KC Confidential.com

Just win, baby…

It hardly strikes former University of Kansas athletics director Al Bohl – who hired embattled football coach Mark Mangino – as a coincidence that the current media feeding frenzy and calls for his firing comes on the heels of a five game losing streak.

“You know, winning will cure a lot of things and losing will cause a lot of problems…” Bohl muses. “And you know, anything that happens at the University of Kansas is not necessarily going to be good publicity, but it’s going to get a lot of publicity.”

That said, “I think Mark’s been working as hard as he possibly can to help the University of Kansas and its football team do well, and now that he’s lost five games in a row, a lot of things are starting to come to the forefront that otherwise would not,” Bohl says. “And that probably hurts him.”

The Mark Mangino Bohl knows?

“You know, Mark has always been a disiplinarian,” Bohl says. “And I know when I worked with him and he was managing 100 young men, he tried to motivate them and help make them become better people.”

Did Bohl ever observe Mangino during football practices?

“Oh yes, and I can tell you I never saw Mark Mangino do anything like what is being described,” Bohl says. “Overall, I know that Mark Mangino is a good person and someone that cares about his players. But you know, even when you’re a caring parent, a lot of caring parents believe in spare the rod, spoil the child.”

Part of Mangino’s problem may stem from the success the team has experienced, Bohl says.

“He’s been to bowl games like four of the past five years,” Bohl says. “People can nitpick things apart, but (Mangino) has made KU football respectable again. I’m not going to make excuses for what may have happened, but I think people need to put things in perspective because Mark Mangino is a good person and Kansas football has been respectable and a pleasure to watch. Don’t you think that (the media frenzy) reflects that Kansas football has become more respectable?”

Star columnist Jason Whitlock’s contention that Mangino’s problems are based on being fat, makes Bohl wonder if that same issue has been clouding Whitlock’s judgement lo these many years.

“If he’s implying that Mark’s anger management applies to his weight, how does it apply to (Whitlock’s writing,” Bohl quips. “So that means whatever he writes is based on his being (fat)?”

Bohl endured a similar media feeding frenzy in 2003 when he got crosswise with then popular KU basketball coach Roy Williams and was let go.

“Anything like this reminds me of the ending of the movie ‘The Natural’ with Robert Redford,” Bohl muses. “When Robert Duvall playing a newspaper reporter says to Redford, it doesn’t matter what you do tomorrow – whether you’re a hero or a goat – I’m going to have a great story.’ I think every cable station in Kansas should put ‘The Natural’ on. You’re either a hero or a goat and it can happen very quickly – I worked very hard to make the University of Kansas and specifically the athletic department a better place.”

Absent the specifics of what Mangino did or didn’t do, “in many of these cases, it could be that Mark Mangino was doing the right thing,” Bohl says. “Maybe the athlete deserved to have Mark growling at him. But if Mark choked a player or something, I’m sure Mark would say, ‘That’s something I’m going to address.’ “