• E-mail

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – When ESPN was choosing a face to represent the history of Kansas football, it selected Mark Mangino.

Amazing what a 12-1 season and cracking a BCS bowl can do for a public profile. A year ago, the 2007 schedule was supposed to get enough wins to keep Mangino employed. It accomplished far more.

The Jayhawks became a target, for both opponents and skeptics.

Earlier this week, New Mexico coach Rocky Long took dead aim at the quality of Kansas' opponents.

Enough already, Mangino said Tuesday at Big 12 media days.

"It doesn't bother me at all," Mangino said. "You tell me when there was a time ... when Kansas' football program could beat the likes of Nebraska and A&M and Colorado and Virginia Tech and you have to sit and defend your schedule. Times have changed, haven't they?"

They have, in more ways than one.

If Kansas is to somehow maintain its newfound presence among the college football elite, it will have to do it against a schedule far fiercer than anything the Jayhawks encountered last season.

Reliable Florida International remains part of the Kansas schedule, a win waiting to be counted. But Sam Houston State is counterbalanced by a September trip to rising power South Florida.

The Big 12 South opponents have changed dramatically. A&M, Baylor and Oklahoma State are gone, replaced by home games with Texas and Texas Tech and a road meeting with Oklahoma.

"I'm not going to get into scheduling, because I can't control that," said Todd Reesing, the 5-11 (maybe) quarterback from Austin who threw for 3,486 yards and 33 touchdowns last season.

"I play whoever is on the schedule, and that's really all it comes down to. The only thing I'll say is we play in the Big 12 and there are a lot of good teams, so it doesn't matter which three you're playing."

Sure it does, as Kansas will discover.

Assume that Mangino can find suitable replacements for departed All-Americans Aqib Talib and Anthony Collins, and that an experienced defense fulfills expectations.

The Jayhawks could be just as good as they were in 2007 – and have five regular-season losses. That's not exactly BCS material.

Winning has always been a problem in Lawrence, where the mystique of basketball and Allen Fieldhouse trumps everything else.

Sustaining has been an even bigger challenge. The Jayhawks haven't put together consecutive seasons with at least eight wins since 1908 and '09.

Maybe Mangino should be relishing that two-year extension he received, the one that pays him $2.3 million annually.

Instead, he's embracing the challenge.

"Well, we've always said that we want our program to be able to compete with the best teams in the league," Mangino said. "And the fact that we are picking up Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech is something that we look forward to. ...

"That's the test for our program. We will never truly get over the hump, in my eyes – I don't know how anybody else sees it – until we're able to defeat those teams as well."