Mark Mangino and Kansas football was a flawed marriage from the beginning. Each side knew what it was getting into, but accepted the other's faults because the partnership was their best shot at happiness -- for better or worse.
The marriage is now ending because too many of those flaws remain. They enjoyed a nice enough honeymoon, and were the envy of the neighborhood two years ago, but only one side worked on its faults.
It takes two.
Eight years ago, Mangino and the program he joined each brought baggage. Mangino was extremely fat, with an ugly temper. Kansas football had outdated facilities, with weak financial and fan support.
Kansas football worked on its end, first under Al Bohl and then Lew Perkins.
Bohl had plenty of his own faults -- including poor analogies -- but he did help Kansas football work on its weaknesses. He hired Mangino, opened tailgating on the hill, and was an enthusiastic fundraiser who helped build attendance at Memorial Stadium.
Perkins has faults, too -- including a legal battle with a small Lawrence business that some thought turned vindictive -- but continued and improved upon Bohl's effort to better the football program.
Kansas recently completed more than $30 million of renovations and construction, centerpieced by an 80,000 square-foot football facility. There's been talk of a stadium expansion, work that would mean nearly $100 million spent on football facilities since 1999.
The fans aren't as passionate as they are for basketball, of course, but they are setting attendance records, and making the football team at least co-stars on campus.
Kansas football held up its end, and whenever this marriage with Mangino finally ends, Perkins will search for a new partner with the track record of identifying and improving his side's weaknesses.
That's a good position, and one that Mangino won't have.
He was a bully from the beginning, and as Whitlock has pointed out the last two days, an abusive one.
It's fine to be a jerk, but you better win.
When Mangino was coach for perhaps KU's best football season ever in 2007, the talk of his demenour and treatment of people was mostly whispers. And who knows, maybe this is how Mangino had to be to have the success at a place that had gone without it for so long.
But the act wore thin, and is probably unnecessary now if not counter-productive.
It's telling that after Mangino completed a remarkable Kansas football turnaround to the Orange Bowl win and first back-to-back bowl appearances in school history, the response from schools looking for coaches was crickets.
A combination of his weight -- both an image and health concern -- and personality apparently kept everyone away.
Part of Gary Pinkel's success at Missouri is often credited to a personality change he made after the tragic death of Aaron O'Neal four years ago.
In eight years, Mangino never found reason to make his own necessary changes, and by now, it's almost certainly too late.
Both Mangino and Perkins will be looking for someone new, and soon.
Only Perkins will do it with the comfort and added attraction of having worked at self-improvement.
Mangino treats his players badly? These kids are not babies, although their parents seem to think so. The parents think their kid is still 8 years old and the only thing a coach should ever say to them is, "Great job, Johnny, let's all go for ice cream after the game." Its the all kids are above average mentality - everybody gets a trophy and a gold star on their homework.
Mangino took the KU program from nothing and made something of it. It's just not that easy to build a program. Mangino is a tough coach and parents ought to be thankful for that. He asks more from his players, he demands results, he makes 'em better players and better people. If the kids don't like the way they're treated, they ought to play better. Its not going to get any easier for them once they graduate. I seriously doubt that's the last time those kids will ever be yelled at. Parents should appreciate their kid getting a first class education for free and recognize the virtue in playing for a tough coach.