Nancy Clark Column

PlymouthCy · 10-01-2006, 08:25 AM

For once I agree with Nancy, that McCarney would not be back had ISU lost to UNI. I have never been on the fire Mac band-wagon, however last night I was 7 feet away from jumping on.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pb...73/1003/SPORTS

Bob · 10-01-2006, 10:02 AM

I thought it was a great article. Hit the nail right on the head, no matter how Mac spins it.

statman · 10-01-2006, 10:23 AM

I didn't like that article at all. Did our coach fumble at the 1 yd line or was that Flynn? Did McCarney throw the interception on an out returned for a touchdown or did Meyer? Did McCarney muff 2 consecutive punts or did Baum? Did McCarney get a false start penalty or a hold in the red zone near the end of the half? Granted, I feel a coaching mistake clearly happened at 4th & 2 at the end of the half when we didn't get 3 pts or the first down, it was a gamble that didn't pay off. Still, we shouldn't have even been in that position if it weren't for the penalties. UNI played error free football (no turnovers) while we commited multiple turnovers. Those turnovers and penaties seemed somewhat out of character for us under McCarney, perhaps more representative of earlier & less successsful regimes than McCarney's. At times, it seemed we had no luck at all, yet we played hard and play-called aggressively down the stretch to do what we needed to do to win against a very, very good division 1-AA team. Instead of feeling our coach's job should be in jeopardy, we should be feeling that if we could take better care of the ball and catch a few more breaks, that we could have won by over 20 instead of by 1 last night. If we can eliminate the mistakes, we can have a good chance against a ranked Nebraska team next week.

Skyh13 · 10-01-2006, 10:43 AM

That's the thing, though. "If we can take better care of the ball"..."if we can eliminate the mistakes"... that isn't up to the fans to change. It's up the the coaches to do something about it. To properly prepare the players to perform consistently well on the field. If we were to lose to our Division I-AA neighbors, a huge red flag pops up as "why in the world did we just lose this game?" If our team really had nobody talented on it, well, then that's tough to deal with. But it does have talented players. And if a loss like that comes that never, ever should happen, then you have to look at what is going on behind the scenes and say something here is going wrong. That's where the stuff about the coach comes in.

ISUFan22 · 10-01-2006, 11:01 AM

As I posted in a separate thread earlier in the week...

Coaches coach and players play.

Wins are the result of good coaching and good execution on the field.

Conversely, losses are a result of both mistakes made by coaches and players.

So both sides are correct. We aught to be able to out coach UNI enough to go into the 4th quarter with a comfortable lead. Also, we aught to be able to execute well enough to have the same result.

Instead, we're in a tight game that relied on a missed kick to win.

I did think the play calling last night was about as good as it's been this season. The team came out flat though, especially after the early turnover.

So maybe that's where the coaching staff needs to improve - crisis management. Each time this year we've had something bad happen, we've folded up shop for a while. Seriously think about it...each game when we had droughts on offense and poor play on defense...came after an adverse play. Interesting.

On the players...we gave them 3 turnovers that resulted in 13 points. In addition...those 3 turnovers took away from us at minimum 7 points...if not likely 14 or more. We can't do that, especially as we enter the Big 12.

bld1942 · 10-01-2006, 11:11 AM

Why not call a time out when the other teams offense is chewing up yards and try and slow their momentum plus light a fire under the defense and maybe make and adustment?? To me that falls under coaching.
Just one mans opinion.

Balls · 10-01-2006, 11:16 AM

Skyh13. Great post. Nice to see that others understand that coaches are responsible for their players actions on the field. Mistakes, penalities, and poor execution can be minimized by good coaching.

chuckd4735 · 10-01-2006, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by Balls

Skyh13. Great post. Nice to see that others understand that coaches are responsible for their players actions on the field. Mistakes, penalities, and poor execution can be minimized by good coaching.

I would agree to an extent. One thing that has really gotten to me now is the way we are tackling our opponents. From Junior High on I was thought year after year to tackle between the knees and hips. We would be ripped in practice if we dove for ankle tackles. In the last three games, we have had WAYYYYY to many missed tackles, and I would think that is one thing that could easily be changed in practice and I do not understand how we could be so poor at it 3 weeks in a row.

As, far as the penalties go, we were very good at not committing too many penalties the 1st 3 games, and this has really changed in the past 2 weeks, but last night was better then it was down in Texas.

Ryan Baum had better be running laps all day today. Fumbling a punt 2 TIMES IN A ROW??? That mistake should never happen, let alone 2 times in a row.

Flynn is a good player and he will learn from the mistake he made tonight, but in the position we were in last night, Flynn was just looking for a huge play, which he almost got, but he did make a mistake that he has never made before as a receiver, and trust me he will learn from it.

Now if the mistakes we made last night were mistakes we had been making all year, they I would hole heartily agree that it is coaching, but that is not the case. Knowing that, I find it very hard to blame last nights game on coaching.

