Has the Rot Started to Set In?

[VegasCy]

SIAP as a theory.

Is this an age of fan thing?

Are the doom and gloom fans all in their 20s and 30s and for their whole lives only known good to pretty good football at Iowa State and even the thought of a couple down years, where the team is still very competitive, is a disaster?

Are the JFC we’re Iowa state, just have some patience crowd from an older generation that had to live through the 80s and 90s?

Is is flipped? Have the older fans finally got a taste of good football and are hyper-sensitive to letting it fall back to something less than mediocrity?

Has the young crowd had enough success that they are ok riding out a few bad years mixed in with the good, because they don’t have the same scar tissue as the old fans?

I’m content. I have loved the highest highs of the program and have also sat in Lincoln getting beat seventy-something to seven.

So rot? No. Rut? Likely. Let’s just dig this thing out of the rut and keep on truckin.

There is something to this. As a Cubs fan, post 2016, I have been less tolerant of mediocre baseball after winning a championship. I know we are in every game, which historically was only a dream scenario. Last season, if we had scored 15 points in every game we would have won 7 games, it’s just frustrating, and I’m sure it is for the coaching staff and players.

 

[dirtyninety]

Kirk Herbstreit always knew Campbell's and Manning's ACT scores.

 

[Cmonwhatarewedoinghereman]

I graduated from ISU in '91... I've lived through a TON of horrible football years.

And like the post above... us veterans know exactly where this is headed if not turned around. Matt has undoubtedly gotten better talent through the doors, and they physically look like Big 12 players... but I don't think we're getting anywhere near the results we should be getting with the players we have.

It felt like Saturday we had no desire to go out and win the game... just play ULTRA conservative football and hope we don't screw up... which has the reverse affect IMO... and you play tight and you do screw up. Let the players play and have fun playing the game. Put it all on the line and go down fighting every game. Maybe throw more than 1 or 2 passes deeper than 10 yds?

Love this. At first I thought it was maybe only the younger fans that were impatient with the way things are going because they have only known success. But the more I thought about it maybe the older fans aren’t ready to let this thing slide back into the abyss.

 

[Stormin]

I graduated from ISU in '91... I've lived through a TON of horrible football years.

And like the post above... us veterans know exactly where this is headed if not turned around. Matt has undoubtedly gotten better talent through the doors, and they physically look like Big 12 players... but I don't think we're getting anywhere near the results we should be getting with the players we have.

It felt like Saturday we had no desire to go out and win the game... just play ULTRA conservative football and hope we don't screw up... which has the reverse affect IMO... and you play tight and you do screw up. Let the players play and have fun playing the game. Put it all on the line and go down fighting every game. Maybe throw more than 1 or 2 passes deeper than 10 yds?

Graduated in 1979. I was at ISU when some were calling for Earle Bruce’s head after his third straight 4-7 record. Fire him. We are only winning 4 games. We will destroy everything that Johnny Majors started they said. After the third straight 8-3 regular season under Earle Bruce the same people cried when Earle Bruce left for Ohio State. You would think they supported Earle the whole time. Earle was even more conservative on offense than Matt Campbell.

 

[CycloneErik]

So you want CMC fired? And then what? We are not Texas or Alabama. We develop 3-4 stars and play "in the margins" CMC isn't a razzle dazzle change his strategy kind of guy. We all know what we are going to get. Season isn't finished let's see where we go.

Well, we don't actually play in the margins. That's just coachspeak for something we don't do.

 

[cycloneML]

What?

Edited to add : In 2021 we lost one game at home, to Iowa. We scored 194 points to our opponent's 86. How could that not have been a fun year (at home)?

I think he’s talking about Johnny Orr

 

[LtRaczack]

Graduated in 1979. I was at ISU when some were calling for Earle Bruce’s head after his third straight 4-7 record. Fire him. We are only winning 4 games. We will destroy everything that Johnny Majors started they said. After the third straight 8-3 regular season under Earle Bruce the same people cried when Earle Bruce left for Ohio State. You would think they supported Earle the whole time. Earle was even more conservative on offense than Matt Campbell.

Somehow, Earle Bruce managed to consistently win games and did not regress after 1976. Perhaps it had something to do with finding talent in his coaching staff. I recall this guy named Pete Carroll being the secondaries coach.

Johnny Majors only had one season above 500 where he won 8 games. Bruce had three seasons in a row with 8 wins playing only 11 games per year.

There was also that 31-0 shellacking of Iowa in 1978 which is still the Cyclone record for beating the Hawkeyes. An example of Bruce's conservative offense with a backup QB no less.

 

[Stormin]

Somehow, Earle Bruce managed to consistently win games and did not regress after 1976. Perhaps it had something to do with finding talent in his coaching staff. I recall this guy named Pete Carroll being the secondaries coach.

Johnny Majors only had one season above 500 where he won 8 games. Bruce had three seasons in a row with 8 wins playing only 11 games per year.

There was also that 31-0 shellacking of Iowa in 1978 which is still the Cyclone record for beating the Hawkeyes. An example of Bruce's conservative offense with a backup QB no less.

Earle Bruce was great. But his offenses were generally 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Woody Hayes disciple. Here’s a link to our offensive statistics from 1978. You can scroll through different years.

1978 Iowa State Cyclones Stats | College Football at Sports-Reference.com

1978 Iowa State Cyclones Stats

www.sports-reference.com

 

[Cdiedrick]

The rot starts with BS posts like this spreading around the internet.

 

[deadeyededric]

I’ve been around for a few coaches and I’m definitely getting that feeling. McDermott, McCarney, Rhoads, Prohm. Not going to include guys like Morgan, Fred, or Chizik as those were different/very short term situations. Obviously Larry was a unique situation as well.

