and Mangino’s top in-state plum, Kerry Meier, will never be forgotten.
“I think of back then and think of today with so many roster changes and things,” Mangino said. “You're getting all these upsets and people ask, ‘How'd that happen?’ Well, when you're shuffling personnel with kids leaving and new kids coming in, even the best struggle with continuity sometimes.”
