Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Mark Mangino isn’t currently on the hot seat. But to keep it that way, the Athletics Department expects improvement this year.
KU’s football coach signed a contract extension before last year that locked him up until 2010, with an annual guaranteed salary of $1.5 million plus incentives. A disappointing 6-6 finish in 2006 has increased media speculation that Mangino’s job could be in jeopardy if the team does not reach this year’s postseason.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Mangino has undisputedly made the team more competitive than they were during the Terry Allen era (1997-2001). Mangino has made the Jayhawks bowl-eligible in three of the past four seasons. Allen’s Jayhawks were never bowl-eligible in any of his five seasons.
A closer look at the numbers, however, gives credence to speculation about Mangino’s job security. Allen was fired after a 20-33 record at Kansas. Mangino, in five seasons, has a 25-35 record at the University.
The biggest problem with a direct comparison is the vastly different programs that each inherited. Allen’s first year came after Glen Mason bolted for the University of Minnesota.
Mason led the Jayhawks to a 10-2 record and top-10 finish in 1995 and a berth in the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu in 1995, the year before his departure. He left a roster that was considered to be filled with talent. Mangino inherited a team in 2002 that hadn’t had a winning season since that 1995 campaign and a roster that appeared apathetic and undermanned.
The most pronounced blemishes on Mangino’s resume are in Big 12 play. Mangino is 11-29 in conference. The Jayhawks are an unsightly 2-18 on the road in the Big 12 during Mangino’s run. Mangino has secured only one winning season, 7-5 in 2005.
“We’ve had success against some Big 12 North teams, but it needs to be consistent,” Mangino said. “It needs to be success home and away, and I think that’s one of the biggest things that will keep us in the hunt in the Big 12 North.”
One area where the Jayhawks must improve is winning on the road. The team has been stellar in Memorial Stadium during the past four years, posting a 19-7 record. Playing away from their home field has been a house of horrors, where the ‘Hawks are 4-18 during that time.
“None of us are prepared to say right now that any coach has to do this, this and this to keep his job,” Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said. “That isn’t how we operate. Lew (Perkins) will evaluate coaches and their programs at the end of every year to see where they are, but we aren’t going to say win this many games or do this or that before a season starts.”
While Kansas has shown signs of taking the next step, it has been a while since the team experienced pronounced success. Both of the bowl games in the Mangino era were before Christmas. The Jayhawks haven’t played in a post-Christmas bowl since 1981. They haven’t won eight or more games in a season since 1995.
The Athletics Department is looking for that type of improvement this year.
Athletics Director Lew Perkins was unavailable for comment, but told the Wichita Eagle during the summer, “Is the expectation that we win seven, eight, nine games? I would hope so. Mark has put us in a position to do that. I feel good about what Mark has done, but we have to step up and get it done. It’s time. If we go flat on our face, no one is going to be happy about that. We are going to be supportive of him, and we’ll wait until the end of the season to answer that question.”
Marchiony pointed out that the program has been much more competitive against superior competition while under Mangino’s direction than they were under Allen.
“Mark Mangino and his staff have pulled the KU program up from an extremely low point to a point where we are respected as a team and are in the discussion of teams that can make noise in the Big 12 conference,” Marchiony said. “That is a huge jump from where we were pre-Mangino. Now the job is to take it to the next level.”
— Edited by Tara Smith
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