Mark Mangino

Early life

Mangino was born and raised in New Castle, Pennsylvania. After high school, he was offered a football scholarship at Youngstown State. Mangino played semi-pro baseball in western Pennsylvania until he became an EMT. In his late 20's he returned to Youngstown State to complete his studies and earn his degree.

Early positions

Mangino graduated from Youngstown State University in 1987, serving as an assistant coach there in his last two years under then-head coach Jim Tressel. He also coached at Lincoln High School in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania and at Geneva College, before being hired as an assistant coach at Kansas State University in 1991. Prior to the 1999 season, Mangino left Kansas State to take an assistant position at the University of Oklahoma. While there, he served as the offensive coordinator for the Oklahoma team that beat the defending national champion Florida State Seminoles in the 2000 national championship. Following that season, he was awarded the Frank Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach.

Kansas

Mangino was hired as Kansas head football coach in December 2001. The program had not posted a winning season in any of the 6 seasons prior to his arrival. In 2003, his second season at KU, Mangino led the Jayhawks to an appearance in the 2003 Tangerine Bowl (now known as the Champs Sports Bowl). This was the first bowl appearance for Kansas since 1995. In 2005, his fourth season at KU, the team finished the regular season 6–5, to post its first winning record under Mangino, and went on to the Fort Worth Bowl, its second bowl game in three seasons. Among the Jayhawks' wins was a 40–15 victory over Nebraska, breaking a losing streak that had begun in 1969, which was the second-longest such streak of consecutive losses in NCAA history. The same year Mangino also built a defense that ranked 11th nationally (based on yards allowed per game) and featured third-team All-American and Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year linebacker Nick Reid. The 2005 team also ranked 6th nationally in total punts. In 2007, Mangino coached the Jayhawks to a 12–1 record and a win in the 2008 Orange Bowl (their first ever BCS appearance). Mangino's defense was ranked 12th in the nation, and 4th in scoring defense. On the other side of the ball, the Jayhawks finished 2nd in scoring offense.

Following the win against the Iowa State Cyclones, Mark Mangino became the first KU football coach with a winning career record since Jack Mitchell in 1966. While at Kansas, Mangino led the Jayhawks to 19 consecutive weeks ranked in the AP and/or USA Today polls (2007–08), 20 wins in a 2-year period for the first time in school history, set home attendance average records in each of the last 4 seasons (2004–2008), led KU to its first appearance in national polls since 1996 and to the school’s highest ranking ever at #2, produced the top 3 total offense seasons in school history, the top two passing seasons and two of the top three scoring seasons and won three Bowl games—the same number they had won in their 102-year history combined prior to his arrival.

With 50 victories, Mangino has the second-most victories in Kansas coaching history.

2007 Coach of the Year awards

For his accomplishments in 2007, he was named the 2007 National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, ESPN/ABC, The Sporting News, Football Writers Association, Walter Camp Football Foundation, National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, American Football Coaches Association, the Maxwell Football Club (George Munger Award), and he has been named the Woody Hayes National Coach of the Year. He was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year by the Big 12 Coaches and Big 12 Co-Coach of the Year by the Associated Press. Upon winning these Coach of the Year awards, he became the only NCAA coach in history to win both the Frank Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach and all the major National Coach of the Year awards.

Youngstown State

On March 1, 2013, Mangino was hired at his alma mater, Youngstown State as the teams Assistant Head Coach and Tight Ends Coach.

Iowa State

On January 6, 2014, Mangino was hired at Iowa State to be the team's Offensive Coordinator and Tight Ends coach. In his first season as coach, Mangino returned to Lawrence to face Kansas for the first time since his resignation following the 2009 season. On November 8, 2014, Kansas defeated Iowa State by the score of 34–14. After disagreements about the direction of the offense with head coach Paul Rhoads, Mangino was relieved of his position on October 26, 2015. Rhoads himself was fired less than a month later.

Lincoln High controversy

After going 1–9 in his first season as the head coach of Lincoln High School in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, a group of parents went to the school board and demanded his firing because of his "language, and harsh approach to people". The board elected not to fire Mangino, but he left the school after only one year and did not complete the year as a teacher.

High school referee incident

On September 21, 2002, Mangino yelled at the officiating crew assigned to the Lawrence High School–Olathe East football game in which Mangino's son, Tommy, was playing. Mangino apparently became angry after referees failed to call what he believed was a late hit on Tommy, the Lawrence High quarterback.

Lawrence High School officials took undisclosed action against Mangino after the game for violating a Kansas High School rule barring abuse of game officials by coaches, players and fans.

2004 Kansas–Texas game

In 2004, Mangino paid a $5,000 fine for suggesting that officials acted with favoritism in a questionable offensive pass interference call that affected the outcome of a game against Texas. Mangino implied that money and a BCS berth for the Big 12 Conference influenced the officials to make a call in favor of Texas. He and athletic director Lew Perkins issued public apologies the day after the incident.

NCAA penalties and probation

In 2005, the University of Kansas self-reported to the NCAA that five major rules violations—including academic fraud—had been committed by some of the football team's student-athletes. In 2006, these major violations, along with four others that has allegedly occurred in other KU sports programs, contributed to the NCAA charging the athletics department displaying a "lack of institutional control". A graduate assistant was found to have supplied answers for some of the correspondence courses taken by some prospective recruits from junior colleges. As a result, the football program's ability to recruit players transferring in from junior college was reduced for two years; and, the program lost two scholarships for each of the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

Raimond Pendleton incident

During the first game of the 2007 season in which the University of Kansas beat Central Michigan University, KU's Raimond Pendleton ran a CMU punt back 77 yards for a touchdown; but, as he approached the endzone, he slowed down in order to jump into it in a dramatic fashion. The officials threw a penalty flag for "excessive celebration", and gave the Jayhawks a 15-yard, "unsportsmanlike conduct" penalty that forced KU to kick off 15 yards closer to their own endzone. When Pendleton returned to the sideline, an irate Mangino took Pendleton aside and gave him an expletive-laden tongue-lashing. The incident was caught on video, and transmitted by local TV stations in the Topeka and Kansas City areas, eventually finding a wider audience after a copy of it was uploaded to YouTube. Pendleton afterward downplayed the incident, saying that he deserved it.

Internal investigations

A separate investigation was conducted in 2007, related to Mangino's repeated parking tickets on campus and alleged verbal abuse and negative behavior toward campus staff issuing those tickets. In November 2009, the recurring issue of Mangino's chronic, alleged misconduct towards his players became the subject of an internal investigation by the University of Kansas Athletic Department. He was formally accused of boorish and violent actions. National sports media coverage of this increased already-mounting public pressure on the university to terminate Mangino's employment. After a prolonged period of negotiations, the university and Mangino's attorneys agreed on the buy-out amount that was large enough to secure his quiet resignation in December 2009.

Head coaching record

Sources:

Coaching tree

Assistant coaches under Mark Mangino who became NCAA head coaches: