Ex-KU coach Mangino got pulled over the last time he was in Lawrence
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Needless to say, Mark Mangino is hoping this trip to Lawrence is a little less eventful than the last one.
It's a wacky road trip kind of narrative: The ex-Kansas football coach needed to pick up some files in his garage at his old home -- now mostly empty, save for the files, and the family was looking to rent it out. So in the spring of 2010 -- it might've been 2011, the memory cheats -- Mangino and a pal got into a van and drove from Naples, Fla., all the way up to Lawrence to load up and clear out.
Which they did, piling boxes in the van all the way up to the roof, cutting off blind spots, the works. And that's where things got funky. A few miles out of town, Mangino noticed a Kansas state trooper close on his tail, signaling for him to pull over.
"You know you were driving in the left lane for five miles?" the patrolman asked.
Mangino didn't. The trooper looked closer.
"I think I know you," he said.
Oh, doctor.
"Nah, you don't know me," the former Jayhawks coach said, knowing full well he was cooked.
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"Yeah, you're coach Mangino."
Busted.
"Well," Mangino, who coached at KU from 2002-09, cracked. "I'm hard to hide, huh?"
To make a long story short, the trooper let him off with a warning, and the coach continued his journey out west to Manhattan to visit one old boss, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, then swung down to Norman to meet up with another, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops.
"The (officer) let me go," the 58-year-old Mangino, now offensive coordinator at Iowa State -- which KU (2-6, 0-5 Big 12) entertains Saturday at Memorial Stadium -- said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "(After) he said, 'Would you please clear the boxes at least away from the mirrors so you can see me? Because I've been behind you for quite a while.'"
You can move on from the past, but you never completely escape it. Hindsight is a funny beast, sometimes: Mangino's legacy along Mount Oread gets a little larger the farther we get away from it. The former Frank Broyles Award winner posted a 50-48 record at KU, steering the Jayhawks to four postseason berths over eight seasons, including an Orange Bowl victory that capped a 12-1 run in 2007. Since the allegations, an investigation and Mangino's resignation, Kansas is 11-45 and hasn't won more than three games in a season since 2009, Mangino's last at the helm.
"I have to say that not only me, but assistant coaches, strength coaches, trainers and a whole bunch of football players worked incredibly, incredibly hard to bring respectability to that program," Mangino said Tuesday. "And I'm proud of all those people and I'm proud to be associated with all of them."
The ex-KU coach says he's "taken no joy at any tough times that have taken place" in Lawrence, "because we had people on our staff -- assistant coaches, trainers, strength coaches, other people -- who made a lot of personal sacrifices over a lot of hours, worked weekends, gave up valuable family time to make the program respectable there. And I'm very proud of that and I'm proud of the people and the players that were there and competed and sacrificed to make it a better program."
Some of those people are still here, of course, trying to right a leaking ship. Current KU interim coach Clint Bowen worked on Mangino's staff for eight years. KU co-offensive coordinator John Reagan did the same for five seasons.
"Well I'm proud of all of them -- they're all good individuals," Mangino said. "They're all very good coaches, (and) they're better human beings. I'm very proud of them."
That said ...
"There's friendship and there's competition. And we never get those mixed up."
Mangino says he casts a lighter, calmer figure than a decade ago, but old maxims never change. He tells the Cyclone players to "keep sawing wood," just as he told the Jayhawks, Sooners and Wildcats before that.
"You bet; I live by that," the coach said. "It's not just a good motto; I've tried to live my life like that. It means just keep going. When things are going good, just keep the steady pace. When things are going bad, keep the steady pace. Nothing is insurmountable, even if it looks like that."
Despite a slew of injuries and an unforgiving Big 12 slate -- longtime USA Today stat guru Jeff Sagarin rates Iowa State's schedule as the fifth-toughest in the nation -- the Cyclones (2-6, 0-5 Big 12) keep sawing away. Iowa State has struggled to run the ball with consistency, but the passing game has accounted for six more touchdowns (15) and nearly 50 more yards through the air (246.9) per game, on average, than KU. Last fall, before Mangino arrived, the Cyclones ranked 100th nationally in BCFToys.com's offensive points per drive (1.60); this season, they're 71st (2.00).
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"Certainly, KU is a great place, and I had a lot of fun there and met a lot of wonderful people," Mangino said. "And many people from Lawrence and affiliated at one time or another with KU have texted me or emailed me, and I sincerely appreciate that.
"But it's really a business trip. Maybe after the game, I might feel differently. But not going into it."
That said, it's still hard as hell to hide Mark Mangino in Lawrence, even if he's wearing a shirt of a different color. And the deeper KU football sinks down the Big 12 pecking order, the harder it gets.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
