Coaching or reputation?

[CyCloned]

I really think that the difference between 6 and 7 win teams and 2 and three win teams are very small. If ISUs defense was a good as UNIs last year, ISU would have won at least 3 more games. That is how bad the ISU defense was.

 

[GrimesCy]

I really think that the difference between 6 and 7 win teams and 2 and three win teams are very small. If ISUs defense was a good as UNIs last year, ISU would have won at least 3 more games. That is how bad the ISU was.

+1

 

[WalkingCY]

Two words...Hayden Fry.

Without him, I don't see the EIU football team being any different than ISU. There was about a 20 year span where EIU didn't do much in football at all, until raisin face arrived. He is the one who turned the team around and they have been "successful" ever since. He was able to recruit TX very well and bring some pretty good recruits to IA.

I believe that if Johnny Majors would have stayed at ISU, the same thing could have happened here.

Danny Mac was almost there, but being so close and not winning the North title really killed any momentum that we had.

Agree here. All of it.

 

[GrimesCy]

Agree here. All of it.

Raisin Face had great assistants

 

[cyclone13]

couldn't agree with you GrimesCy.
Mac lost several assistants due to better opportunities. I remember Mac always reminded Van Der Welde to increase the salary pool for his assistants and I guess he did the same to JP too.
This is my biggest compalin about JP: when he hired Chizik, he allocated a lot of money for the assistants although Chizik's OC and DC didn;'t have experience at D-1 level as coordinators.

But looks like the assistants this time have good background and experience. So there's a reason to be optimistic.

 

[kingcy]

couldn't agree with you GrimesCy.
Mac lost several assistants due to better opportunities. I remember Mac always reminded Van Der Welde to increase the salary pool for his assistants and I guess he did the same to JP too.

That happens everywhere. Mac's problem was he hired Marty Fine and Barney Cotton. He also didnt take advantage of going to bowl games and the best season in ISU's history when it came to getting players. He didnt make the program a great one when the rest of the North was down.

 

[Bobber]

That happens everywhere. Mac's problem was he hired Marty Fine and Barney Cotton. He also didnt take advantage of going to bowl games and the best season in ISU's history when it came to getting players. He didnt make the program a great one when the rest of the North was down.

Sometimes I think it would have been best for both Mac and ISU if he would have moved on after 2000. He'd really brought the program to a new level at that point and we could have attracted a good coach. He could have moved on to greener pastures and gotten a head coach job.

Oh well. Hind sight is always 20/20.

 

[dunar]

Sometimes I think it would have been best for both Mac and ISU if he would have moved on after 2000.

I thought Mac interviewed for the TCU job after the 2000 season and didn't get it?

 

[AntiSnob]

I think it is a possibility that ISU a few years from now could have a season like the '95 NW team.

 

[Wingback]

Mac's biggest sin was loyalty to Iowa State.

My only fear is that if HCPR has some success, then levels off or even has a down year or two, fans will be screaming for his head, too. "He can't get us to the next level." Sound familiar?

If that happens, you will end up in the same situation Nebraska did when Solich had the school's first non-winning record in 40 years. People panicked and the next year, he went 9-3, but minds had already been made up and the rest is history. If you think Chizek was bad...

I spoke with a member of HCPR's family last weekend, and his comment was telling. He told me, "Everything is fun now, my concern is how will people react if the wins don't come like they want them to."

I know these guys get paid a lot of money to produce, but a revolving door at Iowa State will only compound the problems.

 

[CycoCyclone]

We also need the $$$, I've heard from recruits that our athletic facilities just don't matchup to those at other "performing" institutions.

JP is starting that process, like it or not, of bringing our facilities up to date.

I for one, really, really want the north end zone closed in, like a horseshoe. More seats, suites, louder, and less wind. If I ever win powerball, you'll see that in short order.

 

[Bobber]

Mac's biggest sin was loyalty to Iowa State.

My only fear is that if HCPR has some success, then levels off or even has a down year or two, fans will be screaming for his head, too. "He can't get us to the next level." Sound familiar?

If that happens, you will end up in the same situation Nebraska did when Solich had the school's first non-winning record in 40 years. People panicked and the next year, he went 9-3, but minds had already been made up and the rest is history. If you think Chizek was bad...

I spoke with a member of HCPR's family last weekend, and his comment was telling. He told me, "Everything is fun now, my concern is how will people react if the wins don't come like they want them to."

I know these guys get paid a lot of money to produce, but a revolving door at Iowa State will only compound the problems.

Just don't see that happening. ISU has historically been very loyal to coaches(Dan McCarney is a great example). Now if he's in year 6 and hasn't put together a winning season, may need to do something.

And when you get down to the brass tacks, Paul Rhoads is being paid very well to do something. He knows that and I think at a certain level his family does too.

 

[Cyrocks]

Mac's biggest sin was loyalty to Iowa State.

My only fear is that if HCPR has some success, then levels off or even has a down year or two, fans will be screaming for his head, too. "He can't get us to the next level." Sound familiar?

If that happens, you will end up in the same situation Nebraska did when Solich had the school's first non-winning record in 40 years. People panicked and the next year, he went 9-3, but minds had already been made up and the rest is history. If you think Chizek was bad...

I spoke with a member of HCPR's family last weekend, and his comment was telling. He told me, "Everything is fun now, my concern is how will people react if the wins don't come like they want them to."

I know these guys get paid a lot of money to produce, but a revolving door at Iowa State will only compound the problems.

Agreed, but I think ISU fans would cut ANY coach some slack if 7-5 are considered the "down" years.

I'm new on this site, but I think this question has been asked and answered a million times: "Does anyone really believe the football program was going in the right direction the last three years under McCarney?"

