Chizik on "Two Guys Named Jim"

[tube1]

when he was fired mac inherited a recruit who put back to back 2000 yard rushing seasons...

The recruit that put up back to back 2000 yard rushing seasons barely saw the field under Walden. Mac actually played the kid and developed him. If Walden was so great, why didn't he put Troy on the field?

Suck, suck, suck, upset Nebraska, suck, suck, 0-10-1, gone.

 

[dsouth]

try to grasp this. walden inherited a team with scholarship reductions. i didnt say it wasnt time for him to go, i said he wasnt the person who trashed the isu football team. he kept the program clean, he graduated players and played everybody in the big 8 fairly tough including his 0 for final season, his team was never spanked the way this years team was.

all i am saying is walden didnt take the program down hill he inherited a team under the worst possible conditions.

 

[OWLCITYCYFAN]

It's pretty easy to hate a mid 80 yr old when you despised his biased butt 25 yrs ago when I was growing up listening to his Hawks being protrayed as the best program to ever play in Div 1 sports all the while my Cyclones were being portrayed by his drunkenness as lucky to be even considered to the ugly hairy sisters of the poor practice squad. I grew up on a farm and so WHO was the radio of choice and so we listened for all the good stuff but had to put up with his trash.

Thanks for the link but no thanks. I'm sure the whole bio is full of as much hog **** as his persona of his Pukeyes.:wink0st:

I can understand your feelings as I also grew up in farm country and my father listened almost exclusively to WHO. I never liked Zabel's rhetoric, but I understood it as he attended EIU in the days of Nile Kinnick and edited the student newspaper. He announced hawk games the same way I would have done Cyclone games had I had the chance, as a complete and total homer. There was definite bad blood between the two athletic departments; we didn't play each other in football for 30 years, and Zabel felt that keenly. Add in the fact that he announced the hawks during their 20 year "no winning seasons" streak, and I understood why he was "over the top" once they started to win under Fry. Anyway, I don't particularly "like" the guy, but I do think it's beyond debate that he's an ICON in the State of Iowa for sports broadcasting (which is why I originally responded to your post)....

 

[cyputz]

Tube 1, you are wrong.....ISU football was in the crapper prior to Walden. Thank Criner and Duncan. Walden has 25% support from the admin, they had to show warm acceptance for football to keep the masses happy. Walden, did not have near the adm commitment as Mac. Plus as noted earlier, Walden did not leave the cupboard bare. I do agree there was a lack of confidence in his last year, however, there was a lack of confidence in Mac career for three years. The abundance of bowl games saved his job.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

I can understand your feelings as I also grew up in farm country and my father listened almost exclusively to WHO. I never liked Zabel's rhetoric, but I understood it as he attended EIU in the days of Nile Kinnick and edited the student newspaper. He announced hawk games the same way I would have done Cyclone games had I had the chance, as a complete and total homer. There was definite bad blood between the two athletic departments; we didn't play each other in football for 30 years, and Zabel felt that keenly. Add in the fact that he announced the hawks during their 20 year "no winning seasons" streak, and I understood why he was "over the top" once they started to win under Fry. Anyway, I don't particularly "like" the guy, but I do think it's beyond debate that he's an ICON in the State of Iowa for sports broadcasting (which is why I originally responded to your post)....

OK iccyfan, I can see why Zabel is a homer EIU fan and didn't know a lot of what you posted here. It is not so much him being a homer that I don't like about him. It is the fact that he is not at all objective. He's a Hawk Homer right? John Walters is a Cyclone Homer I think we would agree. The big difference between Zipperhead and Walters is that when ISU stinks up the joint, like this year in football, Walters says we stunk up the joint and also gives the team we played credit for being better then us by either outplaying us or outcoaching us. Zabel would say the EIU was not playing well, but will never give credit to his team being outplayed by their opponent. Iowa never got beat by a better opponent, they always beat themselves out of a win. Conversely in ISU's case, if we won the other team beat themselves out of a win and, when we lost, well, that was status quo. Every team has their homer announcers but I feel ISU and most other teams have a lot of objective homers at least and I think that Zabel is about the most unobjective homer announcer I have ever listened to, and of course it is exemplified by the fact that he was totally opposite when talking about my team and never giving us one ounce of deserved credit.

