Hidden Figures: Meet August Mangin, former walk-on fullback and Kelvin Sheppard teammate at LSU
Note: This is the third installment in a multi-part series that explores the background, responsibilities, and aspirations of the Detroit Lions’ lower-level assistant coaches. Today, we’re looking at defensive assistant August Mangin.
Allen Park — Are there two words, when placed side-by-side, that better convey a burning passion for football than walk-on fullback?
Meet August Mangin, a former walk-on fullback at LSU, who has partnered in Detroit with college teammate Kelvin Sheppard, following the coach’s offseason promotion to defensive coordinator.
Mangin’s football journey began in Lewisville, Texas, a densely populated, northern suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. He was a two-way player at Lewisville High School, where he was known more for his contributions as an edge defender than his sporadic usage as a tight end occasionally responsible for a backside block in the team's triple-option scheme.
Mangin was good enough to generate some interest from a handful of I-AA programs — now known as the Football Championship Subdivision — but exhibiting a trait common to many teenagers, he thought he was better than the evaluations. So he aimed higher.
Why LSU? Well, at the time, it was one of college football’s premier programs, having won 20 games in the two seasons before Mangin arrived. And what football-crazed kid from Texas wouldn’t want to regularly play under the lights at Tiger Stadium?
Plus, both his parents had gone to LSU. However, as Mangin tells it, he got suckered in by the Tigers’ longest tenured employee, Dr. Sam Nader, who convinced Mangin he had overlapping traits with the school’s current fullback, another former walk-on, implying a scholarship could come sooner rather than later.
It took all of one practice for the 205-pound Mangin to realize he wasn't nearly as good as he thought coming out of Lewisville.