How to Build ISU Football

ISUAgronomist

Well-Known Member
Nov 5, 2009
26,887
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On the farm, IA
JUCO's are where it's at for a few years. While recruiting JUCO's, then start hitting Iowa hard to take the instate recruits. Then it's time to start thinking about Florida, Texas and we need to hit Ohio and Penns hard for high school players.
This isn't rocket science! Make it work with juco's first then build within.

Going all in on JUCOs would be regressing at this point. Sure we can (should) pick one or two up to fill glaring gaps in attrition. Relying so heavy on JUCO will either blow up on you or become something you HAVE to do for the long-term. Also, we are already recruiting players from Iowa, Texas, and Florida. WINNING cures all.
 

Tank

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2008
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Niceville, FL
There is an entire JUCO conference in Kansas.


We have the #11 ranked Iowa Western Community College almost sitting in our backyard. Which, has anybody seen the scores they are putting up this year? Pretty amazing, even for the JuCo level!
http://www.njcaa.org/colleges_college_schedule.cfm?sid=11&collegeid=1667&slid=5&category=Schedule

Also, the state of Iowa has 11 JuCo's, Missouri has 16, Kansas has 6, Illinois has 24 and Kansas has 6.
http://www.njcaa.org/colleges.cfm?regionId=11&sportslid=0&stname=

That is a lot of JuCo's to recruit close to ISU!
 
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HandSanitizer

Well-Known Member
Apr 19, 2006
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Bondurant, IA
We need to
1. Get the lines taken care of. Average players look good with good lines.
2. find a Kicker
3. Become quirky....(Texas Tech of the past, Boise, Oregon etc..) We are never going to win straight up on talent.

4. If we still can't win then we should find a way to cheat. Become successful and then take our hits later with the NCAA. (kidding)
 

woodie

Well-Known Member
Apr 10, 2006
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hire a young gun coach that has a name like johnny majors or liker earle bruce...that would add some spark to our football program...
 

JUKEBOX

Well-Known Member
Oct 27, 2008
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We need to
1. Get the lines taken care of. Average players look good with good lines.
2. find a Kicker
3. Become quirky....(Texas Tech of the past, Boise, Oregon etc..) We are never going to win straight up on talent.

I agree with all of these. We need a quirky offense to make us a hard and different team to prepare for.
 

CampusAve

Member
Jan 21, 2011
43
2
8
Hazzard County
We need to
1. Get the lines taken care of. Average players look good with good lines.
2. find a Kicker
3. Become quirky....(Texas Tech of the past, Boise, Oregon etc..) We are never going to win straight up on talent.

4. If we still can't win then we should find a way to cheat. Become successful and then take our hits later with the NCAA. (kidding)

By quirky I'd like to see a Nevada type pistol running attack or K-State's Shotgun Running attack. I think that there are so many spread passing teams out there, essentially we're competing against the Houston's of the world for recievers and QBs. I would think that an "option-running" style would allow us to recruit good atheletes and tell them they have a chance to play qb in the big 12. Think Nebraska option type qb's. Running the ball more would also eat up the clock and keep the D off the field.

I'd like to see us recruit the midwest for the "thick ankled" players (OL, DL, TE, FB) etc and use the southern connections for "speed" players. Surely there are some linemen who fall through the BCS conference cracks and end up at UNI, Northern Illinois etc that could play line at ISU.
 

Tedcyclone

Well-Known Member
Oct 27, 2009
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West Des Moines
i agree that what weve done for last 20 years has not worked at all.
I would agree with your ways, and some others, as well as changing the offensive and defensive strategies. make them different then ou, texas, etc... i say this because it has never worked at ISU... even when weve had the best college qb in the nation it didnt work that well.. 7 wins.
 

CykoAGR

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Dec 16, 2008
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Waukee, IA
Funny how everyone who has never been involved in the recruitment of a Division I team thinks they know more than an entire staff of experienced D-I coaches. I would trust them a little more than all of us armchair wannabe's.


This is SO TRUE. If everyone on here knows so much about coaching and recruiting for Big 12 FB then why didnt JP hunt you down?

Anyone on here who actually thinks that they are even remotely close to our staff when it comes to knowing or understanding what it takes to win is completely out of their mind.
 

cycfan

Active Member
Nov 8, 2006
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Cyclone football needs to evolve. We play Big 8 style football in the B12. Every other team in the conference (poss. exception of KU) has evolved in to a high powered, spread you out and throw it all over the field offense that consistently puts up 35-50 points a game. The Cyclones are a run first team that wants to control the clock and consistently scores 17-20 pts a game. If we are going to be in the B12, we need to play B12 style football.


GO CYCLONES!!!
 

Die4Cy

Well-Known Member
Jan 2, 2010
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At ISU the real problem is one of depth. When we played Texas, we made tons of mistakes but the speed and talent differential that we have seen in years prior was not that large. Our ones, when they play mistake free, are as good as anyone else's. But the margin for error is razor thin.

