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How Kansas and Mizzou rose from the ashes

Posted by BRAGGonUT on August 27th, 2008 under Football

The Kansas City Star, a once venerable newspaper that like all others has had trouble adapting to the internet age, ran a great piece today about Kansas and Missouri’s trek to the Preseason Top 15.

Mark Mangino, Oklahoma assistant and Kansas coaching candidate, had to be convinced when he met the Jayhawks job interview contingent led by then-athletic director Al Bohl in a conference room at an Oklahoma City airport hotel.

Bohl, who could sell Michael Phelps a life jacket, vowed that Kansas would spend like the big boys. He told Mangino about the “KU Air Force,” private jets available for recruiting trips.

At the time, Kansas had two airplanes for the entire university, and Bohl was pitching a mirage, as Mangino later discovered.

“The Air Force quickly became ground troops,” Mangino said.

That was Kansas football.

––––

The problem with booing is the collateral damage. Missouri fans didn’t intend to disparage the players as they trudged off the field as losers to Bowling Green in Gary Pinkel’s debut.

These were general malaise boos. The here-we-go-again boos were delivered after a play just before halftime when a Tigers pass landed closer to a team manager than the intended receiver.

That was Missouri football.

Barking Carnival’s State of the Union for Kansas
Barking Carnival’s State of the Union for Missouri

And then by the time undefeated and #2 ranked Kansas and #4 ranked Missouri rolled into Kansas City last year to renew their 117-year rivalry the teams were playing for #1 in the land. LSU and West Virginia had already spit the bit that weekend.

“This game is just as big as the Texas-Oklahoma ‘Red River Shootout’ or ‘The Game’ between Michigan and Ohio State,” said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who played college football at Prairie View A&M. “Last year, it was bigger than both.”

Perspective? Um, no. I’d expect that type of statement from Lee Corso, but not a politician. But it was a huge game.

We have clearly been here before
We have clearly been here before

The real key point of the article is how they rose from the ashes.

Terrific hires followed by savvy recruiting, opportunistic scheduling and wise spending, but to even get to that point, both schools had to take stock and ask how their programs had fallen so far off track.

Missouri had been on a hire and fire treadmill. From the sacking of Al Onofrio after the 1977 season until Alden’s hiring in 1998, Missouri went through five athletic directors, five chancellors and four football coaches. Woody Widenhofer hadn’t been on the job for six months before he lost the athletic director and chancellor who brought him to Columbia.

Kansas had to do some serious selling to lure Mangino. He actually called to withdraw his name before an offer was extended. “I wondered if Kansas had it,” Mangino said. “I didn’t see the infrastructure that I saw at other Big 12 schools.”

By 2003, things looked promising at Missouri and Kansas. They had each reached bowl games that year.

But what happened next became a critical juncture for both programs.

They lost their momentum and didn’t fire the coach.

“Missouri had been like the golfer who missed a fairway and bought a new driver,” Missouri voice, Mike Kelly said. Coach Gundy in Stillwater likes that line and has already sent it to Boone Pickens.

And now the expectations are enormous. The Tigers are being talked about as national-championship contenders, and Pinkel wants to you to know that a division championship isn’t enough.

“We won the Big 12 North last year,” Pinkel said. “We did not win the Big 12 championship. We certainly haven’t arrived.”

Kansas is talking like eight or nine victories limits its potential, no matter that Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and South Florida appear on the schedule.

“We embrace the expectations,” Mangino said. “Because when I arrived here, there were no expectations.”

I’m not convinced these either Kansas or Missouri are ready to be consistently Top 25 programs for a long stretch, but I like what I see and hear from both Mangino and Pinkel. I am interested to see if we start seeing a swing back to giving coaches longer leashes. As you might recall, hiring winning coaches can be tougher than getting the bottle out of Lindsay Lohan’s mitts.

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25 Responses

  1. MU_LAX said:

    August 27th, 2008 at 7:42 am

    It’s Mizzou not Mizzu.

  2. RadioSilence said:

    August 27th, 2008 at 9:14 am

    The 1980s were the low points for each team, though more so for Kansas. I can remember being down 56-0 at the half against Oklahoma or Nebraska.

    But, remember KSU was in much worse straits for much longer. S.I. declared the Wildcats the worst team in football. They had the worst career record of any D-I team when Bill Snyder arrived. If KSU could rise from the ashes, it shouldn’t be surprising that KU and MU could figure it out eventually.