I will say I understand your point a little more with this last post..:yes4lo:

 

[tube1]

Tube 1, you are wrong.....ISU football was in the crapper prior to Walden. Thank Criner and Duncan. Walden has 25% support from the admin, they had to show warm acceptance for football to keep the masses happy. Walden, did not have near the adm commitment as Mac. Plus as noted earlier, Walden did not leave the cupboard bare. I do agree there was a lack of confidence in his last year, however, there was a lack of confidence in Mac career for three years. The abundance of bowl games saved his job.

Didn't Walden have a winning season early in his ISU career? Didn't he go out as a coach of a 0-10-1 team (including a thrashing to a D2 school)? Didn't he have a heisman runner up riding the pines during his winless last season? Didn't he even have a squakeye tell him they loved kicking his a$$ over the years? Perhaps he was too clean. Nice guys finish 0-10-1. Nice doesn't cut it. Nice and ability is what was needed. He did nothing to improve the program other than beat Nebbie and keep the program out of NCAA scruteny. I stand by my comments.

 

[dsouth]

im not remembering what d2 school he was drubbed by..you mean uni?

 

[tellmac]

If GC can't out recruit that clown in Columbia,we are in big trouble.

 

[CY ST8T]

iccyfan I think you have been drinking the water or breathing that crappy air over there in EIU village for too long. The only thing he is an icon to is the university of Iowa. Not to the State of Iowa. If you think that a lot of ISU fans would describe him as an Icon, you are mistaken. Give about any drunk idiot a microphone while they are watching there favorite team and it might sound similar.

 

[OWLCITYCYFAN]

iccyfan I think you have been drinking the water or breathing that crappy air over there in EIU village for too long. The only thing he is an icon to is the university of Iowa. Not to the State of Iowa. If you think that a lot of ISU fans would describe him as an Icon, you are mistaken. Give about any drunk idiot a microphone while they are watching there favorite team and it might sound similar.

Probably to the first sentence, but...

Do you know who Zabel is? Do you know who he works for? Do you know what program he is representative of? If you know these answers, he's probably an "icon". I would expect a majority of native Iowans know the answers to these questions! There's nothing in the definition that says you have to like him; I know I don't particularly care for him...

Final thought; I've heard Zabel be critical of EIU football this season on Sound-Off (drive home after ISU beat Mizzou and EIU lost at Minnesota). He was longing for their late-1950's coach, who supposedly retired in his mid-40's; he'd never have let a team give up like this one did!

That's all; I'm no Zabel apologist - hate him all you want!

 

[darts180]

Didn't Walden have a winning season early in his ISU career? Didn't he go out as a coach of a 0-10-1 team (including a thrashing to a D2 school)? Didn't he have a heisman runner up riding the pines during his winless last season? Didn't he even have a squakeye tell him they loved kicking his a$$ over the years? Perhaps he was too clean. Nice guys finish 0-10-1. Nice doesn't cut it. Nice and ability is what was needed. He did nothing to improve the program other than beat Nebbie and keep the program out of NCAA scruteny. I stand by my comments.

He went 6-5 his 3rd year, but there weren't all of the bowl games that Mac kept his job with then.
His recruiting budget his 8th and final year was the same as it was his 1st year. The facilities were garbage, and there was no support from the administration.
Danny Mac got a bigger committment before he coached a game at Iowa State than Walden did his whole tenure.
If this university had given Walden the same support they gave to McCarney, I will be willing to wager he would NOT have been 29 games under .500.

 

[dsouth]

Zabo is amusing, but I can't stand Walden.

They're both closet ISU haters, but they'll never admit it.

I listen to the show but would like it better if Walden wasn't there.

