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When Mark Mangino was hired to be Iowa State’s offensive coordinator in 2014, many thought he would be able to bring to Ames some of the same coaching ability that took Kansas to the 2007 Orange Bowl. Finally, a big name coach wanted to come to Ames.
Yeah. That didn’t go well.
The offense never got a footing under Mangino’s spread passing attack, and he never seemed to quite fit in under Paul Rhoads. Not only did his offense not work, but he (along with injuries) managed to spoil a promising quarterback in Sam Richardson, and waste the first two seasons of Allen Lazard. After Mangino left the program part way through the 2015 season, he decided to troll the coaching staff on Twitter.
There is no doubt at all...The Fat Lady is singing!
— Mark Mangino (@KeepSawinWood) November 21, 2015
Later on though, Mangino apologized and took the brunt of the blame for his falling out with the coaching staff.
“But, a chance to get back into the Big 12 and do that again -- I love the Big 12, I coached 21 years in the conference; I’ve coached in it since it was the Big 8 -- I figured I’d take this challenge on, and, what happened is not the head coach’s fault. It’s entirely my fault.”
“I wasn’t there very long when I realized that philosophically it wasn’t the environment I was used to being in. I knew that I wasn’t a good fit there.”
“The last thing you want to do is be a quitter and walk away. That’s not in my makeup, so I dealt with the environment and the structure that I was put in, and I worked my tail off and did the best I could.”
“It got to the point at the end where it wasn’t working -- we’re both looking at each other knowing it’s not working.”
At least he was better than...
**JAWS THEME**
Courtney Messingham.