The swift, sad decline of Kansas head coach Mark Mangino is more than just another tawdry tale of a coach who prodded, poked and pushed the wrong football players in his seven-year tenure at KU. And it's about much more than merely his weight.

The investigation into Mangino's behavior – and his presumed firing, the way he's hacking away at former players and their parents (and the way they're hacking away at him) - is a cautionary tale that deserves a little perspective. A little tough talk, as I'm sure Mangino would term it.

The recap is this: Mangino is like hundreds of college coaches in every division, in every sport, of both genders, and all ages: He uses words – apparently cruel ones – to get the attention of his players. The physical stuff – what little of it there is in this case – is merely a logical extension of his verbal abuse. You don't arrive in someone's face, after all, by silence service.

Mangino threatens. He cajoles. He curses. He brays. He molds like a punk-rock potter would handle bricks of mud and hay. Maybe you've played for a man or woman like this. Maybe you know someone. Maybe you are that person.

Like most angry people, Mangino blames the whistle-blowers - the outspoken players, some of whom were quite good at KU – for bitterness. He blames their parents for failing their children before they arrived on Mangino's doorstep. Never mind that Mangino readily admitted, at the Big 12 Media Days, to recruiting “tough” kids with an “edge,” which means he's fully aware – and always has been – of the risks his style involved. You can't offer Pandora a full-ride scholarship and expect her box to come with a chastity belt.

But, in the face of allegations, Mangino's sheer refusal to admit any wrong – legal tactic? – and unequivocally blameshift deserves a strong rebuttal that, again, goes for any Big 12 coach – Nebraska's included – who may indulge such notions.

Sure, kids have changed. Parents have changed. The money has changed. The scrutiny has changed. Most importantly, athletic directors have changed. They're businessmen. They raise money, press hands and kiss the feet of rich boosters. When you move and sit in the worlds of men and women who barely lift an eyebrow to summon a phalanx of aides to their side, you learn to loathe the cajoler. The world is a colder place for the domineer. Fewer willing souls to dominate.

But, you know, some things haven't changed. Namely: People rarely forget a personal slight or insult. And parents never forget the insults levied at their children. What – you think one imperfect man's notion of “character-building” can ultimately get in the way of blood? Child, please. Since when? On which day? In which sliver of a minute in an hour?

That time, to a rational person, does not exist. But a coach – or any leader with great responsibility – is not always rational. Primordial forces and all that. Delusions – of grandeur, of whatever – are reasonably necessary in college sports. You have to be a little mad – figuratively (and doubly so!) - to drive a bunch of kids toward a championship. Madness lends itself to audacity, audacity to conscience-crossing cruelty. Ever stepped outside yourself in your worst, most rage-filled moment? Did you ever just know it was gonna hurt the intended target in a personal way? The id running amok.

You think of military/political leaders, best to worst. Admired to reviled. But the line between Hannibal and, oh, Nero is thin, practically indistinct, even as their legacies are magnified in opposite directions amidst historians. In their own days, both struck their chords in Rome. The first was exiled, the latter, a suicide case. History's master strategist and decadent fool both arrived at the same port of life.

Their other bond was, according to most historical records, a shared taste for cruelty.

I think some coaches walk around presuming their victories and rare compliments make up for the hours and hours in which they've run down some kid for running out of bounds, or making a bust on a play.

In the short term, sure, OK, maybe. The burning current underneath? That's not how human nature works. There's a reason Solomon writes so many Biblical verses about the proper use of your yap.

Here's a lovely lesson from Proverbs 25:28: “A man without self control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”

In the long run: Negative Reinforcement. Does. Not. Work. Anger. Does. Not. Work. It doesn't. Write it on a chalkboard 1,000 times. If, as a coach, you don't negate that prospect of fear with heavier doses of love and encouragement, the chain of success will always – always! - break down.

Maybe not in the first generation of players. Maybe not in a coach's entire career. But it will somewhere. In families. In the workplace. Rage, contempt and plain old-fashioned pissiness is the root of so many basic-now-endemic American problems. It threatens to ruin our political system, for one thing. The next smile I see from a politician on TV that isn't rueful, gloating, sarcastic or masking ideologue rage will be the first in some time.

Some coaches think their stentorian bellow is, I dunno, something to behold. They think their constant display of anger is almost virtuous, and reflective of their desire, their passion, their competitiveness. Mangino seems like a smart enough man to have considered all of that, and a driven enough man to thought through none of it. Like a lot of blue collar folks, Mangino seemed only to glance at his methods for fear of losing the ferocity of vision it takes to win. That he rationalizes it with the Brooklyn Bridge analogy – the rest of the Big 12 does it, why not me? - strikes me as a clumsy ex-post facto gambit that isn't true anyhow.

