Is This The End Of Mark (And Baby) Mangino?

Dashiell Bennett|published: Tue 17th November, 16:15 2009

Kansas has launched an internal investigation of football coach Mark Mangino, which combined with five straight losses and an upcoming shellacking against Texas, could spell doom for the rotund coach. But what will become of his infant doppleganger?

On Monday, KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins held a team meeting—without Mangino present—to discuss "concerns" about their coach. The meeting reportedly stems from an incident earlier this season that involved Mangino "yelling at and making contact with a player." Several players and parents are now involved and Perkins allegedly promised that an "unbiased person, who will have no opinions either way, will conduct the investigation." This is ... how you say? ... not good.

No one is very big on the details here, but at a press conference today, Mangino said, "I haven't lost the team one bit. I may have lost some people around here, but it's not players. Take that for what it's worth, you decipher it." I presume that the "some people" includes the AD and since he cuts the checks, I would say that losing him is much worse for Mark than losing players. Speaking of losing, Kansas has done a lot of that this year so if the school was looking for an bigger excuse to dump their formerly beloved head coach, this could be it. (Bastion of truth Wikipedia already has him listed as fired.)

Of course, the real tragedy here is that if Mark Mangino is no longer allowed to coach, then will we be allowed to continue using this picture to illustrate stories about Kansas, college football, and/or fat guys? Aren't Bode Lubber and his legions of fans the real victims here?

On the plus side, this story does give me an excuse to post this video from the Nebraska-Kansas game on Saturday. I mean, Baby Mangino has heart, but this video has a football in the groin.