Tuesday's great Kansas mystery is solved, so to speak: The Lawrence Journal-World confirms today that the players only meeting with athletic director Lew Perkins to discuss "concerns" about coach Mark Mangino originated with a complaint by senior linebacker Arist Wright, who said Mangino "poked him the chest" before the Jayhawks' surprising loss to Colorado last month, the first in an ongoing, five-game conference slide after a 5-0 start. Other reports elaborate that Mangino also grabbed and yelled at Wright in addition to poking him for laughing during a walk-through or practice, but the specifics seem less damning implication that Mangino's work with players is consistently, well, not safe for work once his facial-hue threat level reaches "Eggplant":

(In case you didn't get the hint, this clip is not necessarily safe for work. You have been warned)

Several articles suggest parents of former players have met with Perkins and are organized with multiple complaints unrelated to the alleged poking incident. (One unidentified mother told ESPN,"a majority of parents I believe would tell you that they are not surprised by this investigation.") The Journal-World pulls out a two-year-old incident in which Mangino was accused of verbally berating a student for issuing him one of dozens of parking tickets he accumulated in a zone near his office as an example of Mangino's fury. (A tip from a campus parking-ticket vet, coach: Once the number climbs into the hundreds, they can be pieced together and worn as extra insulation on cold mornings. DIY!) He was characteristically terse Tuesday when he told reporters I may have lost some people around here, but not my players." The implication -- that Mangino is a ticking time bomb liable to go off on just about anyone beneath him on the ladder -- is clear enough.

But just as only Nixon could go to China, only Kansas City Star columnist and noted heavyweight Jason Whitlock could possibly bring the issue back to Mangino's weight:

I can relate to Mangino’s struggle. He’s three or four inches shorter than me, and he weighs anywhere from 450 to 500 pounds. He’s a public figure in a demanding, high-stress job.

The weight and the stress form a perfect recipe for depression. They can put your mind in a very negative place. They can make you moody and volatile.
[...]
In more than seven years of covering Mangino's Jayhawks, I’ve never heard anyone associated with the program describe him as "happy."

Mangino coaches from an angry place. It’s not surprising, to me, given his weight problem. ... At his age (53) and weight, Mangino cannot sustain the necessary energy level to positively influence his players. His team is being engulfed by his negative energy, a dark spirit driven by his excess weight.

"Negative energy driven by excess weight" is putting it much more nicely than some other people have, but it amounts to the same basic accusation: Mangino is an angry man who doesn't treat players -- or perhaps anyone else -- with respect, for whatever reason.

No one seems to be suggesting that might immediately cost him his job, especially off one of the best two-year spans in Kansas history in 2007-08, but for Mangino's sake, he'd better hope it doesn't come down to salvaging a winning season: The 5-5 Jayhawks are a staggering four-touchdowns underdogs Saturday at Texas, and close the season against Missouri, which bounced back from a rough month with its best win of the year last week at Kansas State. I wouldn't want to be in the locker room in Arrowhead Stadium after KU had just been dealt its seventh straight loss and its first losing record since 2004, anyway, and especially not with Mangino Rage simmering above a hot seat.