KU football coach Mangino has enjoyed the whirlwind of attention

By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH
The Kansas City Star

LAWRENCE | Barry Alvarez knows turnarounds. So when Alvarez, the former Wisconsin football coach, visited the University of Kansas campus Friday and caught up with KU coach Mark Mangino, he could sense that something special had happened here.

It was the same feeling that Alvarez had in Madison, Wis., years ago when he built a program with little to no tradition into a perennial Big Ten power.

“You take over a losing program, you have to change a culture,” said Alvarez, in town to prep for his duties as an Orange Bowl commentator on Fox. “It’s very hard to do, which is why most people can’t get it done. You have to change the attitude of everyone that touches the program, and I can sense that Mark has done that here.”

Alvarez and Mangino shook hands and chatted for a few minutes on Friday before Mangino had to cut it short. Surely, the reigning consensus national coach of the year had somewhere important to be. It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks for Mangino, who spent part of last week down in Orlando, Fla., receiving the Home Depot coach of the year award. He was back in Lawrence on Friday and had a chance to reflect.

“To be quite honest, I appreciate the awards that have been given to me,” Mangino said. “I’m humbled by them. I’m not an intellectual giant, but I’m smart enough to figure out that it has to do with the players. I’m coaching the same way in 2007 as I did in 2002. We were 2-10.

“Here’s what I’ve told everybody: Head coaches get far too much credit for winning, far too much blame for losing.”

There is no doubt Mangino is right. After all, it was just five months ago that KU athletic director Lew Perkins told The Star that six wins wouldn’t be good enough. It became clear that Mangino needed to win seven games at the very least to feel secure.

Of course, the Jayhawks used an easy nonconference slate to build confidence and then rattled off seven Big 12 wins in a row. Now they’re headed to the school’s first BCS bowl game, and Mangino is getting all the credit.

“I’m just taking it all in stride,” Mangino said. “I am thankful for it, but it really reflects the entire program. I couldn’t do it alone. I don’t have the ability or the talent to do it alone.”

It’s that attitude that made a large group of KU players gather around the TV at the Burge Union last Thursday night for the awards show on ESPN. When Mangino was announced as the coach of the year, the place went nuts.

“That was a crazy moment for all of us,” KU cornerback Chris Harris said. “It’s a great experience to be coached by the best coach of the year.”

KU cornerback Aqib Talib and offensive tackle Anthony Collins were in attendance at the show.

“Coach Les Miles was in there,” Talib said, “Coach (Jim) Tressel, (Dallas Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones, so many people. And then our coach won coach of the year. Me and AC kind of looked at each other like, ‘Yeah, that’s our coach up there.’ ”

On Friday, Mangino was as jovial as he’s been all season, generating several laugh-out-loud moments. He was busy again explaining that all of the milestones KU has set this year just roll off his back.

“This is a program that has not been able to sustain success in football for nearly a century,” Mangino said. “When we do something good, our (sports information director) tells me after the game, ‘This is the first time since Christopher Columbus landed here that KU did this.’

1899, 1876, we’re just glad to do it. I can’t tell you I run in and tell the team, ‘We have to win this Orange Bowl because we never won one, and in 1969, we had 12 men on the field. So I’m taking a calculator with me and I’m going to count to 11 every snap.’ ”

Mangino has come a long way since his days as a lowly assistant on Kansas State coach Bill Snyder’s staff. Alvarez, a close friend of Snyder and Bob Stoops from their days under Hayden Fry at Iowa, knew Mangino had the right pedigree for success.

“I know what kind of grinder Bill Snyder is,” said Alvarez, now the Wisconsin athletic director. “For Bob Stoops to hire him and give him a title tells me what kind of coach and what kind of person he is.”

Years later, on Friday, Alvarez and Mangino got to talk, architect to architect.

“The thing I see from watching him from afar and knowing him, he never compromised what he believed in,” Alvarez said. “He’s engrained in them a team spirit. They talk about team. They win and lose as a team. They hold each other accountable. Those are the reasons you win, and that comes from the head coach who devised it that way.”