FanHouse Mark Mangino

It's not nice to kick a man when he's down. In honor of that we will try to avoid the fallen bodies of Charlie Weis, Allen Iverson, Hulk Hogan, Rich Rodriguez and Caster Semenya.

As for Mark Mangino, another rule applies. If you have to kick a man when he's down, make sure he is built like a giant marshmallow so you won't hurt your foot.

So we come not to bury Mangino, but to treat him like a soccer ball. We couldn't bury him if we wanted to because the coffin construction would trigger a worldwide mahogany shortage.

And that, gentle readers, is the first of many potentially offensive references inspired by last week's biggest newsmaker. We hate to make fun of anyone, but the week was full of obesity news and Mangino earned the ridicule.

AUSTIN, Texas --- Embattled Kansas coach Mark Mangino's week got off to a rocky start and it didn't get any better as the Jayhawks rolled to their sixth straight defeat Saturday night, falling 51-20 to the second-ranked Texas Longhorns on the road.

On Monday, Mangino found out athletic director Lew Perkins has launched an investigation into allegations the eight-year head coach has been verbally and physically abusive to some of his players after linebacker Arist Wright reported Mangino for poking him in the chest last Friday. Several former players have come forth to discuss the often mean-spirited abuse Mangino often fired their way.

AUSTIN, Texas -- University of Texas coach Mack Brown usually doesn't like to live in the past, but this week he broke out some old film for his team.

He showed the Longhorns how teams from 2006 and 2007 finished in comparison to 2005, when Texas won the BCS national title, and last season when many agree the 12-1 Longhorns should have been given the opportunity to compete for the national championship.

Brown's point to his second-ranked,10-0 squad is simple: stay focused these last two regular-season games, the Big 12 championship game in two weeks, and then biggest of prizes await the Texas Longhorns in Pasadena. A slip up anywhere between now and the Jan. 7 BCS national championship game will lead to great disappointment for Texas.

Former Kansas running back Jocques Crawford believes Jayhawks football coach Mark Mangino has anger issues and is prone to unleash his abusive behavior on his players.

Crawford says he witnessed Mangino's wrath first hand during his lone season with the program in 2008. Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins launched an investigation into his head coach's behavior Monday after it came to his attention that Mangino had poked senior linebacker Arist Wright during a walk-through practice last Friday.

Perkins has formed an independent panel to begin investigating what is believed to be a pattern of abusive behavior by Mangino directed at his team and other football personnel. Crawford said Perkins has yet to contact him, but if he does the former running back will have plenty to say.

If it's true that Kansas football coach Mark Mangino, upon seeing a receiver named Raymond Brown drop a pass, launched into a hideous tirade that concluded with a racially tinged threat -- "If you don't shut up, I'm going to send you back to St. Louis so you can get shot with your homies" -- then the university should dismiss Mangino immediately. If it's true Mangino told receiver Marcus Herford that he'd send him "back to the street corner where you came from,'' then keeping the coach would be a Rock Chalk Crock.

And if it's also true that another Kansas player, who had told the team that he dreamed of becoming a lawyer and that his father was an alcoholic, was subjected to this insensitive, vicious onslaught from Mangino -- "Are you going to be a lawyer or do you want to become an alcoholic like your Dad?'' -- then we might have to strap Mangino in a straitjacket and haul him away.

For he is a madman.

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Kansas has launched an investigation into the alleged abusive behavior of football coach Mark Mangino, and some close to the program believe this could be the end of his eight-year tenure.

According to anonymous source reports out of Kansas Tuesday night, Mangino poked senior linebacker Arist Wright in the chest during the walk-through last Friday prior to Saturday's road game against Colorado. The incident was reported to athletic director Lew Perkins, who then met with the entire football team Monday.

Suddenly, Mangino is being painted as an oversized coach with an even bigger anger problem. But some people close to the program and familiar with Mangino's brash style of coaching are questioning the timing of the reaction.

Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins has launched an investigation into allegations football coach Mark Mangino has been treating his players inappropriately.

Perkins held meetings with a number of players Monday night and he also met briefly with Mangino. Senior quarterback Todd Reesing told gathered reporters Tuesday afternoon that Perkins informed the players that an unbiased panel was being put together to conduct the investigation.

"I can confirm an internal review is under way," Perkins said in a quote released by the school Tuesday. "It involves a personnel matter, and as a result, is confidential. It would be inappropriate for me to provide further information right now."

A few weeks ago, Kansas head coach Mark Mangino was touting senior quarterback Todd Reesing as a should-be Heisman Trophy candidate.

The 5-0 Jayhawks, themselves, were looking like the best team in the Big 12 North and maybe as a team that could give the South division a run for the conference championship as they ran roughshod over the likes of Northern Colorado, UTEP, Duke and Southern Miss.

But three weeks later, Kansas is stuck in reverse on a three-game losing streak and Reesing found himself yanked during Saturday's 42-21 loss to Texas Tech.

It's just three weeks into the full-swing of Big 12 play but the North Division is looking like any of the six teams could win the race.

That doesn't necessarily bode well at all for the weaker half of the two-division league.

Nebraska and Kansas came into the season as the presumed favorites to represent the North, but after two weeks of inconsistent play neither seems as powerful. The same can be said for two-time North champion Missouri, which started the season a surprising 4-0, but has dropped its first two games of the Big 12 season.

It's not like Texas and Oklahoma ever needed a reason to make their annual Red River Rivalry game in Dallas any more intense.

The tradition of the two programs, the bordering states and the fight for superiority in fertile recruiting ground of Texas use to be enough. Who knew this early season game would take on so much more meaning when both teams joined the Big 12 in 1996?

This game has become about so much more than school pride and bragging rights, as one of these two teams has won the South each of the last 10 years, and it has sometimes set the stage for the national championship picture.