It is not unlike, you see, the “bitter” player, blaming his parents, or his peers, for his own disobedience.

The larger lesson is that we're not merely wise to those indiscretions and departures from consistency – we're willing to tap into our personal offense at them. Woody Hayes was once literally allowed to punch his way out of his profession. And he was, in many ways, a brave and innovative man. Patton was used as a decoy in the latter stages of World War II for indulging in a pointless slap. Mangino, a gifted mind who truly gave the Brothers Pelini fits last Saturday – the only coach to slow the tide of NU's pass rush all year – is bound to a lesser legacy than his talent deserves far before it reached a critical mass.

All for what? Some sharp words that Mangino's long forgotten – but his targets have not?

You look at a man like Tom Osborne. How he did it. How he managed above that fray of chaos and insult. Oh, he made his share of poor decisions - I'm sure, every so often, he'd like to take back the phrase “that girl” - but he had a courtliness about him. Still does. Greatness does not require a rough tongue. There is such a thing as righteous anger, if you're slow it. No such thing as righteous vulgarity.

Of course, it is natural to consider Bo Pelini. No shrinking violet there, right? And the cameras don't lie as to how he acts on the sideline. His berating of assistants and officials is already tiresome and due for an offseason overhaul.

But Pelini enjoys some crucial advantages, too. By all accounts, he relates quite well to his players. He knows how to joke with them – even in brief moments at press conferences – and earn their confidence. Based on every anecdote we've ever heard, he's good with their parents, too. Part of it is a relatively low-pressure recruiting process.

And Pelini is an athlete. Still. He's a runner. He played and knows basketball and baseball. His exultation after the Oklahoma win was a bonding moment in itself – even though he was connecting with the fans, and few players were around. Mangino, because of his size, must struggle to even hug his players after a big win.

Football is rough trade. No coach tiptoes his way the minefield every hour/day/week/year. The bigger question: Has the program invested in love? Not just workmanlike respect. But a bond greater than that.

As more allegations of Mangino's players emerge, this much is clear: They might have enjoyed the taste of winning, but they lacked a heart for the program. Loyalty is born in those positive emotions. And the coach has to plant the seeds. As lovely as it may have looked in 2007, Mangino's garden, sadly, was one of cultivated weeds waiting to poison their own soil.

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It's a frequent debate I have with a friend: Is it harder to be the head coach in college football, or in the NFL?

He claims the NFL, where the expectations are higher, players act like primadonnas, the media is merciless and the owners can essentially say and do whatever they want. No job security.

It's not a bad case. But it's not modern college football.

One reason: Program-building, which requires being a head coach, a salesman, a general manager, an owner, an occasional warden, a sociologist and, at long last, a father figure. In this era, it's a little like nation-building in a third world country. (Mea culpa for, you know, comparing football to an outbreak of malaria and genocide in the subtropical steppe.)

Building a program is hard enough. Sustaining it in places not named Florida, California and Texas is even harder. Look at the Big 12 North.

Bill Snyder reached the mountaintop with his unique formula of 100-hour work weeks, JUCO imports and maniacally-driven assistants. Then he walked away in 2005, and it immediately fell to pieces under Greedy Grimace. Missouri is punch-drunk on its passing game, which falls apart, clockwork, in the second half. Colorado is an unmitigated disaster, the Buffaloes never fully recovering from Katie Hnida, recruiting violations, and thrice getting thunderstruck in the Big 12 Championship game.

It's a big, unruly white whale, consistent success. Try Kansas on for size.

Mark Mangino's size masks his skill to fans, but opposing coaches aren't sitting around telling fat jokes, I assure you. He's toiled at the ultimate basketball school west of the Mississippi by creating a Texas-based recruiting template, alighting on the right quarterback in Todd Reesing, and scheduling quite modestly in the non-conference season.

In 2007, his team was the story of that year. Nobody to somebody in three months. The 12-1 record. The Orange Bowl win. KU took a step back in 2008, but it was expected – new defense, young offensive line. Still – when Reesing hit receiver Kerry Meier on that magnificent fourth down pass to slay Missouri in the Big 12's best game of the year, the prevailing notion was this: 2009 could be special.

