Mangino's Jayhawks Embrace the Incredible

In his fifth year as head coach of Kansas, Mark Mangino has the Jayhawks undefeated and headed in the right direction. (Matt Slocum - AP)

LAWRENCE, Kan., Nov. 21 -- When Mark Mangino showed recruits the unglamorous facilities, the Kansas coach urged them to look past the brick and mortar and focus on the credentials of the people inside. When he explained the lackluster football tradition, he told them to ignore past losses and letdowns and concentrate on possibility.

"It's faith," Mangino said this week. "Faith is believing in something you can't see."

The vision that Mangino articulated when hired five years ago has finally crystallized, because the Jayhawks are in the process of writing the most improbable story in recent college football history. A team that did not receive one vote in the Associated Press preseason poll is two victories away from playing for the national championship in a sport that has long favored the established.

The Jayhawks are the only unbeaten team remaining from one of the six Bowl Championship Series conferences. Their undersize quarterback, Todd Reesing, has fast become a Heisman Trophy hopeful. And Mangino has become a strong favorite for national coach of the year after leading the Jayhawks to their first 11-0 start in school history.

In addition to that acclaim, Saturday night's nationally televised game at Arrowhead Stadium, which matches 116-year rivals Kansas and once-beaten Missouri, could be the national game of the year and is being called the most significant game in the history of Kansas football, which began play in 1890.

"You can tell the people here are pretty shocked" about the success, cornerback Phillip Strozier said. "We're not shocked about it. Our whole approach has been 'Beyond the Wall.' Overcome any barrier, any obstacle."

Four of the Jayhawks' six losses last season were by seven points or less, prompting some players to say during the summer that Kansas would be among the country's most surprising teams. Improving on a 6-6 season, which did not end in a bowl game appearance, also was feasible because of a relatively soft nonconference schedule and a regular season conference schedule that did not include Texas or Oklahoma.

Mark Stallard, a Kansas football historian who has followed the Jayhawks for 40 years, believed Kansas would contend for the Big 12 North Division title this season. Had someone told Stallard that Kansas would be No. 2 in the BCS ratings in November, "I would have said, 'Can I drink what you are drinking?' I wouldn't have believed it. Everyone is crazy" with excitement.

A shop in downtown Lawrence displays a T-shirt that reads, "11-0. History was nice, until we decided to rewrite it." Female students wear shirts that bear the slogan, "Our Coach is Phat." The lead headline in the student newspaper this week read, "Rivalry reaches governors' mansions," referencing the friendly bet Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt made about Saturday's game.

"It's crazy," junior cornerback Aqib Talib said of the historical significance of this season. "I guess it will really hit me later on when I read some trivia and see that team I played for. It will hit me later in life."

Over the past few weeks, Mangino has received scores of e-mails, letters and phone calls from former players. One said he feels good about telling his son about his days playing football at Kansas.

"He's proud now of the football program," Mangino said.