Walden quoted in NY times article

[cyhiphopp]

****! I didn't even think about John Cooper. How did the AD mess that up?

This thread is depressing. ISU was so close to making great hires and being a good program throughout the 80s and 90s rather than the complete joke they turned into.

I guess the biggest failing was whoever hired the ADs and made the money decisions after Bruce.

[KneeGusto]

I don't have much to add except that I was at the 1990 game in Norman, Oklahoma and for one day we thought Jim Walden was the best offensive coach in America (well, maybe the best offensive coach in Norman Oklahoma that day).

As a fan, I like the fact that I have witnessed Iowa State defeat every Big 8 foe on the football field.

I gotta thank Walden for that.

[Mowilly]

****! I didn't even think about John Cooper. How did the AD mess that up?

This thread is depressing. ISU was so close to making great hires and being a good program throughout the 80s and 90s rather than the complete joke they turned into.

I guess the biggest failing was whoever hired the ADs and made the money decisions after Bruce.

Max has his critics (the AD after Lou) but he did okay. Fact is, Gordon Eaton was NEVER going to allow intercollegiate athletics at ISU become viable. His views on education were never geared that way. Additionally, Pomerantz (with Branstad's silent support-not intended as a partisian jab- just fact) was determined to relegate ISU to a status similar to UNI or worse and would never have allowed Eaton to grow our programs. Max never really had a chance but still, he could hav emade some decision differently. Remember, he did not build KSU, he inherited it.

At one time (early 70's), we were the home of HOF Coaches in nearly every mens sport
FB (Majors and then Bruce) CF HOF
BB (Maury John) Drake Final 4
Wrestling (Dr. Nichols) Mulitple NCAA titles and runner up
Track (young Bill Bergan) Later won several NCAA titles and runners up
Swimming (Jack McGuire) US olympic coach
Gymnastics (Ed Gagnier) Multiple NCAA titles and olympians
Baseball (LC Capp Timm) College world series

Later, we added Ron Renko to womens track and XC and

We had new facilities and while we were doing this, Iowa was going through 20 straight losing season in football, worst Big 10 hoops program and wrestling won a NCAA title under Gary K in 76. It was killing the Hok elite that we were the dominant program in the state BY FAR and they mobilized to do something about it. They hired Lute Olsen, they hired a football coach who left his previous 2 schools on probation which should tell you something about how bad they wanted to win. Several years later, Pomerantz ascends to his throne on the BOR and tries to finish us off (relegating us to UNI status) and does not quite get the job done. Still, the damge is done and our life- support department has limped on ever since getting some life following the Gene Smith years depsite some hideous judgement, some underappreciated years of BVD (he is hard to embrace) and we finally are progressing back to where we were.

[acgclone]

****! I didn't even think about John Cooper. How did the AD mess that up?

This thread is depressing. ISU was so close to making great hires and being a good program throughout the 80s and 90s rather than the complete joke they turned into.

I guess the biggest failing was whoever hired the ADs and made the money decisions after Bruce.

You can't really say that these coaches would have had the same success at ISU. Completely different situations Cooper having success at tOSU doesn't necessarily mean that he would have had success here (see Chizik).

Bill Snyder obviously would have been better than what we had (that much is clear), but could he have turned around ISU without the level of prop 48 and Kansas Juco players that he relied on? I'm not sure about that.

[cyhiphopp]

You can't really say that these coaches would have had the same success at ISU. Completely different situations Cooper having success at tOSU doesn't necessarily mean that he would have had success here (see Chizik).

Bill Snyder obviously would have been better than what we had (that much is clear), but could he have turned around ISU without the level of prop 48 and Kansas Juco players that he relied on? I'm not sure about that.

Oh I fully understand that. I think out administration issues could have nerfed almost any coach we brought in. It's just crazy to think what might have been if the excellent coaches we could have had ended up here and had gotten the support they needed.

[Mowilly]

You can't really say that these coaches would have had the same success at ISU. Completely different situations Cooper having success at tOSU doesn't necessarily mean that he would have had success here (see Chizik).

Bill Snyder obviously would have been better than what we had (that much is clear), but could he have turned around ISU without the level of prop 48 and Kansas Juco players that he relied on? I'm not sure about that.