I never bought it. I had KU fourth in the North, behind Nebraska, Mizzou and KSU. Mangino had built up everything but his offensive and defensive lines. He'd recruited like a devil to the offensive skill positions and the defensive secondary and left out the most important part. Surprising, considering Mangino is an offensive line guy. But that's how hard the job is.

The defensive line stunk it up in the first half of 2009. The offensive line still does. KU started 5-0 and watched that record crumble into a four-game losing streak.

“I’m not naïve,” Mangino said Tuesday. “I’ve been down this road before. It’s not uncharted waters for me. Through the years when we’ve had a tough spell, we’ve stayed the steady course. We didn’t panic, we don’t blame players, we don’t blame anybody, and it’s our own fault that we didn’t win. We keep our same routine, we keep encouraging the players and we keep coaching them. I think that’s the best way. When you take drastic measures during a tough time, the kids wonder if the coach is panicking or if they don’t have confidence that they can pull out of it.”

Except, if you've been paying attention to KU during the last month – Mangino did panic. He pulled his best player, Reesing, from the Texas Tech game – while it was still within reach – out of “fear for his health.” That's a Ron Prince move, folks, blaming your best player for running around for the last 30 games because he gets no protection. It's not Reesing's fault.

And the benching backfired. Reesing was rattled by it, and pressed terribly in a 17-10 loss to Kansas State. Was it a reaction? Of course. When KU had to force a KSU punt late in the game – the only weapon the Wildcats have is running back Daniel Thomas – the Jayhawks couldn't do it. No clutch defense.

Kansas is a casualty, of sorts, of what the Big 12's become in 2009. It's trending toward the run, and defense. The Reesing-Meier-Dez Briscoe trio that looked so trendy before the year is now just a collection of yards and touchdowns. It's not translating into wins.

KU is staring right down the barrel of 5-7. That's how quickly it can change.

There's a lesson in that for Nebraska, of course.

Bo Pelini enjoys more advantages than Mangino does – tradition, history, better facilities, a real fan base – but NU's program remains in a fragile stage of its growth. Pelini said Tuesday, flatly, “I want to win now,” which is good. Wins, right now, is what NU needs. It needs a run to the Big 12 title game. It needs to knock Texas quarterback Colt McCoy on his rear end a dozen times. And it needs to run whatever ugly offense it takes to accomplish those goals.

The Huskers are going to get a ton of television exposure over the last month of the season. With every win comes a little more credibility, a little more exposure, a little more attention from recruits. NU's almost filled its 2010 class. But the 2011 class gets built next March. How valuable would it be for Nebraska to own a win over Oklahoma, and a strong performance vs. Texas in Dallas when that time rolls around?

So you get those Big 12 North wins any which way. Period. And then try to pitch a Bob Gibson shutout vs. Texas.

But Bo has to be mindful of the larger picture. There's something dreadfully wrong with the offense. The statistics prove it. A simple eye test proves it. That unit, as a whole, has not been coached or developed as well as the defense. And the offense does have the talent. Roy Helu is an NFL running back. Mike McNeill is a NFL tight end. Kyler Reed and Ben Cotton are mighty talented, too. Most of NU's offensive line has prototypical size and agility. Khiry Cooper, Brandon Kinnie and Niles Paul all have excellent athleticism and good personalities to boot.

It's not just a matter of experience. Folks, don't buy it. Jared Crick, Cameron Meredith, Alfonzo Dennard and Dejon Gomes are all key parts of NU's defensive success in 2009. Two of them didn't play a down last year. Crick and Dennard didn't play much.

Does the offense have similar success stories?

We've rapped fairly hard on offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and his staff, and clearly, they're troubled by the lack of production. Judging by his demeanor, by his willingness to make changes in scheme, personnel and how he calls plays, Watson probably hasn't had a tougher year. He's “all in” here. His gameplan to beat Oklahoma was painful – but perfect. I'm not kidding; had Zac Lee thrown, oh, five more passes, one of them would have been picked off. OU needed just one more turnover, but never got it.

"It takes a lot of guts to call that kind of game,” Watson said. “It really does. It's a hard game. It's easy in some respects, but it's hard in other respects because it's what we needed to do to win. You've got to get your ego out of it. Your ego's got to leave. You want to throw it, you want to do all that, but you've got to get rid of it.”
Watson's job, for the rest of this year, is to avoid grease fires. Some points would be nice, too.

But, after the season, he has to be on Bo's hook for what's happened. Bo and Watson need to take a hard look at why the offense went sour – lack of leadership, injuries, practice habits, coaching styles, inconsistent playcalling - and fix the bigger picture. Not merely react within the moment.