Our backups are developing, but we do not have consistent depth on our benches, particularly on the OL and DL--good players with size. When we get nicked up it shows up in spades. And attrition in the program--losing guys to grades, or infractions, or homesickness for that matter, have a greater effect as well.

For schools like UT, there 2-3 guys at every position with an NFL body type and time in their program. We don't have that here. Yet. We need to keep making good assessments of HS talent and then go about developing them in ways that see to it they will be around to contribute in year 3 and 4.

I trust this coaching staff better than any in recent memory to get the job done.
 

aeroclone

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2006
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I think we have to do something different. We are never going to have top half of the conference level talent. So obviously, if we line up and play the same style that they do, we aren't going to have much luck.

Why wouldn't we have much luck with an option attack ala Georgia Tech? I'm sure there are plenty of high school kids coming up in such a system, and there aren't a lot of BCS schools recruiting for that type of system. Then you have a ball control type offense to keep the other team off the field, and you are running against smaller, faster defenses that aren't designed to stop a power running game.
 

CampusAve

Member
Jan 21, 2011
43
2
8
Hazzard County
Cyclone football needs to evolve. We play Big 8 style football in the B12. Every other team in the conference (poss. exception of KU) has evolved in to a high powered, spread you out and throw it all over the field offense that consistently puts up 35-50 points a game. The Cyclones are a run first team that wants to control the clock and consistently scores 17-20 pts a game. If we are going to be in the B12, we need to play B12 style football.


GO CYCLONES!!!

We try to do what every other team does, we just aren't good enough yet.
 

cycfan

Active Member
Nov 8, 2006
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I think we have to do something different. We are never going to have top half of the conference level talent. So obviously, if we line up and play the same style that they do, we aren't going to have much luck.

Why wouldn't we have much luck with an option attack ala Georgia Tech? I'm sure there are plenty of high school kids coming up in such a system, and there aren't a lot of BCS schools recruiting for that type of system. Then you have a ball control type offense to keep the other team off the field, and you are running against smaller, faster defenses that aren't designed to stop a power running game.



I don't think this will work. We are already different than every other team in the B12. The problem for ISU with a power running game or option style offense in the B12 is that we have a 10 play 60 yd. drive and then make one mistake (holding etc.) or have negative yardage play and we end up punting. Then the high powered offenses score on us in about 1:30. Then we come out and go 3 and out and the other team scores on us in 2:00. Now we have to get out of our comfort zone and play a style we're not used to and it is disaster.

GO CYCLONES!!!
 

Clark

Well-Known Member
Jun 24, 2009
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Altoona
I don't think this will work. We are already different than every other team in the B12. The problem for ISU with a power running game or option style offense in the B12 is that we have a 10 play 60 yd. drive and then make one mistake (holding etc.) or have negative yardage play and we end up punting. Then the high powered offenses score on us in about 1:30. Then we come out and go 3 and out and the other team scores on us in 2:00. Now we have to get out of our comfort zone and play a style we're not used to and it is disaster.

GO CYCLONES!!!

How is anything you just said any different from what happened with this offense against Mizzou?

I think the option offense would absolutely work for ISU. If Navy can run it with consistant success, ISU should be able to as well. It's a hard offense to prepare for in only a week.

Also, if you're going to run a spread offense, why not go after the Dan Persa types that Northwestern always gets. Seriously, Northwestern hasn't had a bad quarterback in a decade.
 

cycfan

Active Member
Nov 8, 2006
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How is anything you just said any different from what happened with this offense against Mizzou?



That is my whole point. We are a team that tries to put long drives together and something always seems to happen in the middle of the drive that we can't recover from and we have to punt. Every other team in the B12 uses quick drives of 6 to 7 plays with a couple of big plays. If they have a negative play, they can recover from it, we can't because we are a 3-4 yard a play team. We typically don't have the speed to effectively run the option as our main offense.

GO CYCLONES!!!
 

isulive2train

Well-Known Member
Feb 24, 2009
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Ciclón Nación
Funny how everyone who has never been involved in the recruitment of a Division I team thinks they know more than an entire staff of experienced D-I coaches. I would trust them a little more than all of us armchair wannabe's.
This is SO TRUE. If everyone on here knows so much about coaching and recruiting for Big 12 FB then why didnt JP hunt you down? Anyone on here who actually thinks that they are even remotely close to our staff when it comes to knowing or understanding what it takes to win is completely out of their mind.

This.

I don't have the answer, qualifications or experience. This is why I trust in CPR and JP. When a team is winning (ugly win/big win) there is no questioning. When a team is losing then everybody becomes an expert. If you are the expert, then you know exactly where the football offices are. Instead of complaining, be proactive and contact the coach with your expertise/plan. The
original post is call-in show material. Call the Paul Rhoads show with your plan.
 

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