Mangino guides Kansas against Houston today

By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
FORT WORTH, Tex. -- There are three Youngstown-area coaching connections to the University of Kansas football team that plays Houston tonight in the Fort Worth Bowl (8, ESPN).
Mark Mangino, in his fourth season as the Jayhawks' coach, is a graduate of New Castle High and Youngstown State (1987) and a former assistant coach at both schools.
Brandon Blaney, in his fourth year as the tight ends coach and assistant recruiting coordinator at Kansas, also is a YSU graduate (1999) and served as a student and graduate assistant coach for the Penguins.
Tim Beck, in his first year as the Jayhawks' wide receivers coach, is a native of Boardman and a Cardinal Mooney High graduate who jumped directly from a Texas high school coaching job to his current Kansas position.
Kansas (6-5), playing in its second bowl game in the last three years under Mangino, and Houston (6-5) will be meeting for the third time, with the Jayhawks leading the series, 2-0.
Mangino coached 2 years at YSU
Mangino, who improved Kansas from a 4-7 mark last year and 6-7 the year before, coached two years at YSU in 1985 and 1986, the latter season under coach Jim Tressel who now is at Ohio State.
Mangino also was an assistant coach at New Castle High for four seasons, and coached three years (1987-89) at Geneva College as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. He helped Geneva to a combined 24-9 record -- its best span in modern school history.
Mangino also has connections to Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, a Mooney High graduate. Mangino was an assistant head coach for the Sooners under Stoops for three seasons (1999,2000, 2001), helping them to a combined 30-7 record.
Mangino also spent eight years as an assistant at Kansas State, helping the Wildcats to a 71-23-1 record over that span.
Blaney student aide at YSU
Blaney, a native of Lamar, Mo., served as a student assistant coach at YSU under Tressel for four years (1995-98), working with the offensive line and special teams; and one year (spring, 1999) as a graduate assistant.
Blaney helped the Penguins win the NCAA Division I-AA national championship in 1997.
He also coached with Mangino and Stoops at Oklahoma and OSU, respectively -- two years with Oklahoma (1999, 2000) as offensive line graduate assistant coach; and one year (2001) with Ohio State working with linebackers.
Beck played for Mooney
Beck, who played football, baseball and basketball at Mooney, is a 1988 graduate of Central Florida where he was a quarterback, wide receiver and punter.
He came to Kansas from Summit High in Mansfield, Tex., where he served as head coach the previous three seasons.
However, Beck did have previous college coaching experience. He was a graduate assistant at Kansas State with Mangino from 1991-92 as wide receivers coach at and assistant quarterback coach. And he was an assistant at Southwest Missouri State for three years (1996-98), serving as offensive coordinator one year.
kovach@vindy.com