Walden quoted in NY times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/sp...%2Findex.jsonp

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Originally Posted by 2XaDime

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/sp...%2Findex.jsonp

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Well, that ought to just about be the end of the NY Times then.

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Originally Posted by ruxCYtable

Well, that ought to just about be the end of the NY Times then.

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Walden was a decent coach who got screwed by the mess he inherited. This article explains some the difficulty he faced thanks to the sanctions imposed by NCAA.

Walden gets a horrible rap, but when you look at the scholarship situation along with cleaning up Criner's mess, it was an uphill battle.

Add in some horrific facilities, and it's easy to see why it ended the way it did for him.

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Iowa State is no Alabama or Penn State

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I chuckled a little bit when I read this line

So he's blaming the NCAA sanctions for attrition, transfers, and graduating seniors??? Sounds like BS to me. Good coaches win, bad coaches lose, and Walden clearly lost a LOT.

I couldn't remember all that happened during Criner's regime. For those who don't either or are too young, read this comedy:


Jim Criner's Firing Ends 21 Months of Unrest at Iowa State - Los Angeles Times

Hughes Suffren played for Johnny Orr after getting kicked off the team? Don't remember that. I do remember him playing pick-up BB at Beyer hall when I was in Junior High ( i think i was still in j-high at the time. Too lazy to think about the dates

I remember how bad the Walden years were but had no idea it was such an uphill climb for him. Of course that was before the internet existed so you didn't have so much information readily available to you.

It still doesn't excuse the fact that he refused to play Troy Davis. I remember one game he sent Troy in to a thunderous ovation. He had 1 carry for I believe 13 yards and never saw the field the rest of the game.

Walden faced an uphill climb, there is no doubt. But it seemed, especially towards the end, he would rather just throw up his hands and cry about it than work his ***** off. ******** to the media about facilities about how he couldn't recruit got real old after a while.

Then when Danny Mac came in, Walden hung around town and ******* about all the special treatment he got: New facilities, new surface at JTS, new press box, etc. Where was all this when I was there?

Like most fans, I liked him at first, but his "poor me" act got real old after 7-8 years of it.

The gist that I took from the article:
1) If you're at a school that isn't a traditional power, like ISU, recovering from steep sanctions is all but impossible.
2) If you're at a traditional power, like Alabama, then it's a blip on your radar.
3) Rough for Penn State right now, but then back to rolling along.

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Originally Posted by Cyclones_R_GR8

I remember how bad the Walden years were but had no idea it was such an uphill climb for him. Of course that was before the internet existed so you didn't have so much information readily available to you.

It still doesn't excuse the fact that he refused to play Troy Davis. I remember one game he sent Troy in to a thunderous ovation. He had 1 carry for I believe 13 yards and never saw the field the rest of the game.

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Again u don't know the whole story. Troy Davis couldn't practice because he didn't clear the NCAA clearing house(the 1st year it existed). TD walked the sidelines in street clothes for the 1st 3 weeks of practice. TD struggled to pick up the offense, Walden wanted to switch back to the I for Troy but only had I TE on scholarship and he dislocated his shoulder during 2 a days and missed several weeks of practice. We also had a guy named Calvin Branch who was, at the time, better than TD.(He spent about 6-7 years with the Raiders).

I've been watching games since the Clay Stapleton era. Walden energized the fan base for the first few years, ie. postering with Johnny Orr for example. However, his teams kept fizzling out as the season wore on. During his last 2 years, it was so obvious that he was loosing his teams - they just gave up about 2/3 way through each of last 2 seasons - SO OBVIOUS. I don't know how much of this was really the result of less scholarship players or his whining was a smoke screen for poor success on the field. We celebrated when he resigned.

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Originally Posted by CyBobby

As I recall 2-Win Walden couldnt even be One Win Walden his last year in Ames,


A complete disaster as 3000 people Booed everytime that the Quarterback took the field......


I would rank Waldo rite up their with Jimmy "Crymore" Criner as the 2 worst fb coaches in the history of ISU......


One year late in Waldos run a guy was so bored at the KState game that HE TOOK ALL HIS CLOTHES OFF RITE IN FRONT OF ME AND CHARGED ONTO THE FIELD....

Probably the most excitement in the last 5 years of the Waldo regime....:twitcy:

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CyBobby gets excited by another guy taking his clothes off in front of him....duly noted.

Geesh, that was a painful read.

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Originally Posted by CycloneErik

The gist that I took from the article:
1) If you're at a school that isn't a traditional power, like ISU, recovering from steep sanctions is all but impossible.
2) If you're at a traditional power, like Alabama, then it's a blip on your radar.
3) Rough for Penn State right now, but then back to rolling along.

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But it doesn't sound like the sanctions were even that steep. In the article, he's literally blaming his lack of numbers on graduating seniors and transfers. Transfers are a fact of life with any coaching change, and if he wasn't aware that football players do in fact graduate (or at least run out of eligibility), then I don't really know what to say about him.