Wyoming coach mentor to Kansas aide

KU's Collins played, coached for Glenn at Northern Colorado

Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino didn’t have to look far to get a scouting report on Wyoming coach Joe Glenn.

“One of my former players and one of my former coaches are on their staff,” Glenn said of the Jayhawks. “That makes it an even more interesting challenge. Earnest Collins played for me and coached for me at Northern Colorado. He’s a great guy and great coach.

“Dave Doeren, their linebackers coach, coached for us two years at Montana and was a member of our national championship team. It’s a civil war when you go family against family and friend against friend. The price of poker goes up a little bit.”

Glenn has called today’s battle of 1-1 teams a “must win” for his program. Collins, KU’s first-year cornerbacks coach, said Glenn usually gets what he wants.

“Coach Glenn is a great individual,” Collins said. “He’s one of those type of coaches who can get the most out of his players. He’ll get an average guy to play good and good players to play great. He’s that kind of guy. If he ever decides to get out of coaching, he’ll be an outstanding athletic director. Coach Glenn could sell ice to Eskimos. He has an infectious personality.

“He’s unbelievable. He’s so positive. He doesn’t forget anything. That’s how he won the people over at Wyoming.”

Like the time last winter when the new coach was introduced at a Wyoming basketball game and was handed a microphone. Rather than giving a speech, Glenn started singing the Cowboy fight song.

Collins started his college career by walking on to Glenn’s program at Division II Northern Colorado in 1991. He was awarded a scholarship after his first semester and became a four-year starter in the secondary and set UNC’s school records for single-season and career punt-return yardage.

“He rewards you if you’re good,” Collins said, “and he’s going to get you better if you’re not.”

Wyoming coach Joe Glenn, left, congratulates Oklahoma State coach Les Miles after OSU defeated the Cowboys 48-24 last Saturday at Stillwater, Okla. Glenn, who is 1-1 at Wyoming, has posted 14 consecutive winning seasons.

In recent years, the Cowboys have not been good.

Coach Dana Dimel posted a 23-12 record from 1997-99, but Wyoming lost 29 of 34 games under Vic Koenning.

Enter Glenn, who won the 2001 Division I-AA championship at Montana after winning back-to-back Division II national titles at UNC in 1996-97.

“If he doesn’t have the talent, he’ll make them think they have the talent,” Collins said of the Cowboys. “At the same time, I don’t know anybody that can say no to him. He’ll get recruits there because he’ll get into their homes and he’ll have their moms and dads eating out of the palm of his hand. They can’t say no to him.”

Collins played for Glenn from 1991-94, then spent the 1995 as a student assistant at UNC. He learned a lot from his coach.

“If you get after a kid, you make sure you love him up after that,” Collins said. “As soon as he does something great, you go love him up. That’s how Joe Glenn is.

“If he did get after you, he would let you know exactly what was going on. Whenever he was getting after you, he was telling you, ‘You could be great, you could be great, you could be great.'”

Glenn is still telling people Collins could be great. The coach helped his protege get his first full-time job at Northwest Missouri State in 1996 and recommended him again last winter when Collins was hired at KU.

Collins looked forward to talking to his coach before today’s game.

“Joe does that to guys he doesn’t know,” he said. “He’ll be out on the field before the game, walking around talking to trainers. He’ll go over and talk to the ball boy. He doesn’t discriminate against anybody. I’m pretty sure I’ll see him, and probably so will the trainers and ball boys.”

It won’t be the first time Collins and Glenn have stood on opposite sides of the field on game day. Northern Colorado and Northwest Missouri State met four times in the Division II playoffs, with each team winning twice.

Mangino, who was an assistant to Bill Snyder at Kansas State and Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, said there was little advantage to be gained in such circumstances.

“I went through that same issue when I went from K-State to OU,” he said. “It’s a double-edged sword. They know how he thinks, and he knows how they think. It’s a push.”