Morning Brew: Damaged reputation

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By Max Vosburgh

Friday, November 20, 2009

Welcome aboard the RMS Titanic! No, I’m not talking about the one that sank on April 15, 1912. I’m talking about the one that’s currently sinking under Captain Mark Mangino.

The once seemingly unsinkable Kansas football team was cruising along for several weeks. A mere 34 days after the Jayhawks were ranked 15th in the USA Today poll, they lost to the Nebraska Cornhuskers and most likely their chance to go to a bowl game.

After the Nebraska game, I was not ready to suggest firing Mangino, but I was close. Considering what he had done for this program, I was willing to give him at least another year to prove he could turn this team around. However, after Lew Perkins announced that there would be an internal review of the football program this week, it is now fair to question Mangino’s job security.

There are current and former players coming forward and making accusations against the head coach. Perkins was left with little choice and had to look into it.

The big thing here is that Perkins could have kept this investigation quiet, but he didn’t. He chose to come out and announce it publicly. He’s sending a message. Mangino hinted at that message during his press conference Tuesday when he said that he’s lost the support of “some people around here.”

Subsequently, things have begun to unravel around Mangino. His reputation has been so badly damaged by this debacle that recruiting may take a hit.

An article by ESPN’s Joe Schad reported that as many as five former players are beginning to speak out against Mangino’s verbal abuse.

Former Kansas wide receiver Raymond Brown came forward. Brown, whose brother was shot in the arm while in St. Louis, told Schad, “I dropped a pass and [Mangino] was mad. And I said, ‘Yes, sir. Yes, sir.’ The yelling didn’t bother me. But then he said, ‘Shut up!’ He said, ‘If you don’t shut up, I’m going to send you back to St. Louis so you can get shot with your homies.”

Brown also told Schad that another player had let it be known that he had dreams of becoming a lawyer and that his father was an alcoholic.

“One day, [Mangino] said in front of the entire team, ‘Are you going to be a lawyer or do you want to become an alcoholic like your Dad?’” Brown revealed to Schad.

Former Kansas wide receiver Marcus Herford told Schad, “He’d say things like, ‘I’ll send you back to the street corner where you came from,’”

ESPN also reported that some players were threatening to transfer because they feel like they’ve been spoken to in a disrespectful manner.

What high school player is sitting at home right now thinking that they want to come to Kansas and play for someone like that? Now that Mangino is beginning to garner the reputation that he disrespects his players, it becomes problematic.

Don’t get me wrong. Mangino has done a lot for this school. He has taken Kansas football and turned it into a respectable program around the country. While I am thankful for that, I do not believe he is the coach that will take this program from where we’ve been the last couple years to the next level.

Even after “resurrecting” the Kansas football program and being named coach of the year in 2007, no big time program came in to try and steal him away. This appears to be the end of the line for Mark Mangino at Kansas.

Follow Max Vosburgh at twitter.com/MVsports

— Edited by Jonathan Hermes

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