Kansas coach Mark Mangino congratulates running back Jake Sharp after a touchdown run against Nebraska. Mangino prides himself on never having told a player an untruth.

The public’s perception of Mark Mangino has changed now that his team is 11-0 and his career record is 36-35 as coach of the Kansas University football team, but the coach himself maintains he hasn’t changed much at all.

He said he tells his players repeatedly, “You should have the same friends today as you had a year ago. And if you do, you should be just fine. I do.”

Mangino’s closest friends are from his hometown of New Castle, Pa., not that he could see them much, even if they lived in Lawrence, given his work schedule.

“A lot of my friends, unfortunately, don’t live in the same community, and I don’t get a chance to converse with them frequently,” Mangino said. “When I do talk with them by telephone, it’s usually late at night or maybe at lunch time. I’ll go back to my hometown for three, four or five days during the summer, and I make an attempt to see everybody.”

Mangino’s approach to coaching his team hasn’t changed, either, he has said repeatedly. He still adheres to the “sawing wood” approach that has grown into the team’s motto by accident.

An avid reader, Mangino said he keeps himself centered by reminding himself of a famous quote.

“No matter how hard I drive myself at times,” Mangino said, “no matter how long you coach, no matter how much you win, no matter how much you lose, Winston Churchill said it best: ‘Success is never final; failure is never fatal.”’

Interestingly, that quote often is attributed to the most successful college basketball coach of all time, UCLA’s John Wooden, but Mangino cited the correct source.

Those who know Mangino well wouldn’t be surprised by hearing him quoting historical figures, but the majority of sports fans across the country formed their impressions of Mangino from the video of him airing out Raimond Pendleton, who in a show-boating move dove into the end zone after returning a punt for a touchdown. A video of that, replete with salty audio, made its way to YouTube.

“Usually, television stations covering the game on the sideline use all the video footage they can,” Mangino said, looking back on the coverage of his tirade. “I’ve never heard of audio being used inside the coach’s box. It’s always been kind of a courtesy that you don’t do that. I wasn’t extended that courtesy. Now that I know, I’m more careful, but I don’t let it affect my coaching.”

Former Kansas City Chiefs running back J.J. Smith, who played for Mangino at Kansas State, said he hopes Mangino isn’t too careful to let it a player have it after he makes a mistake.

“I had a big fumble in a game against Kansas,” Smith said. “When I got to the sideline, he chewed me out and used about five ‘Sopranos’ episodes worth of language. I was so mad when I got back on that field, I took it out on the other team. And you know something, I never fumbled again.”

The tough-love approached worked for Smith. It doesn’t work for everyone.

“You have to pick and choose, and I’m sure J.J. embellished that story a little bit,” Mangino said with a chuckle. “He has a history of that. I’m sure I gave him an earful, and he didn’t fumble after that. But you can’t take that approach with everyone. You have to know what buttons to push. Some players respond to a pat on the head, some to a good chewing out, some to an intellectual conversation. The important thing is that at the end of the day, they all know you care about them.”

Mangino, who said he enjoys reading “motivational books and biographies,” didn’t take a conventional path to coaching. He never played college football. (Neither did Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis, which suggests little can be drawn from that in terms of predicting success as a college coach since Weis’ team is 2-9.)

Mangino, 51, was an offensive lineman at New Castle High and was an assistant coach there while attending Youngstown State University. It was then that one of Youngstown State head coach’s assistants, the late Bob Dove, approached him about helping out at Youngstown State.

“I knew him and bumped into him on campus one day when he asked me to come over for a cup of coffee,” Mangino said of Dove, a two-position All-American who played at Notre Dame from 1940-42. “He told me they were looking for somebody to help out coaching the offensive line, knew I was on campus every day and asked if I was interested.”

He didn’t need to be asked twice. He worked on the late Bill Narduzzi’s staff for a year and worked a year under Jim Tressel, now the head coach at Ohio State, for a year. From there, he became offensive-line coach and offensive coordinator at Geneva (Pa.) College (1987-1989). In 1990, Mangino was head football coach at Ellwood City (Pa.) High.

In 1991, Bill Snyder hired him as a graduate assistant, the first big break of Mangino’s career and the beginning of a Big 12 run that’s in its 17th season.

“Coaching is something I’ve always aspired to do,” Mangino said. “Working as a graduate assistant at Kansas State was a new experience, I worked hard at it, and coach (Bill) Snyder took to me.”

Graduate assistants do grunt work such as running photo copies for assistant coaches and taking roll call on buses and airplanes.

“I just did everything that (Snyder) asked me to do and even extra,” Mangino said. “I enjoyed coaching, and I enjoyed everything that went with it. To me it wasn’t work. It was fun. It was challenging, and I wanted to make sure I did everything I could. When you’re a graduate assistant, you help three or four assistant coaches, and there are times when the all want something done, and they need it right away, all at the same time. You might have to come earlier or stay later to get all that done.”

Work-wise, Mangino takes the same approach as a head as he did as an assistant. He stays until he gets the job done every day and looks forward to Thursday nights, the one night during the season he spends at home. Tonight at bread-breaking time, Mangino’s family won’t be the only one in the state of Kansas giving thanks for his presence.