The “B” Word

Mack Brown wouldn’t even mention it. Mark Mangino loves it. Coaches have found pros & cons to coaching football at “Basketball” schools.
by: Richard Scott
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Five sure signs that you’re coaching football at a basketball school:

1. The booster groups insist on inviting the basketball coach to your summer kickoff functions.

2. The basketball coach’s line for autographs outnumbers your line 10 to 1.

3. The basketball staff has a nice spacious office set-up up high in coliseum. You and your staff are stuck in the basement.

4. Fans leave at halftime of the football games to make sure they have good seats to watch the first public scrimmage of the basketball season.

5. If the football team is hovering around .500 (or worse) at midseason, the most popular phrase in town is “at least it’s basketball season.”

Such is life for a coach trying to build a successful football program at a so-called “basketball school,” where basketball is No. 1 and football is often considered an afterthought for most of the year - unless, of course, the football team is winning.

Yet, despite the fickle whims of the fans, the fact remains that the football program still carries the financial weight of the athletic program, and the university powers-that-be will still fire the head football coach without blinking an eye if the losses are rising and the attendance is falling.

Think of the nation’s most celebrated basketball programs. Kentucky. North Carolina. Duke. Indiana. Kansas. In the regions surrounding those universities, many parents put a basketball in the hands of their youngins’, hoping that those kids will grow up to play basketball for the Wildcats, Tar Heels, Blue Devils, Hoosiers or Jayhawks.

What else do those universities have in common? All five schools have experienced periodic football success, but none of those schools has managed to sustain that success over a long period of time or made an annual habit of playing for conference championships.

The opposite is true at Alabama, Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, to name just a few examples of universities where football success is tradition and basketball success is occasional. However, the two problems don’t always equate, because – as football coaches know - it only takes a few players to turn a basketball program into a winner, while it might take three or four strong recruiting classes to transform a football program into a winner.

When Texas coach Mack Brown was at North Carolina (where he transformed a losing program into a winner and sustained a high level of success before leaving), he used to refer to the basketball program as the “B” word. Second-year North Carolina coach John Bunting is a Tar Heel grad, so he knew what he was getting into when he became North Carolina’s head football coach. Still, Bunting couldn’t have been happy when David Noel, a 6-foot-5 wide receiver from Durham’s Southern High School, reneged on his commitment to play football for the Tar Heels because he decided he would rather walk on to the North Carolina basketball team and pay his own way to school for a year with the goal of earning a basketball scholarship instead of taking a sure thing with the football program.

And how did first-year Indiana coach Gerry DiNardo feel when he heard the agent of Hoosier basketball coach Mike Davis insist that Davis had to be paid more than DiNardo?

“This is a basketball university,” said Thad Foucher, Davis’ Los Angeles-based agent, “and you don’t want your basketball coach being paid less than the football coach.”

Then again, how did second-year Kentucky coach Guy Morriss feel when Kentucky hired a new athletic director this summer and just happened to hire someone with a football background? In fact, Morriss even referred to new athletic director Mitch Barnhart, who came to Kentucky from Oregon State, as a “football AD.”

“We just hired a new football AD, and I was pleased to see that happen,” Morriss said, referring to Barnhart’s 12 years at Tennessee and his decision to hire Dennis Erickson at Oregon State. “I think he’ll know what needs to be done to make football a priority at Kentucky. And we need that.”

Imagine that – Kentucky hiring an athletic director who actually understands what it takes to provide the foundation for a successful football program. Then again, it wasn’t that long ago when Hal Mumme was winning football games and new Kentucky football fans with his own particular brand of basketball on grass. The next thing you know, Kentucky was expanding Commonwealth Stadium to meet the demand for more tickets. Then, soon after, the Wildcats started losing again, the NCAA started investigating rules violations, Mumme resigned and Morriss started over, trying to build a successful football program at a basketball school.

“A lot of people don’t know what we’ve got here, but when people walk into our stadium for the first time their jaws drop. It’s a beautiful place,” Morriss said. “I know people think of Kentucky as a basketball school but when I go around the state and talk to the people they’re excited about football. The basketball program has just had so much success over time, and lately, and people get caught up in that. I think when we get this turned around and get this thing rolling, we can blow the lid off this place. I think this could be a football state. We’re going to make it a football state.”

That’s a tough task for any coach in Morriss’ shoes. Just ask Duke coach Carl Franks. Duke has been the nation’s most successful basketball program over the past decade, so it’s obvious the university’s rigid academic standards haven’t prevented coach Mike Krzyzewski from assembling a roster of talented basketball players. Just try applying those same strict rules to the football program, though, and it’s a lot more difficult to find 50-60 competitive ACC players. That’s one big reason why the Blue Devils carried the nation’s longest Division I-A losing streak into the 2002 season.

While Franks enters his fourth season of trying to build Duke into a winner, is there any coincidence that both Kansas and Indiana are starting over with new coaches this season? Both DiNardo and first-year Kansas coach Mark Mangino came from traditional football schools, LSU and Oklahoma, only to find that they have a lot of work to do before football can compete with that other major men’s sport on campus, let alone the rest of the teams in their respective conferences.