  3. BrickHorn said:

    August 27th, 2008 at 10:37 am

    In 1995, Kansas went 10-2 with their only losses coming to Nebraska and rising powerhouse K-State. KU finished in the Top 10 in both polls. That team inspired a lot of hype about the resurgence of KU football. As it turned out, the season was a fluke. Kansas’ record in the subsequent years:

    1996: 4-7
    1997: 5-6
    1998: 4-7
    1999: 5-7
    2000: 4-7
    2001: 3-7
    2002: 2-10
    2003: 6-7
    2004: 4-7
    2005: 7-5
    2006: 6-6
    2007: 12-1

    That’s a total record of 62-77 since 1996. In other words, in between KU’s miraculous 10-2 and 12-1 seasons, the Jayhawks compiled a sub-mediocre 50-76 record.

    I won’t buy the “Kansas is back” argument until Mangino can string together a few 8+ win seasons.

  4. WWGDD said:

    August 27th, 2008 at 11:29 am

    Interesting article on Mizzu.

  5. MU_LAX said:

    August 27th, 2008 at 11:35 am

    Granted that I’m biased here, but I think that Missouri has a better chance to sustain their success than kU. Only one 1A school in the state. Lots more D1 prospects from Missouri than kansas, and right now MU is doing a better job of keeping theirs in-state. Both schools have done well with less-heralded Texans.

    Missouri was terrible for a long time, but that had alot to do with the administration as the article points out. Not saying we’re going to be a yearly national power, but I think we can be consistenly good and occasionally great. I’d take a Virginia Tech or Wisconsin type model of continued success.

    I do think that kU will probably be solid as long as Mangino is coaching there. I just think they have a lower ceiling.

  6. BRAGGonUT said:

    August 27th, 2008 at 11:57 am

    Oh, I agree with that MU_LAX.

  7. kuelguapo said:

    August 27th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    brick – i think the biggest difference between post 1995 and post 2007 is the shift in the mindset of the athletics department. perkins has made football a priority. whereas before everyone was amused with football until basketball season started, now, football has expectations to succeed and are getting backed up by the athletics dept.

    and while i wouldn’t go so far as to say that KU “has arrived” i think they’re closer than many casual fans give them credit for. the 12-1 season – while unexpected – isn’t quite the aberration people claim it to be. having seen all but a handful of games (whether in person or on tv) since 2000, i can say with confidence that KU was better than the 7-5, 6-6 records of ‘05 and ‘06 indicate. in many ways i think the bonehead losses in ‘06 prepared them to make their run in ‘07.

    realistically i think KU could get by with 8 wins this year and next, and if they can get 10 win seasons the following 2 years, then they will be in position to really gauge if they “have arrived” – when the brutal south schedule comes back around in 12/13.

    that being said, i still think they go 9-3 this year.

  8. vvn8bs said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 6:06 am

    I am absolutely convinced that Missouri will be a fixture in the top 25. I am not convinced that they will be a fixture in the top 15.

    Pinkel’s greatest trait is his greatest flaw: He will do things by his book, no matter what. He is not going to recruit 5 star guys unless they fit his profile. That commitment to system is what allowed him to rebuild the program, and that system is good enough to perennially win 8 – 10 games, and when the stars align (like this year) to contend for greater things.

  9. BRAGGonUT said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 6:52 am

    I am absolutely convinced that Missouri will be a fixture in the top 25

    vvn8bs, I’m not trying to be argumentative, but on what basis?

    They have played football for 120 years and won 600 games at 53% clip. Is there a decade where they have been a fixture?

  10. Ag_in_TX said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 7:13 am

    I think recent history suggests both these schools as middle of the pack and they both will stay there.

    Both benefited from weak Big XII North foes and fortuitous scheduling. Hell, an average A&M team with a crash test dummy head coach damn near beat both of ‘em.

  11. vvn8bs said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 7:45 am

    I will write a longer article on this, but here are some bullet points.

    First, I define as a “fixture in the top 25″ as a consistent 8 – 10 win regular season team. You can argue about that definition if you want.

    Second, of the 120 years of football, only the past decade has any real relevancy for product on the field, and that is solely for determining what Pinkel and staff are capable of. Previous periods have some relevancy for determining what the University and fans are capable of. The University and fans have proven in previous periods (1960s and 1970s) and the last couple years that they will support a good product. We have brand new state of the art facilities, for example, and most games are approaching sell outs for this year.