Our defense could did not stop UNI at all in the first half until the punt at the end of the half. The coaches made their halftime adjustments, and kept UNI from moving the ball. Our coaches motivated our team to come out in a big way after halftime, outscoring UNI 21-6 in the second half. Take away the Baum and Flynn fumbles, and it could of arguably been 28-3 in the 2nd half.

clonestotop · 10-01-2006, 11:39 AM

I agree that are coaching needs to get much much better but lets be honest.... Baum's fumbles and Flynn's fumble were not coaching. These guys have played football since they were 10 and are seniors on the football team. It is there fault and there fault only at getting the job done. Mac can't make Baum catch the ball. If he was Bill Belichick it wouldn't matter, cuz you can't coach catching that. And then flynn reaching at the end zone was dumb BUT at least he was giving extrodinary effort to get there. He dragged his guy 5 yds. So i can live with that. But that too is not coaching. Coaching is a run up in the middle in jumbo formation on 4th and 2. Thats bad coaching. And not figuring out that UNI has two plays that work offensively. Drag across the field and off tackle with the running back. Every now and then they would throw a 5 yd out in there but come on. With our LB speed they should be able to guard the drag relatively well.

Balls · 10-01-2006, 11:40 AM

Great article by Nancy. Just hope that this win didn't keep Mac his job. A 1 point win to UNI should still be a big red flag (among many) that Mac needs to go. It would be sad to have to stick with Mac because he pulled out this win.

michaelrr1 · 10-01-2006, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by Balls

Great article by Nancy. Just hope that this win didn't keep Mac his job. A 1 point win to UNI should still be a big red flag (among many) that Mac needs to go. It would be sad to have to stick with Mac because he pulled out this win.

Remember when a win over a Nebraska or Oklahoma used to save Walden's job? Now a win over UNI saves Mac's job.

TheHelgo · 10-01-2006, 12:17 PM

who else is starting to think that all the hype that surrounded the hiring of Cotton a few years ago was just that, hype? I have not been impressed with our offense since he arrived.

CyForPresident · 10-01-2006, 12:34 PM

I have two questions:

1.) Why wasn't someone in Baum's face after the first Fumble? He got bailed out and anyone on the coaching staff should have grabbed his face mask and told him to calm down and catch the ball first before trying to do any special.

2.) Who the hell coaches players to reach for the goal line? Thats the reason why Flynn fumbled was because he was reaching for the goal line. This should never happen especially after last years Baylor game. Don't F*cking reach!?! We have Ryan Kock who can easily punch it in.

Until I get answers to these question, I hold DMac responsible for last night.

Cypwr · 10-01-2006, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by CyForPresident

I have two questions:

1.) Why wasn't someone in Baum's face after the first Fumble? He got bailed out and anyone on the coaching staff should have grabbed his face mask and told him to calm down and catch the ball first before trying to do any special.

2.) Who the hell coaches players to reach for the goal line? Thats the reason why Flynn fumbled was because he was reaching for the goal line. This should never happen especially after last years Baylor game. Don't F*cking reach!?! We have Ryan Kock who can easily punch it in.

Until I get answers to these question, I hold DMac responsible for last night.

Watch the replay Flynn was not reaching for the goal line he twisted around and came down on a UNI player trying to get the extra yard.

frontrangeclone · 10-01-2006, 02:13 PM

Clark's column was to the point, and dead-on, whether we like it or not. The debate going on with this thread seems to be over which mistakes that were made were the responsibility of the coaches or the players. For those who defend Mac and say he can't be responsible for all that goes on the field (which is true)... let's say, if for example a team plays disciplined (few to no penalties), tackles well, catches most balls that should be caught and have few to no fumbles, well, is that just by chance and luck that those players on the field play that way, or is that the result of GOOD coaching? Has anyone noticed that prior to a game, no matter who its against (Texas, or D-IAA opponents) McCarney gives galactic praise to the other team? saying how "theres no doubt about it, _____ team is going to be a tremendous challenge for us" Do the players hear this to from him all week? I mean if they do no wonder they play down to the levels of some of these teams... I would hope the coaching staff shows a little more confidence and less uncertainty behind closed-doors in practice.

But lets step back from dissecting this game in particular and look at the big picture.... why is it that the 2006 Cyclones, DMac's 12th squad, with TEN returning players on a veteran offense, even let a D-IAA stay in the game with them? Oh, thats right, we have a young defense. Huh? why do we have such a young D? of course the Eboh, Berryman, and Robertson debaucles were costly, BUT, any staff that's been around 12 years should recruit well enough and have the foresight to be deep in the positions that are absolutely essential to win in the Big 12 (particularly D-lineman in this case?)
Is anyone alarmed that in the three W's this year, all the games came down to the last play of the game by the other team? Why aren't we hanging 3 touchdowns on teams like those we barely eeked out victories over so far? I mean how many of the next 7 games does anyone see us winning realistically?

I've never been a fan of Cotton. He is old school Nebraska. He played at Nebraska. He thinks like Tom Osborne does, very conservatively. He played a simple style of football some called "3 yards and a cloud of dust" which worked well at Nebraska 20 years ago, but I just cannot stomach anymore watching this offense, saturated with potential, sputter against D-IAA, MWC and MAC defenses. Pop in a tape of any game from 2000 or 2001, those offenses were FUN to watch and effective.