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Mark Mangino will make his return to Kansas as Orange Bowl team honored

Sam Cooper
·College football writer
Mark Mangino led Kansas to an Orange Bowl victory in 2007. (AP)
Mark Mangino led Kansas to an Orange Bowl victory in 2007. (AP)

Mark Mangino will return to Kansas this fall.

When the 2007 Jayhawks squad that made an improbable run to the Orange Bowl is inducted into the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame at the home opener on Sept. 2, Mangino, the head coach of that team, will be in attendance at Memorial Stadium.

Cornerback Aqib Talib and offensive lineman Anthony Collins, both All-Americans that season, will also be in attendance. But given the way Mangino’s tenure at Kansas came to an end in 2009, his presence is pretty significant.

Mangino had a 23-33 in his first five seasons at Kansas before the team’s big breakthrough in 2007, when the team won a record 12 games and beat Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Mangino won pretty much every coach of the year honor that season, but he was forced to resign a few years later. During the 2009 campaign, Mangino was investigated for his alleged mistreatment of players and the school opted to make a change with Mangino resigning after the two sides reached a buyout.

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He returned to Kansas one time, as an assistant coach for Iowa State in 2014, but has never been recognized by the university — until Sept. 2. Mangino told the Lawrence Journal-World that he had to think things over before ultimately agreeing to attend.

Mangino said that when KU athletic director Sheahon Zenger and head football coach David Beaty, one of his former assistants, contacted him about coming back to be honored, he asked for some time to “mull it over” before giving them a response.

“It was not anything that I ever expected,” Mangino said. “It just came out of the blue and when they called, it caught me off guard. It was hard for me to say no when your players are going to be honored. I wanted to be there for them. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

…

“Certainly, I didn’t like the way it ended,” Mangino said. “I’m not going to lie to you. But the way I was raised and the way I was taught by the coaches I worked for, you don’t dwell on the negative, you don’t carry grudges. Carrying grudges is hard work. It’s tough.”

Kansas had a 50-48 record in Mangino’s eight seasons as head coach. Since then, the Jayhawks have gone 14-70. David Beaty, an assistant under Mangino in 2008 and 2009, is the team’s current coach. He is entering the third season of a dramatic rebuild that has seen only two wins combined in his first two seasons, though the Jayhawks did knock off Texas at home last fall.

For more Kansas news, visit JayhawkSlant.com.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!