After a week of blaming the media and fans after the Texas Tech game, the loss to Iowa State woke Bo up. And, from there, we've seen a different coach. A smarter one. Better with the media. Open to more changes. More involved in the play-by-play details of the offense. I like NU's chances down the stretch here. And I like Nebraska to give Texas a very interesting game in Dallas, should it come to pass.

Just know this: Program-building is more – much more – than winning a handful of games. Sustaining it is even harder. Ask Mangino.

Win Two Free Tickets to NU's Last Home Game of the Year!

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Husker Locker will be counting down and breaking down each of the teams in the conference. We hope you view this series as more interesting, comprehensive and definitive than what you may find elsewhere. Where we can make strong takes – we will.

We rank the teams 12 to 1 in overall strength. Then we’ll provide for you the North/South breakdown – and the preseason All Big 12 team, as well.

Enjoy!

Today: No. 8

Coach:Mark Mangino
2008 Record: 8-5

What’s Changed Since 2008: KU lost its three starting linebackers. None of them were great, per see, but all of them were experienced, solid tacklers and skilled blitzers – 14 sacks among the three of them. The Jayhawks also lost three starters off an offensive line that wasn’t terrific in the first place.

2009 Non-Conference Schedule: Tougher – much tougher – than it seems at first blush. Kansas must host Southern Mississippi and travel to UTEP. Two Conference USA teams, sure – they’re also the best two teams in Conference USA. Throw in an improved Duke squad, and we see the potential for a loss in the non-conference slate.

2009 Conference Schedule: It’s brutal. No other word for it. Oklahoma, Nebraska at home, with Texas, Texas Tech, Colorado and Kansas State on the road. We see four losses in that bunch, maybe five, and there’s still a rival in Missouri to play in Kansas City at the end of the season.

Offense: Spread
Coordinator:Mangino and Ed Warinner run this together, it’s fair to say, and though the offense changes a bit from year to year, it’s was heavy on the zone read game in 2008 with a lot of downfield passing. KU made a killing on screen passes in 2007, but we didn’t see nearly as many of those last year. Kansas lacks a Jeremy Maclin type to effectively run a lot of wide receiver sweeps and fancy stuff. Fundamentally – the Jayhawks still aren’t that fast.

Strength: Todd Reesing. The kid’s small, smart, tough, and one amazing football player. Why? Because he improvises when plays break down. Where ordinary quarterbacks hit the panic button, Reesing is just getting started. A good portion of KU’s offense – and almost all of the action in that thrilling 40-37 win over Missouri – is because Reesing simply refuses to give up on a play. Kansas had no offensive line last year. Still won eight games. Kansas also has two good receivers in Dez Briscoe and Kerry Meier, but, aside from their chemistry with Reesing, they’re a little overrated. Well, check that – Briscoe, when he runs his route right, uses his height and leaping ability quite well.

Weakness:Reesing was sacked 31 times last year, and who knows how many sacks his scrambling ability saved. KU’s offensive line struggled to open holes for running back Jake Sharp, and KU only averaged 3.7 yards per rush. We don’t expect the line to be any better this year.

Defense: 4-3
Coordinator: Clint Bowen will run it with journeyman Bill Miller, who joins the staff in 2009. Expect KU to lean on its experienced secondary and get daring with its front seven.

Strength: The secondary is probably good enough in 2009 for KU to rely on them in man-to-man coverage at least some of the time. Strong safety Darrell Stuckey is a particularly good player in run and pass support. The pass defense was indeed fairly torched last year, but part of that was a so-so defensive line that didn’t get much pressure, and part of that was the teams KU played. Of course, the Jayhawks play those teams again this year.

Weakness:No linebacker experience, which Kansas fans brush off by pretending the departing three seniors weren’t very good. Well, poppycock. KU had to move one potential starter, Angus Quigley, from running back in order to cover the position. Much like Nebraska last year – do not expect excellence out of this group, especially when there isn’t a Cody Glenn-type athlete in the bunch.

Special Teams Jacob Bransetter made 9-of-12 field goal attempts last year, but the longest was only 34 yards. Kansas had the nation’s worst kickoff return unit last year, and we’re not sure Mark Mangino will risk using Dez Briscoe on it. Alonso Rojas was a fair punter in his year as a sophomore with a 40.7 overall average.

Intangibles: Kansas gets two key benefits from most pundits going into 2009 – beating Missouri in its wild regular-season finish, and drawing an easy assignment in the bowl game with Minnesota, which lost its last five games last year. Beware of the small sample size! KU is a team that was lucky to beat Iowa State, still the team that was badly outplayed by Nebraska in the second half, aside from a couple turnovers, still the team that was stoned by Texas Tech and Texas at home.

Best-Case Scenario: Kansas wins the Big 12 North by sweeping all five opponents in its division. That’s what it’ll take, too.

Worst-Case Scenario: A seven-loss season – which could happen. Two non-conference losses and five inside the Big 12.

Our Take: KU finishes 7-5 and 4-4 in the Big 12, losing the tiebreaker to Kansas State.

See other Big 12 Breakdowns: No. 12 ISU, No. 11 A&M, No. 10 CU, No. 9 BU, No. 8 KU, No. 7 KSU, No. 6 Texas Tech

Agree? Disagree?Tell us about it.

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Grim and a little frustrated, Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel hustled up to the podium Tuesday at the Big 12 Media Days and immediately apologized for a delay at the Dallas airport that left him tardy for his appointed engagement.

Not long after Pinkel settled in, he was quickly peppered with queries about the immense talent – especially on offense – that he lost in the offseason to the NFL. Chase Daniel. Chase Coffman. Jeremy Maclin.

First, replacing Daniel, that love him/hate him quarterback that put Mizzou in the national spotlight and won two straight Big 12 North titles.

Pinkel shot straight: Former prep phenom (and Nebraska commit) Blaine Gabbert is the guy.

“Any time you have a transition quarterback,” Pinkel said, “everybody sits back and goes, ‘Wow, what's going to happen?’ When you lose a high level guy like that, hopefully, we can replace him with a high-level guy.”

Pinkel said he’ll bring along Gabbert, a sophomore, much as he did Daniel in his corresponding season. Daniel was inconsistent in 2006, alternating between excellent and average. He made “the leap” in 2007. Pinkel’s hoping the same for Gabbert.

He’s not so sure Maclin, the receiving and return whiz, can be replaced. But, he added, this version of the Tigers was his fastest.

On replacing two coordinators, Pinkel referenced the “Bill Belichick approach” of training and promoting from within. Pinkel the admitted he hasn’t lost two coaches, much less coordinators, in nine years at Mizzou.

***

Baylor’s Art Briles delighted the media with clever lines and quick answers. Briles kept referring to “turning hope into happen” throughout his interviews, because, at this point, that the Bears’ next step.

Briles talked a lot of about his quarterback, Robert Griffin, the fast, gifted sophomore quarterback. Griffin has helped with TV exposure, with recruiting, with fan recognition, with everything.

But Griffin, and his Bear teammates, won’t be sneaking up on anyone in 2008. Teams that narrowly escaped with wins – like Missouri, Nebraska and Texas Tech – learned their lesson.

“People are going to approach us differently on the other side, in other staff rooms and on other practice fields because they're going to come into Baylor with a different mindset than they did a year ago,” Briles said. “We understand that. We understand we're going to have to rise up and be better in all facets
of the game, not only physically, to deal with the charges that are going to come our way.”


Briles drew laughs for his stories about accompanying Jason Smith to the NFL Draft, and his comments on the wardrobe of some of his questioners. Briles is going to make an interesting push in the Big 12 South. He’s the first with the raw charm to recruit head-to-head with Mack Brown. His program doesn’t have the facilities, it doesn’t have the tradition, and it doesn’t have any recent success. But Baylor does have Briles.


***


There’s a curious, gentlemanly quality to the way Kansas Coach Mark Mangino handles himself in front of media. You tend to see a lot of different sides of the guy. You see the pride, the attention to detail, the self-made aspect. Just about every coach brings that to the table. But with Mangino it’s something a little more – a vulnerability, perhaps? A love for the little guy?


The coach talked with great care about recruiting quarterback Todd Reesing to KU several years ago, about how Reesing, tiny as he was, just had a confidence, a style, a belief that belied his looks. You could see why that might impress a guy like Mangino, who gets more comments about his appearance than he did his coaching.


Yes, Reesing runs around a little too much – and sometimes gets himself in trouble for doing it.


“But that's what makes him unique, you know, the idea that he believes in himself and that
he can make plays when there's not one,” Mangino said. “Kind of really reflects his personality; that he always thinks he can overcome. He always wants to prove the opposition wrong. Those traits have served him well.”


Good coaches tend to know – what’s best for each player is to fulfill their potential…through their own personality.


Also appreciated that Mangino admitted he likes to recruit “tough” players – read, guys a little rough around the edges – and that “sometimes we fail in that area, but we like kids that love to play this
game.”


