I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I would bet that University of Kansas Athletics Director Lew Perkins would like to rip up the contract extension he gave head football coach Mark Mangino back in August.
It was a deal that gave Mangino a hefty raise from $610,000 per year to the tune of $1.5 million per year through 2010, and even back in August, it had many people wondering what was going on in Lawrence that the rest of us didn’t know.
Apparently, Kansas rewards its coaches for mediocrity and, as evidenced by recent findings, running a program that has been cited for cheating.
The Jayhawks are in the midst of a three-game losing streak to begin Big 12 Conference play, with two of those losses coming at home against two teams in Texas A&M and Oklahoma State that Jayhawk fans had all but written off as sure-fire wins before the season started.
It’s funny what a win over a pathetic Houston team in the Fort Worth Bowl last season did to the ego ... err ... confidence of the fans in crimson and blue.
Not only have the Jayhawks squashed the expectations that were so high to begin the season, but Mangino’s program was slapped with the dreaded “lack of institutional control” label last week after the NCAA found Kansas guilty of academic fraud by a football graduate assistant and a ridiculously poor excuse for a compliance record by the entire Kansas athletic department.
Mangino’s program was placed on an extra year of probation — Kansas had already instituted a two-year self-imposed probation — and lost three football scholarships, even though Mangino was cleared of any knowledge of wrongdoing in his program.
This led Mangino to smugly toot his own horn, seeing as how he had just watched the all-bark, no-bite NCAA do little more than shake a regulatory finger at his program.
“I don’t need to cheat,” Mangino said in his press conference following the NCAA’s ruling. “That’s not how I operate. I have enough faith in my coaching ability.”
Something interesting arises out of this situation though.
Mangino claims to have no knowledge of the cheating that took place under his watch, which could mean one of two things: A) He apparently doesn’t have control of his program, seeing as how his grad assistants are cheating right under his nose by providing test answers to prospective recruits, or B) he’s lying.
Either way, Mangino is in the wrong, and if the NCAA had any guts, it would have hit Mangino’s program with, say, a postseason ban.
Not only that, but it’s almost comical to hear Mangino gloat about his coaching ability, since there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of it rolling around inside that head of his.
Case in point: Mangino’s conference record three games into his fifth go-around with the Big 12 schedule is worse than his predecessor, the one and only Terry I-pick-my-nose-on-national-television Allen. Mangino sports a sparkling 8-27 Big 12 record since his hiring prior to the 2002 season, while Allen had a 10-25 record through 35 league games.
How’s that for coaching ability?
And what about Saturday’s 42-32 loss at home to Oklahoma State? The Jayhawks held a 17-0 third-quarter lead, and then decided to stop covering Cowboys wide receiver Adarius Bowman, allowing Bowman to score four touchdowns while catching 13 passes for a Big 12-record 300 receiving yards to lead Oklahoma State past the hapless Jayhawks.
Mangino says he has confidence in his coaching ability, and yet he refused to put Kansas’ best cover corner, Aqib Talib, on Bowman, instead opting to throw freshman corner Anthony Webb into that fire pit. Magnificent coaching if I ever saw it.
Tell me again where this coaching confidence comes from?
So basically, Perkins gave a contract extension to a coach who had wallowed in his own mediocre football filth for four years and was facing punishment by the NCAA before the season even began, and now that the Jayhawks are on a downward spiral on the football field and have been penalized — albeit ineptly — Kansas is stuck with Mangino until the close of the decade.
What’s that sound?
It sounds like the rest of the Big 12 Conference laughing at the Jayhawks.
Have fun with all that, Kansas.
F For more sports commentary from Michael and sports reporter Jesse Newell, tune into the Emporia Sports Buzz online at emporiagazette.com.
admireed (anonymous) says...
Pretty STRONG words from a pup.
October 19, 2006 at 4:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eldiablo (anonymous) says...
Geez. What's with the bitterness? It's not like Mangino is an alcoholic, drunk-driving, can't-graduate-anybody, post-season-choker loser.
Like Bob Huggins.
October 20, 2006 at 4:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )