OU football: Mark Mangino visits the Sooners
I ran into Mark Mangino on Tuesday in the OU parking lot. He’s in town all week, visiting the Sooner practices and staying for the Tulsa game.
Mangino, in his second year out of coaching, still lives in Naples, Fla., but tries to stay involved in football. Last week, he was in Kansas, where his son, Tommy, coaches quarterbacks at Hutchinson Community College. After a visit to Jenks, where his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren live, Mangino came on down to Norman.
Mangino coached just three years at OU but they were memorable. He was the offensive coordinator on the 2000 national championship team. Mangino still has thick ties with Bob Stoops; still refers to the Sooners with a “we.”
Mangino coached eight years at Kansas, then was forced out, allegedly for mistreatment of players. Some ex-Jayhawks blasted Mangino’s treatment of them, but others came to his defense.
This we know. Mangino was a heck of a football coach. He went 50-48 in eight years at KU, including a 12-1 season in 2007, with an Orange Bowl victory over Virginia Tech. That’s a fabulous record at Kansas. Jules Sikes went 35-25 in six years at KU, 1948-53. No Jayhawk coach since, other than Mangino, left with a winning record. Not Jack Mitchell. Not Pepper Rodgers. Not Dan Fambrough. Not Glen Mason.
Turner Gill went 3-9 in his first Jayhawk season and already seems on the hot seat. Kansas football went from the Orange Bowl to irrelevancy very quickly. Even Mangino’s final two years were solid by KU standards; 8-5 in 2008, with an Insight Bowl victory over Minnesota, and 5-7 in 2009, after a 5-0 start.
I don’t know if Mangino will get another head coaching job. But he’s a heck of a coach.
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