Jayhawk football coach Mark Mangino chatted live with KU fans June 11 on KUsports.com. The second-year coach talked about this year’s team, his thoughts on the impact of his new players, how he feels about the new KU athletic director, as well as many other topics.

Moderator: Our live chat with head KU football coach Mark Mangino will begin shortly.

Moderator: We began accepting questions for coach Mangino this morning, and we’ve already had close to 100 questions submitted. Unfortunately, Coach Mangino, will not be able to answer all of these questions. But it must make you feel good, coach, that there is already so much interest in this year’s team.

Gary: When do you see KU competing for bowl games and being a program to be reckoned with?

Coach Mangino: We work hard as a team and a coaching staff every day in pursuit of bowl game and championships. It is our goal to make this program a championship-caliber team and bowl team. I can’t put any particular timetable on it, but we all hope that happens sooner rather than later and I’m confident that it will be sooner than later.

Cory: Can you tell us what you expect from Bill Whittemore this year after he really blossomed under your system last year as a junior? Thanks Coach & best of luck

Coach Mangino: First and foremost we are working hard to keep Bill healthy, and keeping him healthy means a good offensive unit which is important in our program. Bill is a talented young man and we expect great things from him, but we also must work hard to build a strong supporting cast around here. The stronger the supporting cast, the better Bill will be.

Randy: My question is about juco newcomer Chuck Jones. Do you see him as a defensive end or playing inside at tackle?

Coach Mangino: Chuck is a really big, physical guy and our plans are to use him at defensive end. Even though he’s probably close to 280 pounds, we think that when he completes our summer conditioning program he will weigh less and have increased his lean muscle mass. But if he continues to bulk up in weight while still maintaining his condition, he could move inside but we have every intention of playing Chuck outside.

Sayers: Do you forsee fewer junior college players in the next recruiting class than this last year’s class?

Coach Mangino: Yes, we will take some junior college players next year, but not as many as this year. We took more junior college players than we normally would this past recruiting class because we thought we had some pressing needs that needing to be addressed. We thought we had some holes. We will build our program in the long-run with high school players but from time to time we will take junior college players as well.

Jason: How much deeper is this year’s team compared to last year’s when you basically had only the holdovers from Terry Allen’s team?

Coach Mangino: We really won’t know how deep we are until we complete two-a-days and even get into the first couple games of the season. I assume we’ll be a deeper team than last year, but in all honesty we’re trying to develop our first line and then we’ll have a better idea of who are second line guys are.

E: What do you think about the hiring of the new AD. Have you had any chance to sit down and talk with him about the direction football is headed?

Coach Mangino: I’ve had an opportunity to visit with Lew a few times during the last couple of days, and I am very impressed with him. He has a great deal of experience, an excellent track record and his reputation for relating well to people is very much evident. I am thrilled to have Lew here, and I am very anxious to work side-by-side with him in the building of our program. I think he will provide exceptional leadership and compassion when dealing with people and issues at KU.

Michael: What can alumni and fans do to help the program?

Coach Mangino: I think our fans and alumni have already proven that they are supportive in building an outstanding football program. The fans have been patient and truly understand what we’re trying to accomplish at KU. I think our players appreciate their support and they can continue to show their support by coming to the stadium, supporting their team in a positive way and continuing their positive outlook for the future of KU football.

Matt: I just want to say coach it’s good to have you here. I know it will be just a matter of time for the Hawks to turn it around. My question is are most the players working out this summer in Lawrence and what does their workout include this summer?

Coach Mangino: At the present time, every veteran scholarship player is on campus working out with our strength staff, and a good number of our newcomers are already here and some will be here the second half of the summer. That is extremely encouraging to me as a coach. That tells me that our players truly care about improving. Those workouts are with our strength staff only, and include four days of weight training, physical conditioning, speed and explosion exercises and a lot of change-of-direction drills.

Mark: Have you specifically started game-planning for Northwestern or is it too early for that?

Coach Mangino: We started working on all of our opponents and putting together scouting reports and temporary game plans as far back as February. We are still studying tape and gatherting information on Northwestern to this day, as well as all of our opponents. We put a great deal of time into preparing for our opponents, especially the first six games of the season when we put together depth charts and preliminary game plans.

Moderator: We will take one more question for coach Mangino, as we told him we’d take only about 20 minutes of his time this afternoon.

Jeff: Coach, what can you tell us about the development of the receivers, specifically Mark Simmons, Charles Gordon, and Gary Heaggans, and the running backs, specifically Clark Green and Jon Cornish.

Coach Mangino: Our running backs are coming along real well. Clark Green had a solid spring and still Clark just needs to continue to work on thelittle fundamental aspects of the running back position. I think he will be a really solid player for us again this fall. We have some competition at that position this fall. I was impressed with Jerome Kemp, who showed signs of being an outstanding player, and we also have some younsgers in the mix who have improved quite a bit, including John Cornish and Harold McClendon and are in the mix for a backup position. At the fullback spot, we’ve had several players at the position, including Austin Nwabusi and Brandon Watkins.

At the wide receiver position we have some veterans who are back and we have some newcomers who we’re excited about. As a group, they can get better and will get better and I think the addition of the young guys we’ve brought in, including Moderick Johnson, will only help make that unit better. We also have a guy in named Scott Bajza, he’s from Cerritos College and he is an impressive looking young man. Our strength staff has had a lot of good things to say about him.

Moderator: Again, we’d like to thank coach Mangino for his time and our visitors for their questions.