    Third, Pinkel and staff have shown a repeatable ability to identify talent more efficiently than other programs. William Moore, Sean Weatherspoon, Stryker Sulak, Ziggy Hood (and others) were relatively unheralded recruits that will likely play in the NFL.

    Fourth, in recent years, Pinkel and staff have shown a marked improvement in both offensive and defensive scheming and game planning, and a willingness (which is not as pervasive as one would expect) to change up schemese to exploit opponents’ weaknesses.

    Fifth, he talent level on the roster now is an order of magnitude better than it was even 2 years ago. From 1989 to 2005, Missouri (I believe) had exactly one player drafted in the first day of the NFL draft–Justin Smith, and fewer players drafted than any other Big 12 school except Baylor. The roster now contains a significant number of future NFLers. I don’t have time to back this statement up now, but will in the future. I will guarantee, however, that WEatherspoon, Maclin, Moore, Coffman and Hood will play in the NFL, and think there are numerous others that have a very high chance of doing so.

    Ag-in-TX: That’s seriously your best argument? You guys beat Texas last year, so they obviously are not a top 25 program, correct?

    One thing I tire of more than anything else in college football is the argument that because a team used to be bad, they must always be bad. Check out the history of VaTech, Florida State, blah, blah, blah. Teams go from perennial losers to perennial winners all the time. Missouri has certain advantages that other rags to riches teams don’t have (see State, Kansas). Only DI school, two large metro areas within a short drive, relatively large tax base and proven willingness to support a winning program. That, and Pinkel’s organizational skills, are the primary reasons behind my statement.

  12. BRAGGonUT said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 8:19 am

    One thing I tire of more than anything else in college football is the argument that because a team used to be bad, they must always be bad. Check out the history of VaTech, Florida State, blah, blah, blah. Teams go from perennial losers to perennial winners all the time. Missouri has certain advantages that other rags to riches teams don’t have (see State, Kansas). Only DI school, two large metro areas within a short drive, relatively large tax base and proven willingness to support a winning program. That, and Pinkel’s organizational skills, are the primary reasons behind my statement.

    The history points to a relative expectation of performance given the resources, so something dramatic has to change up your lot in life. Hire a ridiculously good coach and keep him for a long time (see Beamer at WVA). Does anyone think they don’t drop off when he’s done? Societal changes like people playing footing somewhere other than the NE had Havard and Yale go by the wayside.

    And teams don’t go from perennial loser to perennial winners all the time. Come on.

    I like your advantages list, but why hasn’t that proven to be a winner longer term? If Nebraska and Notre Dame return to form, do those advantages erode as they pummel the big cities in recruiting? Does Zook at Illinois change things?

  13. BatesHorn said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 8:53 am

    Seriously? Not two years ago, no body would shut up about what a moron Pinkel was. Is it really Pinkel or is it Chase Daniel. How do you separate a true loser to winner story (like FSU) from say, Purdue, which honestly, road Drew Brees and to a lesser degree to Kyle Orton, from loser to slightly better than Mediocre. Was Glenn Mason the shiznit at Kansas, or did he just catch stubblefield in a bottle?

  14. MU_LAX said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 9:44 am

    I have a pretty long post on this in the Best & Worst Coaching moves thread already, but once again, I think the early criticism of Pinkel was unfair. Expectations were too high for the talent level of the program at the time.

    Chase Daniel is obviously a huge difference maker at QB, but the talent around him is also much better. I think it’s fair to question if the QB play will continue to be good enough for us to be good in the future because you never know. But now we’re signing 5* & 4* QB recruits in part because of the success Chase has had. In general, those guys have a better chance of panning out.

  15. BRAGGonUT said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 9:55 am

    MU_LAX, tell me your expectations of Blaine Gabbert next year please.

    I hope to hear that he will be the starter and expect Daniel’s 2006 production.

  16. vvn8bs said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 10:38 am

    Two years ago I was one of the few ardent Pinkel supporters. You don’t turn around a program immediately, the right sort of person to do it is someone who is stubborn and sticks to what he thinks is right, even in the face of very public criticism, and has an AD that will stick by him. A vast majority of the criticism of Pinkel was that he was stubborn…a trait I considered required to turn Missouri around. Fortunately, Mike Alden was willing to stick with him (a trait that almost cost Alden his job when he chose to stand by Quin Snyder).

