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Kansas coach Mark Mangino has been in more harrowing situations than trying to get his 2-1 Jayhawks to bounce back from a road loss at Northwestern in a home game against Texas Tech's pass-at-any-cost offense.

When Mangino was an assistant coach under Jim Tressel at Youngstown State in 1986, Mangino was a graduate student with a wife, two kids and a second job as an emergency medical first responder on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

"I don't know when he slept," Tressel said. "But he had a passion for coaching that wouldn't be denied."

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Mangino would usually pack a bag on Sunday night, say goodbye to his wife, Mary Jane, daughter, Samantha, and son, Tommy, and not return home until Thursday. Mangino would go to class in the morning, work as a coach in the afternoon, break down film into the evening and then head to the Turnpike to work the graveyard shift.

There were many nights he didn't sleep.

Because there were locations on the Turnpike that were remote from hospitals and emergency medical treatment, Mangino was often the first one on the scene of sometimes-gruesome accidents. The images from that job still live with Mangino today.

"It was tough," Mangino said. "I saw some people take their last breath."

If there was one lesson learned from that experience, it was to take risks in life because you're not guaranteed anything.

So in 1991, Mangino took a job for $8,600 a year as a graduate assistant coach on Bill Snyder's staff at Kansas State. With only $500 in his pocket, Mangino was so strapped for cash that he and his family lived in the basement of another K-State assistant coach, John Latina, who is now the offensive coordinator at Ole Miss.

"Mark pays attention to the details, the little things," Snyder said. "He's a guy who really has a tremendous understanding of the entirety of the program and what it takes to maintain the leadership position. He gets along well with his youngsters and does well in distributing responsibility."

After eight years with Snyder -- seven of them as recruiting coordinator -- Mangino left to join Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, where he helped the Sooners win a national title as offensive coordinator in 2000. In 2002, Mangino left to turn around a despondent Kansas football program, taking the Jayhawks from a 2-10 season his first year to a bowl game in 2003 for the first time in eight years.

"I've been lucky to work with some great coaches," Mangino said. "I learned about organization from Jim Tressel, Xs and Os from Bill Snyder and attitude from Bob Stoops. I've taken Bob Stoops' attitude and applied it here. Bob and I think the same in a lot of ways. Bob never has a bad day. He's happy and positive and finds the silver lining in everything. I've always felt like I had a good attitude."

Kansas players say Mangino has helped turn the program around by backing up big demands.

"When he first got here, he weeded out the bad apples by basically putting us through boot camp that first spring," said senior strong safety Tony Stubbs. "He wanted to see who was committed."

Stubbs said Mangino's gift is that he can be demanding and tough while still connecting with players.

"Before, players would come here for a recruiting trip and you could tell they weren't coming," Stubbs said. "They just wanted to use up a visit. Now, people are interested in coming here."

Mangino's team defeated Tulsa (21-3) and Toledo (63-14) to start the season before losing a 17-13 lead in the final minutes of a 20-17 loss at Northwestern last week. While the offense -- Mangino's specialty -- has been prolific, it's the defense that has made the most strides and gives KU a chance to build on last season, which included a trip to the Tangerine Bowl.

The Jayhawks are 10th in Division I-A in total defense and will need a huge performance Saturday against Texas Tech, which leads the nation in passing offense and scored 70 points in a come-from-behind victory over TCU last week.

But this much is assured, Mangino will coach his players with the same passion he showed in working as an assistant coach at Youngstown State by day and a medical technician on the Pennsylvania Turnpike by night.

"To have any kind of success, you have to take some risks," Mangino said.

Chip Brown covers the Big 12 for The Dallas Morning News.