Former Kansas Running Back Says He Felt Wrath of Mangino

Former Kansas running back Jocques Crawford believes Jayhawks football coach Mark Mangino has anger issues and is prone to unleash his abusive behavior on his players.

Crawford says he witnessed Mangino's wrath first hand during his lone season with the program in 2008. Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins launched an investigation into his head coach's behavior Monday after it came to his attention that Mangino had poked senior linebacker Arist Wright during a walk-through practice last Friday.

Perkins has formed an independent panel to begin investigating what is believed to be a pattern of abusive behavior by Mangino directed at his team and other football personnel. Crawford said Perkins has yet to contact him, but if he does the former running back will have plenty to say.

"From what I heard, that's been going on for a while," Crawford told FanHouse. "I was warned that's how he was but I never believed it until I had my encounter with him during two-a-days."

During that encounter, not long after the Junior College All-American out of Cisco Junior College joined the team in the summer of 2008, Crawford said he was having fumble troubles on a particular day early in fall two-a-days camp when Mangino came down with a mean-spirited attack in front of not only his teammates but some NFL scouts observing practice.

"Mangino grabbed me and started cursing me out and he said I'm the biggest flop that he'd ever seen since some player he named that I had never heard of," Crawford said. "I was like, 'Is that necessary? Are you serious right now?'

"Any guy that's playing college football, they see scouts out there, they are trying to get noticed. So for him to pull me out in front of everybody. ... He didn't pull me to the side or nothing, he stopped practice and called me the biggest flop that he'd ever seen."

Crawford said he felt the wrath once again during the Iowa State game when he was stripped of the football at the bottom of the pile. Crawford insisted he was already down when the ball was taken from him, but the replays were inconclusive and the Cyclones were rewarded the ball.

"Mangino cursed me out on the sideline and told me that I would never play again," said Crawford, who ran for 232 yards and four touchdowns on 62 attempts in his only season at Kansas. "He sat me down and I did not get back in the rest of that game. That hurt me. You mean to tell me that one mistake was going to cause me to sit on the bench the rest of the game and as you can see from my stats, pretty much the rest of the year?.

"I had told [offensive coordinator Ed Warinner] it wasn't fun for me no more and that I'd just rather go somewhere where I could play. I just wanted to play. I wasn't on any special teams, they had me at second-string running back and the first-string and third team running backs were getting more carries than me. How does that work?

"When we got back from that trip, Coach Warinner tried to explain to me that it wasn't his call I didn't play, `We all know who's call that was.' He just tried to talk to me and tell me don't make a decision right now."

Through spokesman Chris Theisen, Mangino and Perkins both declined to be interviewed. But Mangino, who has denied any abuse, did defend his reputation Wednesday to local reporters in Lawrence.

"I run this program with a lot of integrity," Mangino said in the Kansas City Star. "I have been in this conference for nearly 20 years, and what I can tell you is that our coaching intensity is not largely different from the rest of the Big Eight and Big 12 teams I've observed."

Crawford's accounts of abuse are similar to ones recanted by former players to the Lawrence Journal-World and Kansas City Star.

Crawford, meanwhile, eventually left the team in July after serving an indefinite suspension for what Mangino, referred to at the time as a variety of team rules infractions. He is now spending a redshirt year as a walk-on at Tennessee Tech.

He wouldn't discuss the details of his suspension.

Crawford said he observed Mangino getting in the faces of players a few times while there. One incident he said took place with former linebacker Mike Rivera, who now plays for the Tennessee Titans. According to Crawford, Mangino nearly got some of what he was giving out.

" Mangino thinks he's untouchable but he's going to come across one player who is going to be like 'I had enough.' "
-- Jocques Crawford, former KU running back "He got in Mike Rivera's face one time, started talking all this mess to him and Mike was like 'OK, coach. OK coach," Crawford said. "But Mangino just kept egging it on, kept trying to provoke him and then Mike snapped back at him. Then some players had to grab him.

"Mangino thinks he's untouchable but he's going to come across one player who is going to be like 'I had enough.' I know Arist Wright, I know his attitude. I am surprised and I'm thankful he didn't do anything that would have gotten him arrested. He did the right thing by going to Lew Perkins and complaining about it."

Crawford said he had trouble remembering a time once he was in the program where Mangino portrayed the kind and joking side of personality that is often put in front of recruits and media members. He said the coach was usually pretty grumpy with the team.

"I do not recall," Crawford said when asked if there times when Mangino was kind to his team. "The bowl game practices, they were fine. Other than that, I don't recall at all. Maybe in meetings, but if he'd catch you doing something in meetings, he'd rip you up, too."

Apparently, it didn't take much to set Mangino off, according to Crawford. And when he did go off, things would sometimes get personal and physical.

"All it would take for it to be a rowdy practice for him to go off and get in somebody's face and grab them and push them and do whatever," Crawford said. "When he's doing this, he's not going through no drill trying to show them how to do something. So what is he touching on his player for?"

Crawford said he was fooled into believing Mangino was a much different coach during his recruitment process while still at Cisco Junior College in Texas.

"During my recruiting process, Mangino seemed like one of the coolest laid-back coaches that you could build a relationship with, that's going to be honest with you," said Crawford, who was named the Junior College Offensive Player of the Year after rushing for 1,935 yards and 19 touchdowns at Cisco Junior College in 2007. "He totally did not seem like the person I was going to see every day. That was not him at all.

"That's the only time we would see Mangino like that was during recruiting periods. When guys come to practices, Mangino is as cool as he want to be."

The subject of Mangino's treatment of his team never came up during Crawford's on-campus visit. The prospective student-athlete and his assigned host were too focused on having a good time to discuss issues of substance.

"You know how recruiting works," Crawford said. "He's going to put you with the guys that are having the most success with the program and so they aren't going to complain really about too much.

"Guys, as their host, you are expected to only sell these recruits on the good. That's the thing with recruiting, on these recruiting trips you are going to have fun. They are going to show you a good time. And you are not really concerned with asking your host about the coaches. That's how they get you."" It took one brave guy and a senior to speak up and tell what really happened. Guys like me, I kept my mouth shut because I got blackballed once I transferred from Kansas. I didn't end going to a D-I school like I wanted to transfer to. "
-- Crawford

Crawford said more players haven't come forward with complaints for fear of retaliation by Mangino. Not only does Mangino control playing time, but he can also influence NFL teams that might be interested. And in the case of Crawford, he claims Mangino made it impossible for him to transfer to another major BCS school.

"It took one brave guy and a senior to speak up and tell what really happened," Crawford said of Wright. "Guys like me, I kept my mouth shut because I got blackballed once I transferred from Kansas. I didn't end going to a D-I school like I wanted to transfer to.

"A lot of schools were interested but once they called Kansas to get a release, they called me back and said they were no longer interested because `We heard you were this type of player and this and that.' I was like `Are you serious?'"