I don't think it was. I honestly believe that if JP had kept McCarney, ISU's record the last two years would have been the same.

The reason for this, bad hires for assistants including Cotton as O coordinator and Marty Fine as O line coach. They were like anchors.

 

[DaddyMac]

Mac's biggest sin was loyalty to Iowa State.

My only fear is that if HCPR has some success, then levels off or even has a down year or two, fans will be screaming for his head, too. "He can't get us to the next level." Sound familiar?

If that happens, you will end up in the same situation Nebraska did when Solich had the school's first non-winning record in 40 years. People panicked and the next year, he went 9-3, but minds had already been made up and the rest is history. If you think Chizek was bad...

I spoke with a member of HCPR's family last weekend, and his comment was telling. He told me, "Everything is fun now, my concern is how will people react if the wins don't come like they want them to."

I know these guys get paid a lot of money to produce, but a revolving door at Iowa State will only compound the problems.

I don't want to turn this into a Bash-DannyMac thread. I think the world of the man. He exuded class in everything he did.

But loyalty? He did a few interviews while he was here, didn't he? If anything, ISU was unbelievably loyal to Coach Mac. I think most people question the fact if Coach Mac got us to the "first level". All time low in quality of teams in the north, nothing schools in non-con, and a dilluted bowl system. And most years we scrapped by to even be eligible at .500. We had nine wins 1 season? I think 8 in another, intermingled with 3 win season in between. If anything we can see that our "success" was largely based on one player wearing #15. The following season, despite everything we heard about 20 of 24 starters returning, we went 3-8? So where's the foundation after 8 years?

Put me in the group that Coach Mac did what he could at ISU, but it was time to move on.

I don't think a "revolving door" at ISU will ever be an issue. At least not due to decisions by the school. Some people forget that Mac was here for 12 years. Not like he got kicked to the curb after 3-4 seasons.

And comparing ISU to NU's situation is like comparing apples to sea bass. There's nothing similar. When you have a few national championships in the case, you may look at things differently - not to say that they were right. But I don't see ISU fans doing such a thing.

 

[CyCy]

If every Big 12 school had a coach of equal ability, would we be consistently winning 8-10 games every year. IMO no, because other schools have big advantages over us in facilities, recruiting base and budget.

If were are to become a consistent 8-10 win season year after year then the controlling factor will have to be great coaching. We will need to have a brilliant AD who is able to select coaches that are better than what the other AD's are hiring. And he'll have to do that with a compensation package less than the other schools in the conference.

How realistic is that? Not impossible, but we will need a lot of things to fall into place for it to happen. We've had 4 winning conference records in the past 30 years. That wasn't caused by just bad coaching.

 

[CycoCyclone]

If every Big 12 school had a coach of equal ability, would we be consistently winning 8-10 games every year. IMO no, because other schools have big advantages over us in facilities, recruiting base and budget.

If were are to become a consistent 8-10 win season year after year then the controlling factor will have to be great coaching. We will need to have a brilliant AD who is able to select coaches that are better than what the other AD's are hiring. And he'll have to do that with a compensation package less than the other schools in the conference.

How realistic is that? Not impossible, but we will need a lot of things to fall into place for it to happen. We've had 4 winning conference records in the past 30 years. That wasn't caused by just bad coaching.

+1

 

[intrepid27]

And they got Bill back... I would add to it, right coach at the right time! I don't see KSU going back to the days of top 10s under Snyder this time around.

I agree. I was referring to his early career.

The thing that always frustrated me with Danny Mac was he could never capitalize on his success. When he had a good season he did not get better recruits. Even short term, when he had a lead during a game he sat on it rathern than trying to build on it. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaad plan.

 

[Wingback]

Obviously, the ISU situation is different than the situation at Nebraska, DaddyMac. I made that point in another thread when the question was asked would Bob Stoops or Mack Brown be fired after a 2-10 season. My answer was they would either be on a very short rope or on his way out the door. And as I said, the reason is that schools like Texas and Oklahoma are used to 10-2 seasons and not 2-10 seasons. Iowa State, unfortunately, is more used to 2-10 seasons, so logic would tell you that people would be a little more understanding.

The point I was trying to make is that this phrase "the next level" absolutely drives me nuts. And my concern is that if HCPR doesn't get ISU to the "next level," whatever in the heck that is, will fans and boosters get irrational and force a stupid decision to be made (and Iowa State end up with their version of Bill Callahan). Because a revolving door is the last thing Cyclone fans should want.

I guess, in a nutshell, my plea is for ISU fans to be reasonable. Long term, we know Texas and Oklahoma will most likely dominate the South. And if past history is any indicator, probably Nebraska and maybe Colorado will be the powers that be in the North. If Paul Rhoads can produce nothing worse than .500 seasons, and then if everything falls right (or another Seneca Wallace appears) and a few upsets occur along the way, who knows 10 wins, a North title, and a January bowl game are not out of the question from time-to-time.

 

[Bobber]

The point I was trying to make is that this phrase "the next level" absolutely drives me nuts. And my concern is that if HCPR doesn't get ISU to the "next level," whatever in the heck that is, will fans and boosters get irrational and force a stupid decision to be made (and Iowa State end up with their version of Bill Callahan). Because a revolving door is the last thing Cyclone fans should want.

The next level is pretty simple. Beat a ranked team once in a while, take us to some bowls, win them and don't go 2 and 8 the next year. If he can get us 90% of what Eastern Iowa U does, the Cyclone nation will be happy.

 

[CyWantsAWin]

8) Finally and probably most important is a rabid fan following that gets you money flow and national recognition even when you blow.

Difficult at the least when you consider that the average fan is not willing to donate at the lowest level and is upset at ticket price increases to the level of competitive programs. More wins and a bowl trip would certainly help to open up a few wallets.