“I have viewed the University of Kansas for 11 seasons from the other side of the field,” Mangino said. “I have worked with people at Kansas State and Oklahoma and there have been many times when we’ve said, ‘Why? Why aren’t they better? They have resources. They have a beautiful campus, a great place to recruit to, close to Kansas City.’

“I’ve talked to different people who have coached in this conference and there wasn’t one coach I talked to that didn’t believe that KU had everything, with the commitment we have here now, to be a successful program.”

When Mangino was introduced as the new coach at Kansas and asked if he was a basketball fan, Mangino was smart enough to answer, “I’m a real big one now. This is the place to be to watch big-time college basketball.”

Besides, Mangino insisted, the problem with Kansas football really has nothing to do with Kansas basketball or Jayhawks coach Roy Williams, or a history that goes back to former Kansas coach Dr. James Naismith, who just happened to invent the game of basketball.

“We don’t compete against our basketball team,” Mangino said. “They’re not on our schedule.”

In fact, Williams attended the press conference announcing Mangino’s hiring and was one of the first people to shake hands with Mangino and his family members after the press conference.

“I think it’s a great choice. He’s a very impressive person,” Williams said the day Mangino was hired. “He has that enthusiasm and appears to have that energy and fire. I think you need that. This is a great, great place to be, but it is a very difficult job.”

To make the job a little less difficult, Williams invited a group of Mangino’s recruits and their families into his office before a basketball game last winter. That visit helped contribute to several recruiting commitments for the football team.

“We had a lot of kids commit to us that weekend, and in the future, out of that group,” Mangino said. “I really appreciate coach Williams.”

A positive working relationship with the basketball program is one way to make the best out of a difficult situation. It’s something Morriss, Mangino and DiNardo hope to make better use of in the future.

“You go about your business and try to use it to an advantage the best you can,” DiNardo said. “You bring your recruits in on basketball weekends and try to show your recruits the energy and support on campus. Basketball doesn’t have to be a negative. It can be a positive.”

A commitment from the university leadership is also a must for any football program hoping to establish itself as a winner. Kansas State was considered a basketball school with one of the nation’s all-time worst Division I-A college football programs when university president Jon Wefald arrived in 1986 and coach Bill Snyder came on board in 1989. Wefald made an active decision to improve Kansas State’s commitment to football, leading the drive to provide more competitive financial resources and facilities. Within 10 years, Kansas State had established itself as a perennial top-25 program, bowl participant and championship contender.

Convincing university leaders and boosters to make a significant financial commitment to football improvement can be a tough challenge, but no more difficult than trying to convince talented high school football recruits to give your program serious consideration. The good news for these basketball schools is that many recruits are more likely than ever to pursue an opportunity to play sooner than later for a struggling program than sit for three years and wait for a chance to play at a more successful program.

DiNardo said he knows he might not always be able to beat Big Ten schools for every top-ranked recruit in his region, but he also knows there are plenty of talented young football players who could care less whether or not Indiana even plays basketball.

“If someone thinks that (Indiana is a basketball school), I’m not sure if there is much I can to change their opinion. But I don’t know if a young person, 18 years old, whether he’s in Indiana or in the Midwestern states or any of the 20 states we recruit, I’m not sure if he’s totally convinced Indiana is a basketball school,” DiNardo said. “I think that’s overstated by people who have studied the situation generation after generation or by media people who covered Indiana basketball. Obviously, Bob Knight had an impact on that. But the 18-year-old guy in Indiana or Ohio, he doesn’t care.”

No matter how you go about the job, football coaches agree the best way to turn a “basketball school” into a furnace of fervent football support is to win and give people a reason to pay attention. That’s easier said than done, but it’s the single most important factor in getting fans excited about football.

“Our recent struggles in football don’t have to be permanent,” DiNardo said. “There’s nothing in the water that says we can’t be a good football team. I think the opposite is true as well. People learned that at Vanderbilt when Eddie Fogler was coaching basketball there and then left for South Carolina. The Vanderbilt people took the attitude that anyone could come in there and coach basketball and have success, but the program hasn’t been the same since he left.

“Whether you’re a successful basketball coach or a struggling football coach, whether you’re attaining success or maintaining success, the formula is pretty much the same. Our success in basketball doesn’t prevent us from being good in football. I really believe that’s overstated or a readily available excuse for not having success in football.”

If Kansas State had used that excuse, it would still be one of the worst football programs in the nation – and might not even be a member of the Big 12. If Maryland had accepted that excuse, it would not have made a major investment in football success when it hired Ralph Friedgen, who led the Terps to 10 wins and an ACC title in his first season as the program’s head coach.

And wouldn’t you know it, just four months after Maryland completed its most successful football season in two decades with a trip to the Orange Bowl, the basketball Terps went to the Final Four and won the national championship.

See? It can done. Just ask Friedgen, who is now losing weight in an effort to raise money for a new football facility. The more he loses, the more certain boosters will pay. It’s just more proof that sometimes it just requires more effort, hustle and creativity to turn a loser into a winner, even at a so-called “basketball school.”

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