Mangino under Fire

Shamangino is coming under lots of heat this weak for allegedly all kinds of stuff. Let's break it down. He's yelled at people and humiliated them in front of teammates. Oh, I see. Let's go to the video.

We're surprised by this? First of all, he's doing nothing that many high school coaches and college coaches around the world do. Let's look at Bob Stoops encouraging Dominique Franks during the Miami game (it's at about the 1:10 mark)



Clearly Bob is asking Dominique if he's feeling okay and how his family is doing.

The reality is players get yelled out all the time. I have no doubt that if you put a mic 24/7 on any 50 division 1 college coaches that 40 of them are yelling at their coaches and using peer pressure and humiliation to challenge their players and extract more out of them.

Do I think yelling at people overall is a good management tool? It doesn't work well where I work. Do I yell at people sometimes anyway? I have from time to time.

Has Mangino been a prick to others in the administration? Sure sounds like it. That's not uncommon either. Many people in sports and other industries are nice in public and a nightmare in private, particularly to people lower in the org chart. For example, I worked at a golf club where Barry Switzer was a member. As a bag attendant, he was very difficult to deal with, and complained all the time. When the cameras were on, he could charm your socks off. Do I think belittling a lower level employee disqualifies him from being a head football coach? No. Does it make him seem like a prick? Yes. If being a saint is a requirement for being a head coach, we're going to have to reduce the number of football teams.