***


Mr. Heisman and Big Game Bob was last to appear Tuesday, as Oklahoma took the podium.


The big questions for OU, of course, revolved around its offensive line. Everything else about the Sooners – QB Sam Bradford, the running backs, the extraordinary defense – is in place. But the line, which must replace three starters, remains a weakness.


“Mistakes they were making on day one, day two, they weren’t making on day 14 and day 15,” Bradford said. “I think we still need that progress once we’re in camp.”


Bradford also touched upon the “frustration” of never having won a bowl game. Especially when reporters, who have to find something negative about the kid, ask so often.


“It’s not something we like to do – “oh, we had a good season, let’s lose the last game,’” he said. “It’s starting to really to get to everyone.”



At one time, Bradford didn’t much care for the no-huddle offense, either.


“When we first switched to it, I didn’t it like it,” Bradford said. “It just seemed like chaos, it seemed like no one was on the same page. It sucked. If you would have seen us trying to run it the first couple days, you would have thought it was just a disaster.


“But the more time we spent on it, and the better we got, the more I fell love with it.”

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In light of Bo Pelini’s new contract at Nebraska, we decided to review the coveted coaching jobs in the Big 12 Conference and determine, top to bottom, which job was hardest and which was easiest.

We decided to eschew “best” and “worst” in part because that debate automatically thrusts Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska to the top of the list and schools like Baylor and Iowa State to the bottom, based on sheer tradition.

Rather, we decided to take a bold stab at figuring out which jobs – perks and warts combined – were the kind coaches could tackle with enthusiasm and effort, and which jobs needed, shall we say, a bit more than that. Like a few a well-placed prayers to the pigskin karma saints.

Our list goes from easiest to hardest, and takes into account five categories:

Recruiting Base/Interest
Administrative/Booster Support
Media/Fan Expectation
Chance of “Success”
An “X” factor

Today, we run down we deem to be the six easiest jobs in the Big 12. Tomorrow, the sixth toughest.

And as we count them down, know this: None of them are what you’d call “easy.” All take 60-hour workweeks, strength, smarts, stamina and personality.

One other thing…the list partially takes into account who’s coaching the program, which, in the case of Kansas State’s Bill Snyder, frankly, makes the job easier than it would have been for Snyder’s predecessor, Ron Prince, or whoever follows Snyder.

On with the countdown!

No. 12 KANSAS

Head Coach: Mark Mangino. Compensation: $2.3 millon per year, with tons of performance bonuses. Mangino gets five grand just for beating Nebraska, for example. For every game televised on ESPN that KU wins, Mangino scores ten grand.

Recruiting Base: KU has direct access to the best talent in Kansas City and Wichita, along with reasonable access to the second-tier prospects in Oklahoma. The Jayhawk State is also home to many of the Midwest’s best junior college football programs. Mangino still plucks his share of players out of Texas – that’s one of the secrets to his success – but there are more home-grown kids to choose from, too.

Administrative/Booster Support: For football, it’s better than ever, after KU finished a $33 million football complex in 2008. Basketball will always be king in Lawrence, but football is being embraced like never before.

Media/Fan Expectation: Tempered by the hulking monolith that is the basketball program, KU football is expected to compete for the Big 12 North trophy and beat its rivals, Missouri and Kansas State. Beyond that? Gravy. At least a quarter of the Big 12 programs would like a national title in the next decade. If that doesn’t happen at Kansas, nobody is losing sleep over it.

Chance of “Success”: Mangino has upped the ante and created his own success story. Still – “success” at KU is defined by eight, nine wins a year, a solid bowl game, and win over Mizzou. Would many Kansas fans have considered 2008 a “down” year? Following 2007, yes, it was. Overall? It was quite good by historical Jayhawks standards.

X Factor: Kansas football is not, and never will be, the flagship sports program in Lawrence. Outside of possibly Iowa State, it’d be hard to claim that about anywhere else right now.

No. 11 OKLAHOMA

Head Coach: Bob Stoops Compensation: Around $6 million. This includes a $3 million lump sum Stoops received recently for his tenth anniversary as OU coach and bonuses he earned last year.

Recruiting Base: It’s national, really, but Oklahoma does most of its damage at home and in Texas, routinely plucking great players from both states. Some years, OU outperforms Texas for coveted players in the Lone Star State. Stoops is a good recruiter, sure, but he resides in and near the land of milk and honey, too.

