Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino has filled two of the three vacancies on his staff.

Mangino announced the hiring of Northern Colorado assistant Earnest Collins on Monday, three days after naming Chris Dawson of Minnesota head strength and conditioning coach.

Collins, who coached Northern Colorado’s secondary and special teams, will coach cornerbacks at KU.

“He’s very professional,” Northern Colorado coach Kay Dalton said of Collins in a phone interview. “He’s a good recruiter. He’s got a very good work ethic. I think Kansas got a fine football coach.”

Collins takes the place of Travis Jones on KU’s defensive staff, and his hiring means a juggling of assignments for at least two other KU aides.

Jones coached defensive ends at Kansas before leaving Jan. 13 to take a similar position at Louisiana State.

Pat Henderson, who coached the Jayhawk secondary in 2002, will move to running backs coach. Clint Bowen, who played safety at KU in the early 1990s, was moved from running backs to safeties. Bowen was expected to remain special teams coordinator.

Mangino did not announce who would take over Jones’ responsibilities with the defensive ends. One possibility could be Bill Young, who coached tackles last season in addition to his duties as defensive coordinator.

Mangino has one opening remaining on his staff. Offensive line coach Ken Conatser resigned two games into the 2002 season and was replaced by tight ends coach Brandon Blaney. A graduate assistant filled in with the tight ends for the remainder of the year.

Collins, meanwhile, made the leap to Division I-A after helping Northern Colorado win 12 games and reach the Division II semifinals last season.

He will try to improve a secondary that allowed an average of 216.2 passing yards per game.

“Earnest is an enthusiastic teacher of fundamentals,” Mangino said in a statement released by KU. “He will develop our cornerback position, which is crucial to our scheme.”

Collins was a standout defensive back at UNC from 1991-94 and owns school records for punt return yards in a career (967) and in a season (497).

He worked one year as a student assistant at UNC before spending three years at Northwest Missouri State, where he helped the Bearcats win back-to-back Division II national championships in 1998 and 1999.

Collins earned his bachelor’s degree from Northern Colorado in 1996 and his master’s from Northwest Missouri State in 1998. He returned to Northern Colorado in December of 1999.

The Denver native’s primary recruiting responsibility at Northern Colorado was Denver’s public schools.

“He did a good job there,” Dalton said. “He uncovered good players.”