Mangino Speaks on the Texas Game

Ryan Wood just put up his best post ever on his Sawin' Wood blog. Some of the most revealing quotes I've seen in print from Mark Mangino. Excerpt from Mangino regarding the 2004 Texas postgame:

"Well, the way I approached it, first of all, is I had a reason to do it," Mangino said. "My reasons are such that we had lost some difficult ballgames that year, and our kids after that game were just crushed. I had never been around a team that had been so disheartened about a loss.

"So I just warned people, some administrators on my way to the pressroom, what I was going to do, and it was to save the team. I knew I was going to get criticism for it and take some bullets, but Kansas hadn't had a winning program for many years, we were trying to get it on its feet, we were getting close but just couldn't get over the hump. So I took a bullet for it.

"But I do understand that that's not the way to do it. I learned a lesson that there's other ways to get that done. But at the time I felt that was the best way to do it."