Is there a reason NOT to fire

boone7247

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100% agree. BUT, imo PR can't wait to lose to UI & TU. The change should be announced on Tuesday morning.

I agree with this. Gives them a week to make adjustments, and prepare a game plan for Iowa. But it won't happen.
 

weR138

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I've seen nothing out of Messingham to indicate he has any ability as a coordinator. My question would be, is there anyone else on staff qualified to call plays? I'm not sure I'd want CPR to take over since his background is on the defensive side of the ball.

Yes, Sturdy and Klenakis are both qualified. More so that CM, in fact.
 

cycloneinpdx

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To be honest? There's not really one.

The only reason I can see, and it's probably the one that Coach Rhoads is using to justify is this: Firing a coordinator midseason and installing a new one will absolutely make the offense more inept. You can't learn an entire new system in a week. Say we fire him after the Iowa game. We have 2 weeks to prepare for Tulsa. We can install a playbook--at least part of one-- and it will work against Tulsa, because they haven't seen any it.

But when Texas watches the film from the Tulsa game, they're going to see that we only had 20 plays to call that the offense could run effectively. So they prepare for those 20 plays. Say we get another 10 installed and working well before the Texas game, great. So Texas can effectively stop 2/3rd of our playbook with no trouble.

I mean, it's a start. And by the end of the year, the offense should be functional, but it just would not be a smooth transition in season, IMO. Even though we have other coaches on staff with experience, hiring them to run the same system as Mess doesn't solve a damn thing--the offense would be just as inept. They would have to run a different system. And sure, maybe we put in "elements" of the Pistol this season, but to completely change from to it mid season would not have any better results.

I'm still of the opinion that we should fire Mess. Just bite the bullet and say **** it. We are young this season. Get a new coordinator and go through the necessary growing pains, and be tougher next year. But even if we fire Mess, the offense won't be better this year.
 

gwoodclone

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I agree, I can't see any reason for Mess to remain OC. He has demonstrated during his time here that he is not capable of running a successful offense. We have two coaches on staff who are more qualified than him anyways.

When CPR promoted Mess, I felt like if Rhoads ends up failing here that that decision would be a huge reason why. It was his biggest mistake so far; not firing Mess after the Memphis embarrassment was the second worst.
 

weR138

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I can't really think of one, and I'm a glass always full guy. It's either believe that we have wrong OC, or believe that we don't have talent, and I've seen enough of our skill players to know that they can do well when given the opportunity.

This is part of why I started this thread. I've been an ISU fan long enough to recognize that we are indeed bring in enough talent. I totally disagree with those that say recruiting is to blame...but that's another thread. I'm very worried about the long term consequences of inaction by PR.
 

3TrueFans

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I think the only question is do we have someone who can get the job done better. Now at this point after last nights game I would say we could let Cy call the plays and basically have it be a wash.
 

nickcyv

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Outside of continuity I see little reason Bliel and Mess can't be shown the door. Nothing personal, they just aren't Big 12 level assistants.
 

weR138

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To be honest? There's not really one.

The only reason I can see, and it's probably the one that Coach Rhoads is using to justify is this: Firing a coordinator midseason and installing a new one will absolutely make the offense more inept. You can't learn an entire new system in a week. Say we fire him after the Iowa game. We have 2 weeks to prepare for Tulsa. We can install a playbook--at least part of one-- and it will work against Tulsa, because they haven't seen any it.

But when Texas watches the film from the Tulsa game, they're going to see that we only had 20 plays to call that the offense could run effectively. So they prepare for those 20 plays. Say we get another 10 installed and working well before the Texas game, great. So Texas can effectively stop 2/3rd of our playbook with no trouble.

I mean, it's a start. And by the end of the year, the offense should be functional, but it just would not be a smooth transition in season, IMO. Even though we have other coaches on staff with experience, hiring them to run the same system as Mess doesn't solve a damn thing--the offense would be just as inept. They would have to run a different system. And sure, maybe we put in "elements" of the Pistol this season, but to completely change from to it mid season would not have any better results.

