KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- What's next for Mark Mangino?
It's hard to imagine Mangino, 53, who has been on the sidelines since the mid-1980s, not remaining in coaching.
But now he carries the baggage of a controversial end to his Kansas tenure. Officially, the school announced Mangino's resignation on Thursday. It came less than three weeks after Kansas began an investigation into his conduct, including verbal and physical abuse of players.
The decision was announced without a news conference, with few answers from Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins and no response from Mangino.
Any future boss would demand more information, said Mike Cleary, executive director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. And in the interview process Mangino should be prepared to answer some soul-searching questions.
"He should be asked, 'What did you learn from all this?"' Cleary said.
And Cleary said Mangino should have a better answer than the defiant one he gave after his last public comments. Asked about regrets after the Jayhawks' season-ending loss to Missouri, Mangino delivered the lines, "I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees. ... I'm confident in my ability. I feel good about everything I've done."
That might not endear him to a potential boss.
"Maybe that's how an interview should start, by asking him about those statements," Cleary said.
But coaches rebound from controversial exits. Mike Price was fired at Alabama before he ever coached a game there after he allegedly checked into a hotel room with a stripper. Price, who had just taken Washington State to the top of the Pac-10, sat out a year and surfaced at Texas-El Paso, where he just completed his sixth season.
George O'Leary left Georgia Tech to take over at Notre Dame but never coached a game for the Irish after inaccuracies were discovered on his resume. He spent two years as an NFL assistant before returning to the college game at Central Florida, where he's been the head coach for six seasons.
Neither involved the type of allegations that swirled around Mangino. One coach who was accused of physical and mental harassment, Frank Kush, was fired from Arizona State in 1979 when the team's punter filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against the school. Among the charges was that Kush punched the player in the mouth after a bad punt.
Kush was fired at midseason and didn't return to the college game. He coached in the Canadian Football League and the United States Football League and was the Baltimore Colts' head coach for three seasons.
As the coaching carousel continues to spin, there are a couple of openings that might appeal to Mangino because of his background in the area. Youngstown State's Jon Heacock resigned last week. Mangino started his coaching career as an assistant at Youngstown State under future Ohio State coach Jim Tressel.
Also, Akron seeks a replacement for J.D. Brookhart.
Texas coach Mack Brown said he would endorse Mangino's return to the sideline.
"To see the job he did at Kansas was phenomenal," Brown said. "Jim Tressel and Mike Gottfried (former Kansas coach) are very good friends of mine, and they think the world of Mark. I know he'll have another chance somewhere."
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