I think Cooper is the one who could have won here. His success at Tulsa was remarkable if you watched his teams and he instantly got Arizona State to success and later a Rose Bowl. You could argue that OSU was his most disappointing stop and he did okay there.

That said- point is taken and you could have been correct. With the leadership we had (or lacked) it may not have worked. My comments on Snyder still stand, he would not have been as successful here as KSU was simply more dedicated to winning in football.

[Cyclophile1]

This is pretty close to accurate. Cooper was pretty much a done deal but Pres. Parks had reservations about Cooper's time at KU as KU was under NCAA Investigation at the time. (turned out that Cooper had nothing to do with any violations). Never understood the logic of passing on Cooper for a Coach from OU, which was a school known to be out of control on and off the field of play. It was a defining decision for sure!

Walden was a very good football mind and he had some decent assistant coaches. He had the worst support of any coach in school history and he checked out after his 4th year. His issues following that year were brought on himself and he never really was beloved by his players. He lost several teams. It cannot be underplayed how significant the Pomerantz, Eaton effect is on this. We sold off WOI- made some pretty big cuts on campus and if Pomerantz had his way, our athletics (budget mainly) were going to be cut to unreal levels thus allowing Iowa to be the flagship institution in a cakewalk. Pomerantz is as close to evil as you can imagine. Any ISU success today has him rolling over in his grave.

Mac, by comparison, was a decent football mind who overcame that with amazing drive. Tornado is not entirely wrong, very few coaches outworked or could outwork Mac. His staff was coupled with great men and some idiots (mike nelson) whom the rest of the staff carried. Dan could prepare with the best but could not manage a clock to save his life and adjustments were poor. His program really fell off between 2002 and 2003 as he lost his upperclass players support and it took the Meyer/ Blythe group to re-establish his program. I will never forget in 2004, we were about to go 0-3 in conference at Baylor and the staff knew it. This loss was going to be the nail the coffin of the Mac era and then, by God's grace, a fumble takes a crazy bounce into Curvey's arms and he scoots to the endzone to steal a win and we defeat KU the following week and end up in a tie for the North by season's end. The rest is history- but Mac nor Walden were villians nor should they be. They both tried very hard to dig us out of a HUGE hole that was started by a big mistake by Pres. Parks (a good ISU man by most accounts) and intentional sabatoge by Pomerantz and Eaton. You can see how long it takes to dig our of such a hole with a limited budget and support (numbers wise)

Note- I love Coach Snyder ( I have worked w/ him on mentoring programs in the state of Kansas). I am not convinced he could have had the success at ISU that he had at KSU. They were 100 percent "all in" to supporting football. This concept has never been grasped at ISU (still isn't today) and the schedule, the kids that he got into school and the bonding to get new facilities would never have flown here.

We are VERY CLOSE to turning a corner here, this is as close as we have been since Earle left. It is a very exciting time!

I don't view Walden or Mac as villains at all, and I think even Duncan had his strong points. Duncan was a pretty good recruiter, but I think must have had the worst strength and conditioning programs ever with the way his teams just fell apart in the second half of the seasons.

I agree with you about Snyder and also don't think he would have had the same level of success had he come to ISU in either 1983 or 1987. K-State, as an institution, made the decision to support football completely. Adimissions were no problem - they were already an open enrollment/non-competitive application institution for any student from in-state both HS seniors and those with an A.A. from a Kansas junior college. They went all-in on facilities improvements and fundraising as well. ISU has never done anything like that and never had the same lax admission stance.

I am more enthusiastic now about ISU football than any other time since Bruce left, and I really hope we can get over the hump. Unfortunately, our peers have been improving around us in great measure as well and we've just done will to keep up. We're making up for almost two decades of no significant facilities improvements finally, and I think we're poised to turn the corner.

Cheers

[ChiefCy]

Ahhh yes...the "make DMac look good by trashing Walden" beast rears its ugly head once again.

Despite having university support, better facilities, and a full compliment of scholarships, DMac somehow couldn't amass a better conference winning percentage than that old slacker Jimbo Walden.

