Mangino addresses precautions

Following a highly-publicized two-day feud between members of the Kansas University football and men’s basketball teams — during which sophomore basketball player Tyshawn Taylor admitted to throwing a punch via his Facebook account — Kansas football coach Mark Mangino on Wednesday addressed the precautions taken by his team’s staff to prevent offensive material from being posted.

In addition to employing a staff member whose responsibilities include periodically monitoring the Facebook accounts of players, Mangino said that coaches spoke to team members during training camp about the potential hazards of the various social media outlets available today.

“You can embarrass yourself,” Mangino said. “You can embarrass strangers, you don’t want to put anything on there that’s going to make you look bad, your team look bad.”

While he admitted that it’s hard to keep an eye on all the digital actions of a 105-man roster, the coach said he’s been pleased with the online conduct of his team to this point.

“Anybody can read it,” he said. “And we do have an administrator that periodically goes through them, and we haven’t had any problems — nothing serious — and I think our kids have managed that pretty well.”

LB Wright expected back

Injured linebacker Arist Wright is expected to be back in the team’s lineup during Saturday’s game against visiting Southern Mississippi, Mangino said Wednesday.

Wright, a senior starter, left midway through last week’s victory over Duke with an undisclosed injury and didn’t return, paving the way for a 10-tackle day from backup Huldon Tharp, a true freshman.

“He practiced full speed today,” Mangino said. “He shows no signs of his injury. We’ve been kind of smart with him, but I think he’s going to be OK. I think he’s going to be ready to go.”

Biere returning to form

After being held out of the Jayhawks’ last two games with an illness, sophomore tight end Tim Biere returned to practice Sunday and will be available for this weekend’s game.

“He looks pretty good,” Mangino said. “He feels a lot better, and he’s getting his strength back, and I think he’ll be ready to go full speed come Saturday.”