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YSU’s Mangino enjoys coaching return
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Mangino
By Greg Gulas
AUSTINTOWN
During a storied four-decade coaching career, YSU’s Mark Mangino has witnessed the highs and lows of several top-notch football programs.
He’s also enjoyed being a part of programs on the verge of breakout seasons.
On Monday, he addressed the Curbstone Coaches at Luciano’s Restaurant during their weekly meeting, calling this year’s 8-1 Penguins primed to make that proverbial leap as they eye postseason play for the first time since 2006.
“It’s really fun to be back at YSU and around people you both like and respect. We have a great fan base here and every one of our fans is passionate about Penguins football,” Mangino said. “They aren’t indifferent; they want us to win and get into the playoffs.”
A New Castle High School and YSU graduate, Mangino’s college coaching career began at YSU in 1985 when he served as a graduate assistant coach on the late Bill Narduzzi’s staff.
He also spent the following season in the same capacity as a member of Jim Tressel’s first YSU staff, learning coaching techniques and organizational skills from both that he would later apply during assistant stops at Geneva College, Kansas State and Oklahoma, and also during his tenure as head coach at the University of Kansas (2002-09).
“The chance to learn under both Bill [Narduzzi] and Jim [Tressel] was invaluable. To then be able to coach, work with and now for Coach [Eric] Wolford has also been a great experience as well,” he said. “You could see during his playing days at Kansas State that Eric was a tireless worker and now under his leadership, has YSU pointed in the right direction.”
As an assistant at Kansas State and Oklahoma he helped teams post a combined 101-30-1 mark and won an FBS national title (2000 with the Sooners) while coaching in 13 bowl games.
As head coach of the Jayhawks, he was architect of four bowl appearances (a third of the school’s total) and a school-record 12-win season in 2007.
A Broyles Award (2000) recipient, he earned 14 national “Coach of the Year” honors (2007) and has coached a Heisman Trophy winner (Oklahoma’s Jason White), two other Heisman Trophy finalists, a Lombardi Award honoree (Oklahoma’s Jamal Brown) and 35 NFL players.
“At YSU, our players are every bit as focused as the players that I have coached at other stops along the way. I appreciate their work ethic, toughness, and enthusiasm and the result to date has been a great start,” he said. “Staying focused the rest of the way, however, will be the key.”
After three years away from the game, he says his time at YSU, where he serves as assistant head coach in charge of tight ends, has re-energized his coaching batteries.
“There are three players that I have coached whom I consider to be some of the very toughest in the game and Coach Wolford is one of them. When he showed up for practice or a game, he was all in,” Mangino said. “He wasn’t the greatest athlete, but definitely one of the toughest.”
Next week, Youngstown Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen will serve as guest speaker.