Mangino resigns as Kansas coach

[December 04, 2009]  LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- As the Kansas football players came pouring out the door, many were smiling, a few were frowning and some were laughing out loud at the reporters shivering in the cold night air waiting for them.

Just like Kansas fans, the players know Mark Mangino made huge improvements in the Jayhawks program in his eight years on the job. Their feelings were mixed at the news they'd just been given, that their 53-year-old coach was out on Thursday.

"Some players will be happy to see him go and others will be sad to see him go," defensive back Justin Thornton said. "He did a lot of good for a lot of people here."

Athletic director Lew Perkins, who accepted Mangino's resignation after ordering an internal review of allegations of mental and emotional abuse of players, declined to say what money settlement was reached. If fired without cause, he would have been due $6.6 million.

Perkins also declined to say if Mangino had the option of staying, something the coach had insisted all along he intended to do.

"It's been tough on a lot of people, but probably the most important thing is the kids," Perkins said. "It's been pretty tough on them. The kids are the ones I'm concerned (about)."

Perkins said assistants David Beaty, Clint Bowen and Bill Miller would share interim coaching duties until a replacement is found.

After Mangino went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl in 2007, he was given a big raise and contract extension through 2012 and honored as national coach of the year.

Perkins is confident he'll find a qualified successor.

"I think it's a great job. I think we have some of the finest facilities in the country," he said. "Now my job is to go find a coach."

Perkins said he had not talked with anyone about the job. Possible candidates who have been mentioned include Houston coach Kevin Sumlin, Stanford's Jim Harbaugh and Larry Fedora of Southern Mississippi.

"I'd like to have it done today," Perkins said. "We just have to work very hard and try to get it done. We've got good people who are going to help me."

Since the probe became public, many former players had come forward with stories of mean-spirited remarks they said Mangino had made to them, often in front of others. But there were also former and current players who came to the defense of the coach, insisting he had only wanted to make them better athletes and better men.

Mangino had been defiant to the end, insisting after a last-second loss to Missouri on Saturday that he had done nothing wrong and intended to serve out his contract.

He leaves with a record of 50-48, two victories shy of A.R. Kennedy's school record set in the early 1900s.

After winning their first five games this season and rising to No. 16 in the rankings, the Jayhawks were favored by many to win the Big 12 North.

But instead they failed to win another game, finishing the 5-7 season with a 41-39 loss to Missouri in the closing seconds. That final defeat kept them from becoming bowl-eligible for what would have been a school-record third straight year.

[Associated Press; By DOUG TUCKER]

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