Administrative/Booster Support: Very strong. Stoops has the full support of the old guard (guys like Barry Switzer) and his athletic director, Joe Castiglione, is a proactive standout in his field. As far as facilities go, we’ll take Nebraska’s swank spread of OU’s ten-year-old digs, but the Sooners want for very little. Stoops has all the tradition, support and booster bucks he wants. He’s created a lot of success, yes. He’s also been given a lot to create it with.

Media/Fan Expectation: They’re high. Very high. But they’re not lunatic high, like they are at certain SEC programs, and the fans aren’t fickle, like they are at Texas. Sooner fans want to win. Stoops does win. But he’s not required to be a messiah (again: see the SEC).

Chance of “Success:” OU has every advantage in this regard. It’s one of the great programs, and has been since Bud Wilkinson. There’s talent. There’s tradition. There’s reasonably warm weather for recruiting purposes.

“X” Factor: Stoops’ recent run of losses in bowl games makes fan groan a little. Not that they want him to go anywhere.

No. 10 TEXAS

Head Coach: Mack Brown Compensation: Around $3 million.

Recruiting Base: None better. The best talent in the state of Texas. And most of them are rounded up by the end of spring football. UT’s recruiting budget must be equal to the military budget of Albania.

Administrative/Booster Support: Some would call DeLoss Dodds the nation’s most powerful athletic director. He’s sure one of them. In defense of Brown, he’s done a really good job winning back his share of boosters after the long, dark period after Darryl Royal retired. Then again, it was Brown’s predecessor, John Mackovic, who got the unpleasant job of bluntly telling those boosters UT’s facilities were woefully out of date. Brown walked into a better situation than Mackovic left when he was fired.

Media/Fan Expectation: We know some Texas fans, and, outside of rubbing OU’s nose in it, the goals are sometimes fuzzy. UT will cherish Vince Young and the national title he won for the Longhorns for the next century. But do they blame Brown for the one loss that blemished an otherwise terrific 2008? Success doesn’t always bring out the fans anyway, as witnessed by the occasional empty seats in UT’s stadium.

Chance of “Success”: Right up there with OU. Texas has all the advantages. At this point, any number of coaches – say, Will Muschamp – could be plugged into that job and coast on fumes for five years.

“X” Factor: The University of Texas has more beautiful women on its campus than any other in America, in one of the nation’s best college towns. It helps.

No. 9 KANSAS STATE

Head Coach: Bill Snyder Compensation: 1.85 million

Recruiting Base: The same as Kansas, except that Snyder leans much more heavily on the JUCOs.

Administrative/Booster Support: Basically, Snyder will get the “Joe Gibbs” treatment. He’s already performed “The Miracle in Manhattan” and if he carves out a modicum of success, any setbacks will just be blamed on Ron Prince’s three years at KSU. Snyder runs that town, and he’ll make darn sure the Wildcats schedule three or four wins per year.

Fan/Media Expectations: A respectable program. Coaches who don’t have to run stadium stairs.

Chance of “Success”: Pretty good, if 7-5 is the standard, and we don’t really see Kansas State doing much better than that in whatever time Snyder chooses to put into this second act.

“X” Factor: Snyder will need one year, and maybe two, to clean up the mess Prince left behind. And he won’t have Stoops and Mangino to help him do it.

No. 8 TEXAS A&M

Head coach: Mike Sherman Compensation: $1.8 million

Recruiting base: The central/southern part Texas seems pretty sweet to us. The Aggies make a killing in NASA country (that’s Houston). A&M probably draws a little too much talent from a 100-mile radius, for that matter.

Administrative/Booster Support: Aggies are plenty competitive, and will spend top dollar to win in almost every sport. Athletic director Bill Byrne is no less competitive, even if his zeal in the past, including at Nebraska, was for non-revenue sports that could inch him closer to a Sears Directors Trophy. Still – at A&M, excellence is the standard. Another season like 2008, and Sherman might be gone very soon.

Fan/Media Expectation: For a solid decade, A&M was the premier program in Texas. Getting there again is a top priority, and it’s not completely out of the question, either. The Longhorns are due for a dry spell. Oklahoma, on other hand…we don’t see the Sooners going anywhere. The fans at A&M are terrific. The closest to Nebraska fans, in fact.

Chance of “Success”: Ten wins, a Big 12 South crown and bragging rights over UT are a lot to ask for right now. Maybe a little too much to ask. But the Aggies are committed, support is entrenched, and the area talent is rich. This is fertile ground for winning. Sherman has no excuses, really, because Dennis Franchione didn’t exactly run the program into the ground.

