Mark Mangino’s Got To Be Fired, Right?

↵So, yeah: Mark Mangino. Not to rehash the monster off-field story of the past week excessively, but he’s not very nice (nor is he at all safe for work):↵

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↵↵When this stuff first came out and the horrible thing that Arist Wright was accusing Mangino of was “poking him” in the chest, the natural inclination was laugh about the mental image of a linebacker in pads getting poked by a bowling-ball-shaped man and breaking down like Cartman and move on. Sometimes the disgruntled just say stuff because they’re mad, and sometimes the person they should be mad at is themselves. ↵

↵↵But when you go on your weekly radio show after stuff like this comes out and go on something a sober newspaper can credibly term a “lengthy rant,” you’re starting to remind people of those courtroom dramas in which the defendant is goaded into dramatic confessions:↵

↵↵⇥“I can’t do the work of some parents, what they should have done before they got to me. There’s some things for 18 years that happened in their lives that I can’t change in four years of college. Can’t change their behaviors, can’t change their attitudes. ...↵⇥
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↵⇥“Let’s talk about the guys who have left here and made this place proud and not embarrassed. I think there’s people embarrassing this program just for their 15 minutes of fame.” ↵↵↵In other words: YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH. This comes on the heels of public revelations that Mangino collects personal information from players so he can better berate them and today’s reveal: before Mangino’s first year as a high school football coach, a bunch of disgruntled folk demanded they fire him. They didn’t, the team went 1-9, and then he took off.↵Every day someone finds another group of people from Mangino’s past who think he’s a terrible person … for a football coach. ↵

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↵↵Michigan’s struggled mightily with public perception since hiring Rich Rodriguez, and all he’s been accused of is swearing a bunch. He’ll be coaching for his life the next two years. The Mangino thing is on another level. At Michigan, there were no come-to-Jesus meetings; the investigations about how RichRod was treating his players did not source anyone still on the team except a couple of duped freshmen. And Michigan’s NCAA investigation is about making them work more than 20 hours a week like every other college football team, not, oh, something like this:↵

↵↵⇥“One day, [Mangino] said in front of the entire team, ‘Are you going to be a lawyer or do you want to become an alcoholic like your dad?’” Brown said.↵↵↵Is anyone on the planet with options going to sign up to play for this guy now? Kansas isn’t exactly a recruiting monster, but they have to take a huge hit from this, and the Jayhawks are back to being a .500 team propped up by a terrible nonconference schedule. Unless there’s an unexpected bounce coming, Mangino’s got one year, maybe two, before the axeman cometh. ↵

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