I hope that...

[amendm1]

Here are my hopes...

• I hope that no one is completely surprised by our season thus far? While some of us may have hoped for better, we all know that we are only half way through the 1st season of a rebuilding process. To all those that say we have some of the most talented skill position players in our history... you may be correct, but when I look at this and last season, I think we should be careful in throwing that out. May be true, but talented skill position players find a way to make plays. They find a way to put a team on their back. I have not seen it. If you don't subscribe to that theory, you must at least know that there are 22 starters... and a handful of skill position don't win many games on their own.
• I hope that people don't forget that, we have what many pre-season experts were calling one of the top new coaches in the country. Yes, he still has to prove it, but I think we all know that a half of a season is not a measuring stick... even Harbaugh's Stanford win over USC means little (too early). Oh, and while they need to prove it, I think on paper we have one of the strongest assistant coaching staffs we've ever had. We finally recognize that you have to pay assistant coaches well to get good assistant coaches.
• I hope that people can see that with the possible exception of Tech, this team is improving each game.
• I hope that people don't forget that we have strong leadership in ISU athletics... some of the best young guns in athletics (my opinion)... Pollard, Chizik, McDermitt and Sanders. Strong leadership builds programs on rock, versus sand.
• I hope people realize that we finally have money coming into the program... record season ticket sales, strong fund raising, football stadium suites on the way.
• I hope that as the season progresses fans continue to go to the stadium and support the team... This one is huge. I absolutely hate the tag of "fickle fan" or "weak fan support." Yes, if this were year 5 in a rebuild, then I could see it. But, I think many of us bought season tickets in anticipation for the "future." So, sit back... enjoy the ride and have faith.
• I hope that fans are a beacon of inspiration for the coaches, players
• I hope that fans understand what impact they can have on gaining future "RECRUITS"... Dont ever think fan support is not a huge factor in recruiting.

Hang in there clones... I've followed ISU sports for more years than I'll admit. I am more confident than ever about the future of our sports... not the "today," but rather the future.

It's all about perspective and the ability to think and see beyond what we can grab today.

Just my opinion...

Go Clones!!!

[chadm]

Thanks, I needed to read that after looking over some of the threads last night.

[BryceC]

Awesome post bud, excellent points.

[cycloneworld]

Good post.

But as for your first point, some people DID expect many more wins (see the preseason Record Prediction thread). I expected a couple more but I'm just happy progress is being made. It's great to hear Chizik come out and say that as well.

[ISUFan22]

Good post.

[travman23]

I agree with your post except for the "completely surprised" part. I was saying 4-5 wins before the season so while it doesn't completely surprise me, how we got to 1-5 has surprised me. I expected to at least win a couple non-conference games and I'm surprised how accepting a lot of people are of losing to the teams we did considering that some here were projecting as many as 6, 7 or even 8 wins.

If we somehow find a way to get 4 wins I'd be estatic but realistically after watching this team play I'm wondering if we'll even find a 2nd win. There is a lot of work to be done with this program and I'll show patience these first couple seasons but if there is not noticable progress in years 3 and 4 it could get interesting around here.

[Cloned4Life]

I agree, good post.

[Wesley]

One item that is up for debate is if our offense is suited for the Big 12. It may work at Stephen Austin which lost 21-0, but after watching Texas Tech, Kansas State, and MIssouri, perhaps the run game is not as important as five receivers which sets up the quarterback run. Kook at the stats on who the big runners re in the Big 12 now. Marlon Lucky is BMOC.

RUSHING Team Cl G Att Yds Avg TD Long Yds/G
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Lucky, Marlon....... NU JR 5 108 565 5.2 6 41 113.0
2. Charles, Jamaal..... UT JR 5 102 543 5.3 7 46 108.6
3. Patrick, Allen...... OU SR 4 52 401 7.7 5 69 100.2
4. Bass,J.J............ ISU JR 4 96 390 4.1 4 22 97.5
5. Hunter, Kendall..... OSU FR 4 47 359 7.6 3 46 89.8
6. Temple, Tony........ MU SR 4 68 353 5.2 3 33 88.2
7. McGee, Stephen...... TAMU JR 5 62 412 6.6 4 65 82.4
8. McAnderson, Bra..... KU SR 4 52 327 6.3 6 26 81.8
9. Johnson, James...... KSU SR 4 57 316 5.5 5 18 79.0

[brianhos]

I expect 3-4 wins, so I guess I am going to be dissapointed.

