Montemayor: Mangino probably on way out

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By Stephen Montemayor

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Were it not for contract provisions, coach Mark Mangino may well have been canned at halftime or even a few days before Saturday night’s foregone conclusion in Austin, Texas.

The allegedly foul man stands opposite Athletics Director Lew Perkins on a bridge that burns wilder each day.

The investigation of Mangino and his football program the Athletics Department launched last week stems from allegations that he poked senior linebacker Arist Wright during practice and has been further stoked by parents and former players coming forth with accounts of a coach who breaks down and bullies his subjects.

But don’t think that’s all. Lori Williams, associate athletics director for risk management, is leading an investigation to determine whether a check with enough room for seven digits is needed or if there’s enough dirt to sever ties with cause. I’m willing to bet Mangino will not be Kansas’ coach in 2010.

Per Mangino’s contract, the coach has 21 days upon being fired to file a written appeal to Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little or Perkins. If Mangino is found to have been fired without cause — or if he is simply fired without cause — he will be owed $6.6 million. That’s $2 million for three years plus an additional $600,000 buyout.

The reason Mangino wasn’t fired last week or upon returning to Lawrence after his team’s sixth-straight defeat can be summed up using a familiar and ironic axiom: dollar signs.

That Kansas was KO’ed 51-20 on prime-time national television was a mere formality. The only difference between this game and the team’s previous five losses was that it simply got beat rather than beat itself. That said, it was equally tough to watch.

Last week, more than a dozen seniors played their final game in Memorial Stadium in a 31-17 loss to Big 12 North champ Nebraska. The mood and the pitch of the postgame press conference was funereal. And that was before the investigation was initiated.

All that’s left — football-wise — is a Saturday trip to Arrowhead Stadium to play Missouri. Two seasons removed from a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown and one year after one of the program’s finest performances, Kansas could well watch its wounds expand. Or hell, it could again put on another classic — that’s the nature of the rivalry and a topic for another day.

But does anyone want to see Kansas in a mid-to-late December bowl game? A deserving TCU getting screwed out of the BCS championship game may provide fodder for playoff proponents, but being subjected to a Kansas-Idaho Humanitarian Bowl — as ESPN’s Bruce Feldman recently projected — would do just as much to get the BCS to join health care in Congressional deliberations.

I’ll be interested to see how this team — namely seniors such as Darrell Stuckey, Todd Reesing and Kerry Meier — salvage a season long since lost and spiraling further from control.

As far as Mangino is concerned, it is in his best interest that he no longer coaches at Kansas — be it effective immediately or after this season. He’s unhealthy physically and, should there be truth to the wealth of accounts brought forth, spiritually.

Mangino indeed could benefit from a break. He has the financial means and could gain exponentially from changing his perspective and lifestyle.

An effective coach leads with conviction, enforces values and expectations and — perhaps most important of all — maintains the respect of his subjects.

These attributes should find themselves on the list of criteria being considered should Kansas look for a new man to lead it into a new decade.

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Comments

topherbd16 (anonymous) says...

Change his lifestyle? The man won't change his lifestyle if he leaves Kansas. He will simply get a new job and continue his lifestyle. The media has blown this up. Albeit abuse shouldn't be tolerated, but is this abuse? Poke??? Oh dear, a football player that is dodging 300lb. linemen was poked. It's football, not pingpong. I do agree that everyone should be respected. Do the players that are complaining respect themselves?

Mangino has built the football program up from the shallow graves of where it had been resting for several years. Now they are losing and people are complaining. If they were winning I doubt much would of been said.

This really should be between the coach, AD, and athletes (and parent's of athletes if the 18+ year old doesn't feel like an adult), but now the media has it and is blowing it up. As if Mangino doesn't have enough to deal w/ the team losing 6 straight now.

November 22, 2009 at 8:25 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KU2008 (anonymous) says...

If Mangino goes, Lew Perkins should go too. All he has done lately is cause embarrassment for our university.

November 22, 2009 at 9:30 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

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