    Bragg, I understand your point about history, and I hope to have a larger article about programs that have transformed from perennial losers to perennial winners and shared attributes of same. In the meantime, I think there are programs that have a geographical (USC, Florida schools, Texas) advantage and those that have a historical support/resource advantage (Nebraska, OU, Notre Dame, etc.) and to be one of the perennial top 15 teams, you have to have one or the other or both in spades. The best Missouri can do is to become a perennial support/resource advantage, but the program has several natural advantages in that area that, say, KU, Purdue, etc. don’t, which gives us a slightly better chance of sustained success. Also, I will point out that we now have top 20 facilities, which goes a long ways towards making us a perennial top 25 program.

    Also, I don’t think many outsiders realize Pinkel’s brilliance, because it is primarily organizational in nature, and he has a tendency to make very public boners (like, oh, going for it on 4th and goal from the nine and running up the middle). I would love to do a Moneyball-style look at his program. He is one of the best I’ve seen (Beamer being another) at recognizing an undervalued asset class and effectively profiting from it. In his case, it is what I would call the well rounded coachable mediocre talent, especially from out of the way places. We take very few chances on possible character issue players.

    My expectation for next year is 8 – 4-ish. My expectation this year is 10+ wins and playing in the Big 12 championship.

  17. BRAGGonUT said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    vvn, thanks for the informed and genuine discussion. I liked it. I’d be glad to read your treatise, and we’d post it here as a guest columnist if you like.

    I think you have to have BOTH a geographical advantage to recruiting hotspots and resource advantages, plus a commitment from the university that sports are a priority to be a Top 15 program (and everything that comes with that commitment).

    When I do a quick sort of Athletic Department revenues (as of 05-06 school year), I see Missouri at #45 with ~$45M in revenue (and zero profit). I will have to just trust you on the facilities as I have not seen them, but that topline number means you better be doing some creative things because you are at resource disadvantage to the biggest dogs.

    Oh, and Blaine Gabbert expectations, please?

  18. MU_LAX said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    Gabbert is definately interesting. By all accounts he has an NFL caliber arm (#1 ranked Pro-Style QB by some experts last year) yet is still pretty mobile for a 6′5″ QB. Assuming he wins the job, it’ll be interesting to see how our offense changes to accomodate his skill set. Maybe more intermediate & deep routes?

    I think he’s the odds on favorite to win the job next year. But we do have another QB named Blain Dalton comitted from the KC area and looking to enroll in January. He’s about 6 ft tall, mobile and just finds ways to win….sounds kind of familiar. There are some erie parallels between them and Daniel/Patton (our current back up and another elite 11 QB).

    Either way, I think 8 wins for 2009 is a fair expectation. Stats similar to Daniel in ‘06 would be nice, but I think we’ll rely on the run alot more. Derrick Washington will be a Junior next season and we haven’t had a back like him here since Devin West. I really think Washington will be a star, maybe as soon as the end of this year and he’ll be the focal point of the 2009 offense. One good thing about the spread is it’s so adaptable to your personnel.

  19. HenryJames said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

    What is your defense going to look like?

  20. MU_LAX said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Defense is where it gets a little rocky next year. We’ll lose 8 starters, 9 if Weatherspoon goes to the draft early. We do have alot of good young talent throughout the defense though and a lot of them will play in the two deep this year.

    I think the D will be alot like last year in that they’ll have to really simplify it early in the year for the young guys and then add as the season goes along. This year we returned 10 of 11 starters, so Eberflus was able to pick up right where they left off last year. Our defense seems to be at it’s best when they’re doing alot of zone blitzing and giving the opposing team multiple looks. But if they’re not comfortable with inexperienced players they’ll go really vanilla until they catch up.

  21. BoilerHorn said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    I wonder if Chase Daniel being at Missouri doesn’t has more to do with Texas’ mishandling of the Perrilloux/QB recruiting situation than it has to do with Pinkel’s “system” approach to recruiting. Had Perrilloux flaked out 3 months earlier, I opine we are looking at a totally different situation in Missouri – and Texas for that matter

  22. HenryJames said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    What if Texas had recruited both Daniel and Todd Reesing?

  23. Facebook User said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

    Then it would be like Middle Earth.

  24. BoilerHorn said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    I think Texas schools missed out on Reesing for reasons similar to them missing out of Brees. The perception was that Reesing was a system QB, a bit undersized, a little slow, and did not have the strongest arm. Plus, I think Texas already had Snead in their sights and (at the time) looked like a better choice.

  25. BoilerHorn said:

    August 28th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    Interesting Reesing article.

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