.png)
By Rick Dean
November 02, 2007
Be sure to add this to your story, Barry Switzer emphasized as he concluded his interview with a Kansas writer.
"Mark Mangino is the coach of the year,'' Switzer said of the Kansas Jayhawks head coach. "What he's done in putting that group of players together, then doing something with them, is as good as there is anywhere.''
Should Kansas’ Mark Mangino be named coach of the year? Former Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer says yes.
The outgoing Switzer is more than a casual armchair observer of the college football scene.
The legendary coach who took Oklahoma to three national championships and the Dallas Cowboys to two NFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl victory now has a twice-weekly national radio show on XM Satellite Radio. Switzer can be heard on XM's Sports Nation channel (144) 6-8:30 a.m. Mondays and Fridays. He also tapes a weekly segment called "Grumpy Old Coaches'' with former Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson for the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show.
"I'm loving the work,'' Switzer said of his new radio gig. "I get up early, put on a pot of coffee and talk football for 2½ hours. Outside of the early hour, what could be better?''
Switzer says he's not surprised to see the rise of programs such as Kansas and South Florida to the ranks of the college elite. Mindful of his audience in the phone conversation, he cited Kansas ties in making his observation.
"I'm not surprised at what any of those guys who came out of Kansas State are doing,'' Switzer said, noting the ties Mangino and South Florida's Jim Leavitt had to Bill Snyder's turnaround program in Manhattan. "I know that from watching what (Oklahoma coach Bob) Stoops has done here with some of the guys from that program.''