Mr. Bobber, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this message board is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. (paraphrased from billy madison)

 

[tube1]

He went 6-5 his 3rd year, but there weren't all of the bowl games that Mac kept his job with then.
His recruiting budget his 8th and final year was the same as it was his 1st year. The facilities were garbage, and there was no support from the administration.
Danny Mac got a bigger committment before he coached a game at Iowa State than Walden did his whole tenure.
If this university had given Walden the same support they gave to McCarney, I will be willing to wager he would NOT have been 29 games under .500.

I will give you the administration support and bowl game numbers, but I believe we are still on the low end with regards to recruiting budget. Walden and McCarney both had to work with the hand delt to them. Walden did not improve the program. Some, like me, say that it went down instead of even staying even. This is all subjective/objective and all opinions have their place. Yours is just different from mine. Walden's situation sucked, but that's life.

 

[tube1]

By the way, happy 100th post to me! ^=====

 

[cyclonenum1]

My "two cents":

I don't understand why Walden gets such heat for his tenure while McCarney got so much love? To me they were very similar. Walden was a very nice guy and great to be around. Although I don't know McCarney, I hear the same about him. I believe Walden had a slightly higher overall winning percentage than McCarney.

However, Walden's teams were generally competitive in a very tough Big 8 (much tougher than the Big 12 North has been) and he actually beat some top teams in the conference when they were underdogs. I don't know that McCarney ever beat another conference team that they were not supposed to beat. Walden had at least one team that would have qualified under today's saturated bowl field as "bowl eligible". Obviously, McCarney went to some of the low tier bowls which is why he kept his job for so long.

In my opinion, the whole bowl situation today is a farce...nothing more than a way for mediocre coaches to "sell" their fan base on a successful season when it was really an average season. When over 50% of the teams qualify for a bowl game it just is not that special of an accomplishment anymore. BCS Bowl is special!

As for Zabel. Yes he is an icon. Yes he is a legend. But not for being a great broadcaster. He is an icon and a legend in the same fashion as Harry Carry...a drunken good ol boy butchering names and cheering for the home team...nothing more and nothing less.

 

[darts180]

I will give you the administration support and bowl game numbers, but I believe we are still on the low end with regards to recruiting budget. Walden and McCarney both had to work with the hand delt to them. Walden did not improve the program. Some, like me, say that it went down instead of even staying even. This is all subjective/objective and all opinions have their place. Yours is just different from mine. Walden's situation sucked, but that's life.

Look, I am not saying that Walden was Joe Paterno. However, he did go 6-5 with 70 players, and he did something that no other Iowa State coach in modern times did, he pulled upsets. He won at Norman, when they weren't terrible, Iowa State was the last team to beat Tommie Frazier at Nebraska. That was a good Nebraska team, not the lousy ones that Mac beat, and acted like he had just won a national championship (drunk TV interview and all).

I agree that Dan had a small budget, something that he never failed to bring up which is why we had to hear that he was the best coach that we could ever hope to get. But the program that he took over, while having gone winless the previous season, was a damn sight better than it was 8 years earlier.

And for that matter how good is the program today with Mac leaving. Two linebackers, a QB and WR, however, ther are no linemen on either side of the ball? no runningbacks?

This "savior" of the program is LEAVING a 4 year turnaround job for Coach Chizek. What kind of statement does that make???

 

[dsouth]

as isu fans, if we are going to be honest, we have never had a good football program. we have had sporadic years of some good teams. if we are being honest coach chizik has a chance to be the first coach to make isu a top notch football program.

every person here has a chance to be a part of history by supporting the team, financially and fanatically.

 

[Bobber]

Mr. Bobber, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this message board is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. (paraphrased from billy madison)

Hmmm, Hit a sore spot. Oh well. I still think Zabo is amusing and Walden is a whiner.....

 

[dsouth]

i disagree with you bobber... but i was just teasing

 

[BBloemke]

Any chance someone could actually tell us what Chizik said on "Two Guys Named Jim"? Enough of this other nonsense - get back to the point.