Mark Mangino on Nick Reid, pride Leipold has restored in program

Mark Mangino told the legendary story of the late Mike Leach putting Nick Reid's name on the back his quarterbacks jersey at Texas Tech.

Mangino also talked about Lance Leipold and Travis Goff restoring pride in the Kansas program and what he said to the team.

What it's like to be back here and how good it feels…

It feels good that Travis Goff and Lance Leipold, they've reached out and they've been kind to me. Been giving me more compliments than I deserve. And I said, "Well, let me go back and check it out."

I'm glad that I'm here because you can see progress. You can see people working together, everybody on the same page. People care about each other. That's the recipe for success. Everybody pulling the rope in the same direction and it's good to see that, especially here at Kansas. It's a very welcoming site.

Talk about Nick a little bit and what he meant to your program…

It's hard to describe what he meant to us. He came in as a freshman from Derby, Kansas, where he played quarterback, but he was athletic looking. So we say, "We're going to take this guy." So Nick comes in, he's a quarterback like half an hour. I said, "Nick, we'd like to send you down to defense. Maybe try a little safety." He said, "Wherever you want me to go, coach, I'll be there."

He started several games as a freshman playing safety. He knew nothing about the position. But I'll tell you this, if you ran the ball towards him, he's going to get you on the ground. He's going to break up plays, and he was going to play like his hair was on fire.

Next year, we said, "We need a good Will linebacker." And he bulked up. So, we moved him to Will. You guys know the rest of the story. His toughness is legendary. It's legendary. The guy played with a screw in his foot, the screw come out at halftime. Doctor said, "No problem." He screwed it back in. He went out and made six, eight more tackles.

Mike Leach called me when he was at Texas Tech and Nick had already graduated. He said, "Hey coach, I need a favor." You know how Mike talked. I miss Mike. He said, "I got a quarterback that's really talented." He said, "But he's not tough." I said, "Mike, I got my own problem." He said, "Now, wait a minute." He said, "Would it be okay if I put Nick's name on the back of his jersey?" I said, "On game day?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Go for it."

I thought Mike was joking. Mike can be a character and he could play pranks on people. So, we played here at 1:00. I had family in town. My wife got all kinds of food and everybody's having a good time. Here, Tech is the late afternoon game. I said, "Wait a minute, everybody quiet." Tech's offense comes out on the field, and doesn't that guy have Nick Reid's name on his back?

Mike Leach told me he was the toughest guy he's ever seen play in the Big 12. You know how many great players that have played this week? So that's Nick Reid.

What was your message to this team when you spoke to them yesterday…

Thank you. Thank you for restoring some pride in this program. A lot of guys came before them, not just necessarily me, but my assistant coaches, my players. We worked tirelessly here. The players gave everything they had. We worked them hard, we coached them hard, we made sure they went to class. Did all those things you need to do, and now it's not a situation where it's embarrassing for those guys. They're happy about their alma mater.

These guys are calling me for what? 10, 11 years. "Coach. It's embarrassing. What are you going to do?" I don't have anything to do with Kansas. I’m not wearing my letterman's jacket anymore. I'm done with them. I didn't have anything else to say. So I told them, "Hey, just hang in there. It'll get better." I tell them, "It'll get better. It'll get better."

Well, it got better. Lance showed up. Travis showed up. It got better. A lot of my former players are having the time of their life.