Bingo, well stated. It worked out well for both parties,
Bingo, well stated. It worked out well for both parties,
I seem to recall one year that ISU had Big 12 preseason (1st team voted in guys?) Brackins and Gilstrap but were picked like 8th within the Big 12. That's a weird contradiction, but I don't think those teams had any depth really. I don't remember a lot about the McDermott years. I'm curious to those in the know if he just wouldn't let his top players loose with some "go make plays/playground style" of ball.
Chizik was an incredibly important hire for ISU.
In the fall of 2006 ISU sends out a letter to season ticket holders saying, we're gonna need a lot of heavy lifting from you going forward if ISU has any chance to compete.
2006 FB team proceeds to lose a ton of blowouts with a bare cupboard. Going out and hiring Chizik showed JP was serious about ISU FB. That hire helped provoke a lot of people to shell out more for ISU FB. By Rhoads 2nd year or so, massive stadium upgrades were happening. Rhoads also played a key role, by getting some big wins and going to bowls, but I always felt JP needed a big splash hire when he got Chizik.
I'll go to my grave swearing that the ESPN crawler said one morning that we were getting Brian Kelly as HC instead of Chizik.
McDermott at the time didn’t know how to handle a superstar player compared to the rest of the team. He was used to coaching mid major guys. Brackens and Wesley Johnson were super stars and he treated them different. Just bad team dynamics
I don’t think Greg was prepared for how the game is played, not on the court, but off the court. Further, he hadn’t earned enough points to get players to buy into his system.
If I remember about his son. His son committed to UNI but never made it on campus. When Greg got the Creighton job, Doug recommitted from UNI and committed to Creighton. I think Doug’s senior high school year was Greg’s last at ISU.
Yep. Chizik was the national assistant coach of the year and Pollard got him to come to Iowa State, which was a dumpster fire outside of a few years under Mac. It was an amazing initial hire. But, as others have said, the fit was terrible. I don’t think he would have ever worked out here but it did set the stage for the rise of the program.
It did say that. I think Keith Murphy even reported that Kelly was guy. They also reported that Rob Jeter was hired after Morgan got let go.
Pollard's dogged commitment to dragging ISU football into the modern era is going to be his lasting legacy. Facilities, stadium and amenities, and learning from his own hiring mistakes led to some pretty consistent gains in the program. And it was done without sacrificing the quality of all the other sports on campus as well.
We're fortunate to have had this go the way it did, because it was never guaranteed.
I have a feeling it may have been the other way around. McDermott at this point saw the writing on the wall and knew that he wasn't going to be coaching at ISU in 2010/11. That may be why his son and Barnes, who was close to Coach McDermott, didn't commit to ISU. They knew Greg wasn't going to be the coach. When Doug committed to UNI, I assumed he didn't want to play for his dad, which I would understand. But when he switched his commitment to Creighton after his dad's hire, it made me think he didn't commit to ISU because he knew his dad wasn't going to be there in 2010/11. Greg McDermott was a class act at ISU, and I'll always root for him.
Sounds like you want an apology. He doesn't owe us one.
I agree and that is why I said so in my post. He knew that his time at ISU was going to be over at the end of the next season, luckily for him the Creigton job opened up and allowed him to slide down to a level he was more comfortable with and a free start. He has done a great job at Creigton, I just wish had that much success at ISU.
If McDermott lands Barnes and his son, he gets another 4 years almost guaranteed.
I don't think Barnes was ever coming to ISU though. NC offer was always the prize he wanted.
I moved out of state the year McDermott came to ISU and kind of lost track of them overall for basketball for his entire tenure and really didn't pay much attention to college basketball in general during that time, which was kind of weird.
I don't believe they were on ESPN or ESPN2 much or maybe they were still on the local affiliates. When I did catch a game they looked disjointed and didn't seem to have much of a purpose. I just really didn't care about it.
Pretty sure he signed and Jacobsen had to ok his release.
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Greg McDermott allowed me to obtain what I consider elite basketball season ticket location at least for the average person.
I started out with half price tickets with a $50 donation for those grads under 30. I had seats in the corner about 10 rows up. Because of bad basketball we then moved along the sides about 10 rows up. And then even more bad basketball and we moved to row 3. Obviously I pay a lot more for the tickets and the donation now. But because I put in the time, I have much better seats than I would have if I had just started buying them in 2010.
So I guess I’m saying that because of McDermott I donate $1500 to sit in row 3 of section 213 instead of donating $1500 to sit in row 12.
And that is why you never get rid of season tickets and an occasional slump is a good way to improve your lot in life.
I started out with half price tickets with a $50 donation for those grads under 30. I had seats in the corner about 10 rows up. Because of bad basketball we then moved along the sides about 10 rows up. And then even more bad basketball and we moved to row 3. Obviously I pay a lot more for the tickets and the donation now. But because I put in the time, I have much better seats than I would have if I had just started buying them in 2010.
So I guess I’m saying that because of McDermott I donate $1500 to sit in row 3 of section 213 instead of donating $1500 to sit in row 12.
And that is why you never get rid of season tickets and an occasional slump is a good way to improve your lot in life.