I'm still of the opinion that we should fire Mess. Just bite the bullet and say **** it. We are young this season. Get a new coordinator and go through the necessary growing pains, and be tougher next year. But even if we fire Mess, the offense won't be better this year.

Good post. I guess I assumed that Sturdy could take on the play-calling pretty seamlessly w/o changes to the playbook but I could be wrong.
 

weR138

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Outside of continuity I see little reason Bliel and Mess can't be shown the door. Nothing personal, they just aren't Big 12 level assistants.

Right. There's simply too much money and program implications (SEZ) to allow that product on the field. This is a business. I don't want the ISU football business to fail. We need a serious statement, now.
 

norcalcy

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Desperate times call for desperate measures. There's no downside to making the change. Can't get much worse than last night. Charlie Strong at Louisville fired his OC in October of 2011. They were 2-2 and averaging 18 points per game in non conference (against weak competition). Based on Louisville's trajectory since then, I would say it worked out OK.
 

Judoka

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Bleil should have been gone already. Messingham.... I dont know, but Im definitely leaning towards firing him.

I have been calling for Bliel to be gone for years. I hate how we just move him around instead of replacing him.
 

weR138

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Desperate times call for desperate measures. There's no downside to making the change. Can't get much worse than last night. Charlie Strong at Louisville fired his OC in October of 2011. They were 2-2 and averaging 18 points per game in non conference (against weak competition). Based on Louisville's trajectory since then, I would say it worked out OK.

I'm not sure switching to Sturdy is or would be perceived as desperate. I get the sense he's here in part to be able to take over when CM fails. IMO we're past that point. The line was crossed. It's time...this week.
 

TXCyclones

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It's time. The Liberty Bowl was a disaster, but this was 10X worse. This was not a player-issue as witnessed by Sunshine performing well along with the total yards in the first half. This was a coaching failure. UNI figured out our O and adjusted their D. CM simply didn't adjust at all. My 14yo daughter was calling our plays before each was run in the 2nd half. The ONLY ones she missed were the broken plays where Sunshine scrambled.
 

kingcy

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Just because you fire a coach midseason doesn't mean you have to change your offense. Maybe a new OC would have a better gameplan, make better adjustments, feel the flow of the game better, and IDK call different plays. Its not about the system you are running its about how you make that system work.
 

isugcs

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Reason: Oline did not cut it last night, poor rushing stats, lots of sacks. Farniok going out is the root cause. Fundamental FB concept: Without good oline play your offense is severely limited (you can't play call yourself out of that).

Klenakis better earn his paycheck the next two weeks. Fix this issue and you'll see RB's do better and Sam become even more productive.
 

weR138

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Sage Rosenfels for OC please.

Eventually perhaps but I think we have enough talent to get six total wins still (no I'm not still drunk). I think firing CM and installing TS would be really good for this team.
 

GoClones123

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I would have said last night after 3 quarters and 13 minutes that we shouldn't fire Mess. He was horribly inept the second half but I also saw a lot of QB and offensive line issues that weren't Mess's fault either, that could be corrected or coached up later in the week. Then our defense stripped the ball on the one yard line and the offense had a chance to go down the field and try to tie this game. We threw 4-5 yard passes in the middle of the field not even trying to go sidelines or deep - that's when I thought our offensive coordinator was in need of a pink slip and a map out of Ames.
 

weR138

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Reason: Oline did not cut it last night, poor rushing stats, lots of sacks. Farniok going out is the root cause. Fundamental FB concept: Without good oline play your offense is severely limited (you can't play call yourself out of that).

Klenakis better earn his paycheck the next two weeks. Fix this issue and you'll see SR do better, and our we have enough RB's to find a hot one each night.

This is true and it is an indictment of Klenakis but imo the offensive play calling and management is the core reason (of many) that we lost.

I understand that PR bears responsibility. Everyone on staff bears some responsibility and helped to build the **** sandwich we all took a bite from last night. But imo (and not just me) the glaring problem that must be dealt with immediately is CM. I'm sure we could run threads on PR and BB too. This one is for CM.
 

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