Monday, November 3, 2008
Mark Mangino rarely gives us any glimpses of emotion. That’s his way. So we have to live on the tiny scraps, the little slivers of passion, that slip past his stoic exterior.
Well, he gave us something Saturday. It was small, but it was something.
With 10:55 left in the first quarter, junior running back Jake Sharp slashed into the end zone and gave Kansas a 6-0 lead. It was early. Football games are long. College football games seem to last an eternity. But Kansas had struck first, and Mangino showed his players how much this game meant to him.
As Kansas’ offense ran back to the sideline, Mangino was there to meet them.
He pumped his fist, he yelled, and he clapped his hands.
This is KU – Kansas State, he seemed to be saying, We ain’t losing this game, not today, not against them.
And that was the game. K-State never stood a chance.
You have to know this about Mangino. Forget all the jokes. Forget all the T-shirts. Forget the sideline explosions that end up on YouTube. Mangino is an old-school football coach.
He’s a man who coached in a National Championship game as an assistant at Oklahoma. He’s a man who coached in a Fiesta Bowl as an assistant at Kansas State. And of course, he led Kansas to an Orange Bowl Championship last season.
But still, you got the feeling that Mark Mangino had never coached a more important game than the one on Saturday against in-state rival K-State. And that’s Mangino’s genius.
He came to Kansas in 2002 and promptly lost his first game against K-State 64-0. It was an embarrassing loss, especially for Mangino, who had spent nearly a decade at K-State. You don’t forget losses like that.
In 2003, K-State smashed Kansas again, cruising to a 42-6 victory. It was K-State’s eleventh victory in a row in the series.
But then came 2004, and Mangino, armed with a rugged defense, flipped the script. Kansas edged past K-State 31-28.
Back to Saturday, another Sunflower Showdown. You knew Mangino knew what this game meant.
His team had beaten K-State twice in a row and had won two out of the last three matchups. Of course, he knew what a victory meant.
Mangino has a saying he likes to tell his players.
“Don’t count the days,” he says. “Make the days count.”
He’s lived his life this way. He was raised in New Castle, Pa., a city in the heart of the working-class Rust Belt. He didn’t play college football, and he took the long way to Kansas.
He was a 31-year old student coach at Youngstown State, working as an ambulance driver on the side. Oh, and he had young kids too. He left Youngstown to work at a small college, which was then a high school, in Pennsylvania. Finally, he earned a job as a volunteer assistant at K-State in 1991. By then, Mangino had developed into quite the coach.
So that’s Mangino’s story. It’s a story about determination and grit. It’s a story about making your days count.
And that’s what Saturday was about. The Jayhawks could grab the KU-K-State rivalry and put it in chokehold.
They could put all K-State demons behind them, and declare themselves the power program in the state. They could make this Saturday count.
Mangino devised a masterful game plan. Sharp and Kansas’ offensive line exposed K-State’s tin-foil defensive line, and the Jayhawk defense feasted on K-State junior quarterback Josh Freeman.
It’s hard to imagine a quarterback having three worse games that the three Freeman has had against Kansas.
Three seasons. Three games. Nine interceptions. Four fumbles. Three losses. Ouch.
And once again, Mangino left K-State coach Ron Prince scratching his head. Prince has coached three games against Kansas. And three times, Mangino has simply outwitted, outcoached and outclassed his in-state rival.
After the game, Mangino left the emotion on the field. He was back in coach-mode. That’s his way.
“We’re bringing this program back to respectability,” Mangino would say, matter-of-factly.
He’s won 32 game during the last four years. No Kansas coach has ever done that. He’ll take Kansas to its second-consecutive bowl game this year. No Kansas coach has ever done that.
So we’ll have to live with the tiny scraps of emotion. Mark Mangino wins football games. That’s his way.
— - Edited by Adam Mowder
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