Jim Walden .335 overall .313 conference over 8 years
Dan McCarney .397 overall .284 conference over 12 years

And to be fair, we should also mentioned that DMac's better overall record is partly assisted by the addition of another pre-conference cupcake when the schedule went to 12 games.

Walden pulled a miracle in his third season, going 6-5 without a full compliment of scholarships. I'd be surprised if one could pull that off without working hard.

What Walden should be faulted for was that when Eaton pulled the rug out from under him on the Lester deal, he should have resigned instead of went on "paid vacation" for 3+ years (as someone else put it). If he was convinced that the situation at ISU wasn't going to improve, he should have left.

I remember Mac complaining how bad a program he took over. He would need time to get his players in here. While each year his record went down. I wondered how he thought this made players he did not recruit feel and how insulting to players that had graduated to be told by the new coach how awful they were. I'll give it to him he was a temendous motivator,organizer, and represented ISU well, but he couldn't coach a lick.

[NickTheGreat]

I remember in elementary school we'd get these free book covers that had Walden, Fry, and whoever was the UNI coach at the time. Everyone would draw faces on Jim Walden and laugh. And then they'd laugh at me because I was a huge ISU fan, even in 4th or 5th grade.

I still get nightmares about that

[2ndCyCE]

I remember in elementary school we'd get these free book covers that had Walden, Fry, and whoever was the UNI coach at the time. Everyone would draw faces on Jim Walden and laugh. And then they'd laugh at me because I was a huge ISU fan, even in 4th or 5th grade.

I still get nightmares about that

Man, I swear that my siblings and I were the only ISU fans in the entire school district growing up. When I was in maybe 4th grade or so, one of my friends asked me, "Why do you like the Cyclones instead of the Hawkeyes?" I said, "Because my Dad cheers for them, and he went to college there." The look he gave me was like "College? My parents didn't go to college..."

Imagine that!

[cyhiphopp]

Man, I swear that my siblings and I were the only ISU fans in the entire school district growing up. When I was in maybe 4th grade or so, one of my friends asked me, "Why do you like the Cyclones instead of the Hawkeyes?" I said, "Because my Dad cheers for them, and he went to college there." The look he gave me was like "College? My parents didn't go to college..."

Imagine that!

I must spread rep around, but that story is hillarious.

Sadly I get questions like that here at work.
"Why do you like ISU?"
"Because I've always like them and I went there."
"Oh, I went to UNI, but GO HAWKS!"

[isuno1fan]

I honestly felt like we had a chance to keep up offensively with about anyone under Walden. He was pretty dang creative on that side of the ball. That type of unknown is what allowed him to pull a couple upsets (OU, Nebbie).

Never felt like we won a game under Mac where we were considered to be a significant underdog. We generally still got pasted.

[gwoodclone]

Man, I swear that my siblings and I were the only ISU fans in the entire school district growing up. When I was in maybe 4th grade or so, one of my friends asked me, "Why do you like the Cyclones instead of the Hawkeyes?" I said, "Because my Dad cheers for them, and he went to college there." The look he gave me was like "College? My parents didn't go to college..."

Imagine that!

Back in high school a kid in a Nebraska shirt saw I was wearing and ISU shirt and came up to me and asked "Why do you like Iowa State, they suck." I asked him "We're from Iowa, why would you cheer for Nebraska?" Got a blank stare, then "Iowa State sucks."

[NickTheGreat]

Back in high school a kid in a Nebraska shirt saw I was wearing and ISU shirt and came up to me and asked "Why do you like Iowa State, they suck." I asked him "We're from Iowa, why would you cheer for Nebraska?" Got a blank stare, then "Iowa State sucks."

I was from SW Iowa and the Husker fans drove me NUTS.

[ruxCYtable]

That 1990 season was set up pretty well -- then you had the Lester debacle, followed by Pedersen and Bryant both getting hurt against Minnesota (4-point loss) and missing the Iowa game (10-point loss).

Yeah, losing Pedersen and Bryant was brutal. And yet, the next week the guys went down to Iowa City and played one hell of a game with a true freshman QB (Utter-another victim of circumstance with the changing offense) and, I believe, a running back named Sherman Williams.