I’ve had this feeling before and while we’re not totally rotted out (there’s a chance CMC could bounce back a la Kirk Ferentz), I think the “rot” has definitely started to sneak in, if only just a little bit, especially with the gambling issue and it’s direct contradiction to the “5-Star

He goes 4-8 again and he's in real trouble. Not going to lose his job but recruiting, momentum, and excitement are all gone. Personally I thought the program was there before the season even started.

 

[cayin]

Graduated in 1979. I was at ISU when some were calling for Earle Bruce’s head after his third straight 4-7 record. Fire him. We are only winning 4 games. We will destroy everything that Johnny Majors started they said. After the third straight 8-3 regular season under Earle Bruce the same people cried when Earle Bruce left for Ohio State. You would think they supported Earle the whole time. Earle was even more conservative on offense than Matt Campbell.

so conservative he had the nations second ranked offense in one of his 8-3 seasons.

 

[deadeyededric]

I think you're making the gambling thing way, way more than it actually is. Guys making a $10 bet on DraftKings isn't the same as some kind of point shaving scandal. Stupid? Yes. But is it a sign of terrible character on the team? I really don't think it is.

Look around college sports at some of the really bad behavior that we see repeatedly at some schools: Michigan State — cough, cough.

We aren't anything like that, thank God.

But I will say that a decent season this year will make me feel a little better about our long term football outlook. We've underachieved the last 2 seasons and lost some momentum.

I haven't seen anything the first 2 weeks to be real optimistic. We don't have a QB and the talent at the skill positions is that of a MAC team. I don't think we can score enough points to win many. Why is this the case in year 7?

 

[cycloneML]

Earle Bruce was great. But his offenses were generally 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Woody Hayes disciple. Here’s a link to our offensive statistics from 1978. You can scroll through different years.

1978 Iowa State Cyclones Stats | College Football at Sports-Reference.com

1978 Iowa State Cyclones Stats

www.sports-reference.com

These times are reminiscent of the Bruce years. A good coach who wasn’t fully appreciated by fan base. No idea what we had til he was gone. Then decades of misery.

 

[Jeffrey Scott]

I didn't buy season tickets this year. I have to fly to Iowa, get a room and rent a car. Decided not to spend the money because it's a three or four day ordeal. Couple that with the youth of this team and it seemed like a year to take a pass. I will also not arrange my Saturday's to watch the game live. I'll record it and watch it if I feel like it.

We'll see what happens. Not giving up, just prioritizing things.

 

[Cyismymonkey]

Last year was always going to be a "it is what it is" type season with Dekkers cutting his teeth. His whole gambling deal absolutely f*cked this team. Ideally he would have made big improvements and led the team this year while Kohl learns the ropes. I don't think you can overstate how much his selfishness hurt this team.

Last year was always going to be a "it is what it is" type season with Dekkers cutting his teeth. His whole gambling deal absolutely f*cked this team. Ideally he would have made big improvements and led the team this year while Kohl learns the ropes. I don't think you can overstate how much his selfishness hurt this team.

I absolutely agree. Iowa State can’t afford to lose multiple year starters and expect to be competitive. The buck stops with the head Coach.

 

[FallOf81]

Pollard may be losing sleep if he's looking longer term. We've spent the family inheritance on facility upgrades. Changed the tailgating atmosphere. RV villas. Bridge. CyTown on the way. So much based on what was the turn around of FB program. Sub .500 football for a few years to come because Campbell is stubborn and won't change the offense? There goes the budget. And forget about bringing in NIL talent or keeping it here. Kinda makes ones stomach do a flip flop like a math pop quiz just announced.
The AD should NOT let this continue.

 

[Tre4ISU]

Way too early to tell. You can't tell anything from the Iowa game and can barely tell anything from a UNI game. At the end of the year I think we will have a pretty good idea of where this thing is headed though.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I absolutely agree. Iowa State can’t afford to lose multiple year starters and expect to be competitive. The buck stops with the head Coach.

I don't think you even point the finger at the staff. Iowa State had educated the athletes on gambling, what else can they do? It's real awesome how the state of Iowa decided to target college athletes at specific schools.... This is absolutely happening in every program in states with legal gambling.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Pollard may be losing sleep if he's looking longer term. We've spent the family inheritance on facility upgrades. Changed the tailgating atmosphere. RV villas. Bridge. CyTown on the way. So much based on what was the turn around of FB program. Sub .500 football for a few years to come because Campbell is stubborn and won't change the offense? There goes the budget. And forget about bringing in NIL talent or keeping it here. Kinda makes ones stomach do a flip flop like a math pop quiz just announced.
The AD should NOT let this continue.

None of this is true.

 

[Stormin]

so conservative he had the nations second ranked offense in one of his 8-3 seasons.

One year. An outlier with Wayne Stanley and Buddy Hardeman and Luther Blue. Let’s look closer. They feasted on their 4 non-conference opponents and hapless K-State which was the doormat.

We scored 58 points against Drake in the season opener. 41 points the next week against Air Force. Then 47 points the next week against Kent State. We scored 10 points against Oklahoma the next week. Then scored 44 points against WAC opponent Utah (132nd rated defense out of 137). We scored 45 against winless in conference K-State after only scoring 21 against Missouri and 14 against Colorado in a devastating loss. 31 against Kansas and 36 against Nebraska in an epic win sparked by Luther Blue’s electrifying return. We only scored 21 points in our disappointing loss to Okie State which ended our season.

Bottom line was our offense was very good. But we scored 190 points out of our season total of 369 points in our 4 non-conference games. That inflated our offense. Earle Bruce was a conservative Woody Hayes disciple.