“X” Factor: A&M is making the painful transition from option zone read to West Coast Offense with a former NFL coach. Ask Nebraska how well that turned out.

No. 7 TEXAS TECH

Head Coach: Mike Leach Compensation: $2.3 million

Recruiting Base: Leach has made inroads into central and the Texas Panhandle to go along with the football-rich region of West Texas.

Booster/Administrative Support: It’s no great secret that Leach and his athletic director aren’t great chums. But Leach won the war of public opinion in a recent contract dispute, and let’s just say wasn’t the proletariat that turned the tide, but the Tech bourgeoisie. The Red Raiders just finished a $84 million renovation to Jones Stadium.

Media/Fan Expectation: Leach seems to win eight every year – 11 in 2008 – and fans don’t seem too riled up if he can’t win the big games, which he rarely does. He’s brought more publicity to Lubbock than anyone since Buddy Holly. Yeah, even more than Bob Knight.They love the big pirate-lovin lug.

Chance of “Success:” Every four years or so, Tech might be able to climb that national title mountain like it did in 2008. Otherwise, since fans seem content with nine wins and a fun offense each year – and the Wes Welkers and Michael Crabtrees of the world are still willing to enroll – chances are pretty good, we’d say.

“X” Factor: Leach makes this job easier for himself, because Leach is Texas Tech. We pity, really, the coach who must follow him.

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Time to drag 1968 back out of closet as it pertains to Nebraska football.




That’s the last time Kansas breezed into Memorial Stadium with a better team and beat the Cornhuskers. In that particular election season 40 years ago, KU was No. 6 in the polls. No ratings disco in 2008, but the Jayhawks, at 6-3, do boast the better record going into Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. game.




Not that blue-collar KU is cutting the ribbon before it’s broken the streak.




“They’re still Nebraska, and we’re going to be in Lincoln and it’s definitely a tough place to play,” running back Jake Sharp said. “We’re going to have to have another great week of preparation and hopefully take care of business on Saturday.”




Sharp’s a bit of a darling around Lawrence this week after racking up 254 total yards in a 52-21 win over rival Kansas State, a game that’ll be remembered fondly by KSU fans as the one that broke the back of Ron Prince of the JUCOs. Sharp darted for 181 rushing yards against the Wildcats’ tiny defense, including a 47-yard option play that brought back memories of the running game Kansas never had.




For Sharp, it was a trip down memory lane of high school in Salina, Kan.




“I was definitely exhausted like I was back then,” Sharp said. “The offensive line had a great day, they opened up holes and I was able to do a lot of running.”




He’s part of a ground game that’s suddenly appeared in the last month after being dormant during the non-conference season. Operating out of shotgun spread offense, KU runs a lot of zone read plays, and the young offensive line struggled to carve out lanes for Sharp. Starting with a 30-14 win over Colorado, Kansas has been building more of rhythm.




“We have a system in place that we all believe in,” Kansas Coach Mark Mangino said. “We don’t change things radically when we win or when we lose. We do things the same way each week because we believe that will help our players get better.”




Mangino’s system has worked well against the Huskers, at least in recent years. KU hammered NU 40-15 on 2005 and 76-39 in 2007, and narrowly lost in Lincoln 39-32 in overtime. In that game, Kansas crawled out of a deep first half hole to tie the game in the last minutes with a second-string quarterback and a string of highly effective draw plays. You may recall that then-defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove failed to adjust to the Kansas attack, citing concern over a certain shovel pass Mangino liked to run.




That play is still in KU’s offense, having working like a charm last week when quarterback Todd Reesing flipped the ball to Sharp, who scampered for 44 yards to set up a Kansas touchdown.




What’s changed, Mangino said, is Nebraska’s defense under head coach Bo Pelini. Although Mangino got in a slight dig on NU’s talent when he suggested the Huskers “may need to work on their recruiting,” he generally saw Nebraska progressing toward weekly improvement.




“I see their kids being in the right spots, lined up in the right places,” Mangino said. “I see their kids playing hard every snap with enthusiasm. Those are the things you look for when a new coach takes over and that is what they are doing.”




KU’s other obstacle is playing Memorial Stadium – the Lincoln version – where the crowd can disrupt the Jayhawks, quick-huddle, timing-based system.




“I haven’t been up there yet,” Kansas sophomore receiver Dezmon Briscoe said, “but my teammates have told me it is a tough place to play and that they have really good fans.”




Said Mangino: “Our kids will go there and play well and will not be intimidated. We respect the Nebraska fans and the Nebraska program, but we have played pretty well the last couple of times we have gone there."

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