CFers thought on 2005 football team

[Cyrocks]

The 2005 was totally a product of coaching. I said it then, I'm saying it now. Schematically, we got conservative on BOTH sides of the ball, and it allowed teams to get back into the game. Those dropped balls, dropped ints, etc, etc would have been irrelevant if the coaching staff hadn't relented the pace of those games. When we opened it up, and stayed on the other team's throat, you can see what happend: A&M, OSU, KSU.

Didn't ISU get screwed at the Mizzou game that year? And then we had to listen to Crybaby Pinkle rant and rave about one little call the next year.

ISU would get up by a couple of touchdowns and good ol' Barney would put the clamps down on the offense. This was evident in the Iowa game the next season.

 

[jdoggivjc]

Closest I've actually been to throwing something through my TV...

 

[d4nim4l]

Everyone has pretty much said it already in this thread. A veteran defense bailed out the 2005 offense over and over again. 2006 rolled around and everyone was too young (and most importantly) lacked depth to make a difference.

The real disappointment is an offense that showed no progression in the three years that Barney Cotton was here. Say what you will about McFarland but he at least tried new wrinkles between years 1 and 2 of the Chizik regime.

This is one thing that gives me hope about Herman. Hearing the man talk and seeing what his past teams have done it looks like he wants to put the foot on the throttle from first whistle to final whistle. He seems like the type that would rather lose the game by going all out than lose it by trying to hold on.

Chances are ISU will see games in the future blown because of that but hopefully it also propels us to new heights.

 

[Haverhill]

Closest I've actually been to throwing something through my TV...

Its hard to blame it totally on Shaggy. He shouldn't have been in many of those situations. Making up for a team's shortcomings is a position I never want to be in.

 

[frontrangeclone]

Watching the loss at Neb. that year was just grueling, esp. when a potential intercepted pass in OT went thru I think Leaders hands...

Wasn't 2005 also the season Ben Bruns called out the ISU crowd at halftime during the baylor game? I'm sure some of the CF members on here were probably at that game and will get all defensive saying the product on the field wasn't worth cheering for blah blah... but seriously, if anyone has a right to comment on it, he does. I wish the JT crowd could rebound and get energetic when things aren't going well like in the heydays of Hilton Magic (urging the team on instead of sitting on collective hands).

I could tell there was something mental with the '05 team, and it's really hard to work that stuff out... a lot of it comes down to an "it" factor and good leadership. When things are tight and your coach freakishly paces the sidelines, it doesn't show the calmness and resolved I would want to play under.

 

[Al_4_State]

Closest I've actually been to throwing something through my TV...

I got blacklisted on the Cyclone Report free board for my post-game rant. I just got ****** off, and drank half liter of BV in the hour and a half after the game. Passed out drunk, then went to a concert later that night.

 

[cyrocksmypants]

It ALL stems on playcalling, in my opinion.

I know it's a different year, but in 2004 agains Missouri, I think all we had to do is get a field goal to win it and Cotton calls some bonehead play to the outside, making Shaggy have to kick it at a pretty difficult angle. It he'd have just run it up the gut, to the left side to line up the kick, I think we win that game and go to the Big XII championship game.

 

[Dolokaju]

I agree to nearly all of this. It was a perfect storm of hicks being hurt, headscratching playcalling and some pretty bad reffing(my and ku) that prevented this team from winning 9 or 10 games

 

[cyfan15]

The ability of the 2005 defense to create turnovers is what led to most of our blowout wins that year and it made us think the offense was a whole lot better than it really was. Yeah we had a decent QB and an above average receiving corps, but the OL was terrible and Stevie Hicks was injured to often to make much of a difference (and there really wasn't anybody behind him that could do the job).

Losing that Nebraska game really hurt us, and we probably would have won it had Stevie Hicks played. If we win that game, I don't think we have the let down against Baylor. Maybe we would have ended up losing one of those games at Missouri and at Kansas, but I think we would have won the North and put up a better fight against Texas the Colorado did, though we still would have gotten blown out.

The stars aligned for us two years in a row and we blew it both times. The fact that those two years were sandwiched between a 2-10 (0-8) season and a 4-8 (1-7) season where we were four plays away from 0-12 really showed that momentum had stalled and we were going nowhere.

 

[cyclonedcm]

I love Iowa State and I get a headache thinking about this topic... thanks for bringing it up again...