The Kansas Jayhawks football team has been hapless for a few years now, prompting most fans to assume that it has always been like that. But actually, it has not.
Only six years ago, in early 2008, the Jayhawks beat Virginia Tech to win the Orange Bowl. That year they went 12-1, Mark Mangino won national coach of the year, and the Kansas program looked toward the future with promise.
But then the university administrators made their first big mistake. They ousted Mangino amid reports that he had mistreated his players. One specific report claimed he grabbed a player and put his finger in his chest, and some former players called Mangino insensitive and said he made embarrassing remarks about them during games or practice.
Are those really serious issues?
This writer does not think so. The kid was probably being disrespectful and causing a disturbance, and Mangino got angry. But the way our society has changed, it is understandable that so much emphasis was put on that type of infraction.
Should Mangino have been fired?
No way. He did a fine job of turning things around in Lawrence and he had a plan firmly in place for more future success.
However, Kansas made their decision. This writer thinks it was the wrong move, but they could have easily made up for it by hiring a better coach. They then hired Turner Gill, a former Nebraska quarterback. He could never get anything going and he was canned after two terrible seasons. Still, they had a chance to get it right. They had a host of names on the market to replace Gill.
Then-Houston coach Kevin Sumlin and former Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn were reportedly the top targets according to ESPN, but Kansas went a different direction.
Instead of hiring an up-and-coming star to pace the sidelines, they opted to go with someone who did nothing but lose in his prior college coaching stop. Kansas handed the reins to Charlie Weis, who somehow found a way to lose at Notre Dame despite having abundant talent at his disposal.
Weis was revered as a terrific offensive mind during his tenure as an NFL offensive coordinator, winning four Super Bowls in the process, but the Jayhawks were never able to move the ball in his tenure. Weis only won six games in two-and-a-half seasons, including a horrid 1-18 record in Big 12 play.
And after a 23-0 loss to Texas where the offense once again was hapless, Weis was fired. Now, Kansas is back to where they were in 2009 when they fired Mangino. Except this time, it is worse.
Back in 2009, at least they were coming off some winning seasons and there was some talent on the roster for the new coach to inherit. Now, the team is in absolute shambles.
Meanwhile, the batch of coaches whom Kansas could have had is thriving. Sumlin has Texas A&M as one of the premier teams in the SEC, while Malzahn resurrected the Auburn program into a championship contender.
It is ludicrous to think that the Kansas athletic department picked Charlie Weis over those hot names, but then again, there is a reason why Kansas has been really bad for so long.
Not surprising, the list of potential replacements is not nearly as favorable as it was three years ago. Former Ole Miss head coach and USC interim coach Ed Orgeron, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables, and Nebraska offensive coordinator Tim Beck are rumored to be in the conversation according to Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports, but they all have their negatives.
Orgeron floundered at Ole Miss, and the other two have zero head coaching experience.
Keep in mind that Kansas is not exactly a place that everyone wants to go. For a young coach, it is probably not very high on any list of dream destinations.
It is out in the middle of nowhere, the program has been awful recently and the Big 12 is loaded with solid teams, meaning it is going to be a long road to becoming even bowl-eligible. Also, Kansas is known as a basketball school, so anything that happens on the gridiron will always be overshadowed by what happens on the hardwood.
KU defensive coordinator Clint Bowen will take over as the interim head coach, but once this regular season is in the books, it will be time to make a decision regarding the next coach.
Nobody knows who they will decide to hire, but their track record does not bode well for future success. The athletic department has come up empty on its last two hires, so they are either due to find a gem this time around or are doomed for another bad one.
This author thinks they need to branch out a bit in their search. There is a huge crop of coaches who need to be in the conversation. Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris is one of the best around while Baylor offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery has overseen one of the best collegiate offenses in history and knows how to exploit Big 12 defenses. Whether or not those two would even be interested in to be determined, but they should at least get an interview.
Either way, Kansas might currently be the hardest job in America. Things cannot get any worse in Lawrence, but the university and its fans are going to need a ton of patience if they ever want to see a competitive team again.
Kansas has made bad decision after bad decision, and whomever they name as the new coach is going to feel the burden of all those mistakes. And after every loss, they will check box scores from around the country, because chances are Kevin Sumlin and Gus Malzahn led their respective teams to victory.