The Western Kentucky coach is interested in returning to Louisville, where he coached from 2003 to 2006 before leaving for the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL months after signing a 10-year extension.

“He told me this weekend he would like the opportunity to coach at Louisville again,” Petrino’s father, Bob Sr., told the Courier-Journal. “He said that he’s been everywhere, the NFL and everywhere else, and he said probably the biggest mistake he’d ever made as a coach was leaving Louisville.”

Petrino does not plan to contact Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich about the opening left by the departure of Charlie Strong to Texas.

Petrino was 41-9 at Louisville, including a 12-1 in 2006 that ended with a win in the Orange Bowl. He didn’t last a full season with the Falcons before taking the job at Arkansas.

At Arkansas, Petrino was 34-17 in four seasons and was 11-2 in 2011. In April 2012, he was fired after a motorcycle accident unraveled a series of lies, including a relationship he was having with a university employee.

After missing 2012, Western Kentucky hired him and the Hilltoppers were 8-4 this season.

“I don’t think there’s any other place in the world where (Bobby) can do the things he can do in Louisville,” Bob Sr. told the Courier-Journal. “I don’t think there’s any question, if he was offered this job, he’d take it.”


STRONG WANTS TOUGH TEXAS


Charlie Strong talked about being tough and winning championships. That is exactly what Texas fans wanted to hear from their new football coach.

There's little doubt he can deliver the first. The second part will determine whether he can revive a dormant program back and push it back among the national elite where the Longhorns are desperately longing to be.

"It's time to put the program back on the national stage," Strong said Monday at his introductory news conference. "The mentality is always going to be mental and physical toughness ... We will be a hardnosed football team."

That's the reputation Strong brings to Texas, which has floundered since playing for the 2009 national championship. Four seasons of at least four losses and no Big 12 titles ended with Mack Brown exiting after 16 years, and Texas turning to the coach who led Louisville to a 23-3 mark and two bowl wins the last two seasons.

Strong also had a reputation of being uncomfortable with the media, but with his wife and two daughters sitting in the front row watching him, he breezed through his 45-minute news conference with smiles and jokes before ending with the trademark "Hook'em Horns" hand signal for the cameras.

"Let's go win football games," Strong said. "Let's go win championships."

The 53-year-old Strong clearly has some of the same pages from Brown's playbook. He embraced the legacy of Texas's football tradition when he entered the room and hugged Edith Royal, the widow of former Longhorns coach Darrell Royal who won national titles in 1963 and 1969 and a share of a third in 1970.

And just like Brown did when he arrived in 1997, Strong made a point of embracing Texas high school coaches and his commitment to recruiting the state's best players.

"We will recruit with fire, recruit with passion," Strong said, adding he wants to "close the border" to out-of-state programs.


MANGINO JOINS IOWA STATE STAFF


Former Kansas coach Mark Mangino has been hired as the offensive coordinator at Iowa State.

Mangino spent eight seasons as the coach at Kansas, winning national coach of the year honors in 2007 and leading the Jayhawks to a win in the Orange Bowl. But Mangino was fired following the 2009 season amid accusations of treating his players poorly.

Mangino was 50-48 at Kansas. He spent three seasons out of football before serving as the assistant head coach at Youngstown State last year.

"I am beyond thrilled to welcome Coach Mangino to the Cyclone football family," Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads said. "He has an imaginative offensive mind, an ability to play to his players' strengths, a track record of winning and a tremendous familiarity with the Big 12 Conference. In terms of calling plays and executing a game plan, he is top shelf."

Mangino got his collegiate coaching start at Youngstown State (1985-86), working for Jim Tressel. Three years later, he was hired by Bill Snyder at Kansas State and the Wildcats won at least nine games his final six seasons in Manhattan. Mangino joined Bob Stoops' first staff at Oklahoma in 1999, and was promoted to offensive coordinator the next year.

His eight-year tenure at Kansas included a remarkable renaissance. Inheriting a program with six consecutive losing seasons, Mangino turned a two-win team his first season into Orange Bowl champions five years later.

After Mangino went 12-1 at Kansas and won the Orange Bowl in 2007, he was given a big raise and contract extension through 2012 and honored as AP's national coach of the year.

Mangino resigned in 2009 amid allegations that he mistreated his players. He was defiant to the end, insisting after a last-second loss to Missouri in the season finale that he had done nothing wrong. He had four years left on his contract, worth $2.3 million per year, or a total of $9.2 million. He and the school reached a $3 million settlement.

Contributors: Ken Bradley, The Associated Press

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