[Wesley]

Bret is #10:
PASSING AVG/GAME Team Cl G Att Cmp Int Pct. Yds TD Avg/G
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Harrell, Graham..... TTU JR 5 267 192 2 71.9 2301 24 460.2
2. Daniel, Chase....... MU JR 4 176 116 4 65.9 1311 13 327.8
3. Reesing, Todd....... KU SO 4 125 73 1 58.4 1199 11 299.8
4. Keller, Sam......... NU SR 5 185 121 7 65.4 1497 9 299.4
5. Szymanski, B........ BU SO 5 224 116 7 51.8 1405 14 281.0
6. Freeman, Josh....... KSU SO 4 170 105 4 61.8 1004 3 251.0
7. McCoy, Colt......... UT SO 5 186 118 9 63.4 1254 8 250.8
8. Bradford, Sam....... OU FR 5 115 83 4 72.2 1179 15 235.8
9. Hawkins, Cody....... CU FR 5 193 109 8 56.5 1164 8 232.8
10.Meyer,Bret.......... ISU SR 5 179 112 8 62.6 1092 4 218.4

[pulse]

People weren't necessarily predicting, they were optimistically hoping for more wins at the beginning of the season. I was hoping we would win 5 or 6, but I've seen too many blown seasons to think it would actually happen. Those people that predicted 1-4 wins were scared that people predicting 5-8 wins would be greatly disappointed and are surprised that they are accepting. You shouldn't be surprised, we're Cyclone fans we can take anything thrown at us, we've seen it all.

[Wesley]

Looks like our fieldgoals could improve:

SCORING (KICK) Team Cl G PATs FGs Pts Pts/G
------------------------------------------------------------
1. Webb, Scott......... KU SR 4 27-27 5-6 42 10.5
2. Rossman, Brooks..... KSU JR 4 16-17 8-9 40 10.0
3. Bailey, Ryan........ UT JR 5 19-19 10-12 49 9.8
Trlica, Alex........ TTU SR 5 37-37 4-6 49 9.8
5. Szymanski, Matt..... TAMU SO 5 21-21 9-15 48 9.6
6. Hartley, Garret..... OU SR 5 34-37 4-5 46 9.2
7. Wolfert, Jeff....... MU JR 4 21-21 5-9 36 9.0
8. Henery, Alex........ NU FR 5 20-20 3-3 29 5.8
9. Culbertson,Bret..... ISU SR 5 10-10 6-11 28 5.6
Eberhart, Kevin..... CU SR 5 13-13 5-9 28 5.6

[leg4cy]

Hell, maybe Dienhart is right. Iowa State may very well be the toughest job in college football.

[Wesley]

To get our one win, we hav done a good job of controlling the ball with running:
TIME OF POSSESSION G Total Time Avg/G
----------------------------------------------
1. Colorado............ 5 162:34 32:30
2. Iowa State.......... 5 161:43 32:20
3. Texas A&M........... 5 159:12 31:50
4. Texas............... 5 153:57 30:47
5. Nebraska............ 5 153:14 30:38
6. Kansas.............. 4 117:26 29:21
7. Texas Tech.......... 5 146:10 29:14
8. Oklahoma............ 5 144:44 28:56
9. Kansas State........ 4 112:29 28:07
10.Oklahoma State...... 5 139:53 27:58
11.Missouri............ 4 107:38 26:54
12.Baylor.............. 5 128:26 25:41

[Wesley]

Yet, we cannot cover kicks or kickoff very wrll. This should be fixable over night:
KICKOFF COVERAGE G No. Yards Avg Retn TB NetAvg
------------------------------------------------------------
1. Oklahoma............ 5 45 3055 67.9 720 9 47.9
2. Texas A&M........... 5 32 2142 66.9 381 12 47.5
3. Kansas.............. 4 37 2459 66.5 542 10 46.4
4. Nebraska............ 5 31 2030 65.5 326 15 45.3
5. Texas Tech.......... 5 45 2911 64.7 662 13 44.2
6. Colorado............ 5 22 1381 62.8 382 3 42.7
7. Oklahoma State...... 5 29 1763 60.8 429 5 42.6
8. Baylor.............. 5 24 1386 57.8 365 0 42.5
9. Texas............... 5 35 2237 63.9 630 8 41.3
10.Kansas State........ 4 30 1759 58.6 530 1 40.3
11.Missouri............ 4 29 1690 58.3 606 1 36.7
12.Iowa State.......... 5 22 1239 56.3 504 3 30.7