By Kaylee Lindenmuth
Staff Writer
KU Football has a new offensive coordinator – one with experience in the upper echelon of the college football world.
G.A. Mangus, a former assistant coach at the University of South Carolina, was hired as the offensive coordinator, quarterbacks and tight ends coach for the Golden Bears for 2017.
Mangus spent seven seasons in Columbia overseeing the Gamecock offense, whose players continually broke team records, including career wins as a starter (QB Connor Shaw in 2013) and yards passing (QB Dylan Thompson in 2014).
During his time at South Carolina, Mangus showed prowess in recruiting, being named a national Top 25 Recruiter by ESPN.com in 2011.
As an assistant coach for the Gamecocks, Mangus was under Steve Spurrier – a position not unfamiliar to the Marietta, Georgia native.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mangus was the quarterback of a Spurrier-led Florida Gators squad, which won the 1991 Southeastern Conference title.
Now, Mangus enters another position he once knew – coaching small-school college football in eastern Pennsylvania.
In 2002, Mangus took over head coaching duties for a struggling Delaware Valley Aggie football team out of Doylestown, Bucks County.
In his first season at the helm, the Aggies went 2-8. In the following three years, the team earned only half as many losses as in ’02, as the team won three straight conference championships, with back-to-back undefeated regular seasons in ’04 and ’05.
Following Mangus’ departure from Delaware Valley in 2006, current KU Head Coach Jim Clements took over the Aggie team, earning the school record for most wins as a coach in his tenure there.
Now, Mangus looks to help lead the Golden Bears to a PSAC Championship following a historic 2016 season.
The Golden Bears are #2 in the 2017 PSAC East Preseason Poll.