Pollard and blame

[dirtyninety]

Liberty Bowl. PinStripe Bowl. Remember all those extra weeks of practice and coaching up? That really paid off.

I like JP, in the whole of his job performance he should stay.
I like CPR, in the whole of his job performance he should probably create a new position for himself--call it director of football facilities operation or something like that-- and hire a young, hungry, iowa-vested, smart, energetic, innovative head coach to do what noone else has been able to do.

 

[CYKOFAN]

It seems from comments in and around JTS that the majority of Iowa State fans don't feel that Pollard has any accountability in the failure of the football program. However, the nine years of JP's leadership have yielded one of the worst football records in school history, (at a school with a very poor FB history). Even tho' JP did the hiring, I don't agree that he should bear the brunt of the blame. I argue that JP has basically given CPR everything he has asked for and needed to succeed (and than some,....e.g. SEZ). I believe CPR's mistakes have mounted up and he must accept the lion's share of the blame.
I wonder what others think??

I dont' think hiring CPR was a bad hire, especially after the terrible Chiz years and the slim chance of hiring a proven name coach. But imo that's not going to happen at ISU and the a.d has to have a good football mind and spot that exceptional coordinator or mid-major coach that also has a good football mind so that he can be very hands on while building the program up, being able to do more with less. Brian Kelly fit that bill as a successful mid major coach who could also beat the big boys. and would have been a better choice than Chiz, who was loaded with blue chippers. And while I think CPR has some good coaching qualities, I haven't seen a lot that makes me confident that he can be a hands on guy (even on defense) to make sure the program is building. I'm not giving up on CPR yet as I believe he deserves the rest of this and next year to show some major improvement. But if a move has to be made it will be hard to trust an a.d. who has gone 0 for 2 and has no background or history of knowing anything about football, the lifeblood of the athletic department.

 

[klamath632]

I am consistently amazed that so many people forget that 3 out of 6 years, Rhoads has made it to a bowl game. That is not all bad.

I suspect that no other coach with more than 3 years at Iowa State has done that either.

Too bad that the three years already feel like they were long time ago.

It is obvious that Chizik recruited much better talent to Ames while CPR knew better how to manage that talent. Now that the overall talent level had dropped so far, it's obvious we just can't compete with the rest of the conference.

 

[CyBobby]

A lot of the failure with the football team has come from the round robin schedule in the 10 team big 12. There are only a couple bad teams in the conference, and ISU is one of them. With only three non-conference games and one of those being Iowa, it is going to continue to be hard for ISU to get to 6-7 wins. If you look to the team to the east, they will likely make it through the entire season and only play one ranked team. ISU has already played 4, with 2 more to come. Who you play does make a difference, and CPR, or whomever replaces him will need to figure out a way to elevate ISU to a higher level, and it will not be easy.

"Elevate ISU to a higher level".....I've been waiting 52 years to get to the next level and its never gonna happen in my lifetime playing in the Texas Ten Conference...so sorry big xii

 

[heitclone]

I am consistently amazed that so many people forget that 3 out of 6 years, Rhoads has made it to a bowl game. That is not all bad.

I suspect that no other coach with more than 3 years at Iowa State has done that either.

While I'm not one who thinks we need to fire CPR, he still had losing records in 2 of those bowl seasons. JP's football coaching hires have had 1 winning season, yet he has no problem selling the program. He's doing something right.

 

[CyBobby]

If JP fires PR and hires a new coach, I wonder if any BCS AD has had the opportunity to hire (3) football coaches at one school?

Athletic Directors usually only get 2 football coaching hires and if they don't work out, its good bye mr athletic director. Poor Dave Brandon at Michigan just got forced out by forced retirement.

When the fans stop showing up athletic directors and football coaches both get Fired.

Go Cyclones Puleez beat the Jayhawks or else Heather will torment me relentlessly....Im begging you mr rhoads beat those birds from Lawrence Kansas.

 

[cyclones12321]

It seems from comments in and around JTS that the majority of Iowa State fans don't feel that Pollard has any accountability in the failure of the football program. However, the nine years of JP's leadership have yielded one of the worst football records in school history, (at a school with a very poor FB history). Even tho' JP did the hiring, I don't agree that he should bear the brunt of the blame. I argue that JP has basically given CPR everything he has asked for and needed to succeed (and than some,....e.g. SEZ). I believe CPR's mistakes have mounted up and he must accept the lion's share of the blame.
I wonder what others think??

I really like jp. Best hire in school history hiring fred and when he gave rhoads that contract it was a good decision at the time, other teams were looking at him and we were doing alright. It just hasn't ended well

 

[norcalcy]

JP is a good AD. He has done very good things, including keeping us in a Power 5 conference. He deserves to stay and he deserves another mulligan. Paul was not a "bad hire" and did some good things. Bringing him on, the extension, they were all out of the box thinking. The problem is, it's not working any more. It's time to move on. Five consecutive losing seasons is enough of a data set. Yes, we play a tough round robin schedule. Problem is, we can't even compete with the bottom half of the conference. Jamie needs a lot of help and input picking the next guy.

 

[alarson]

Too bad that the three years already feel like they were long time ago.

It is obvious that Chizik recruited much better talent to Ames while CPR knew better how to manage that talent. Now that the overall talent level had dropped so far, it's obvious we just can't compete with the rest of the conference.

Which sort of answers the question of "is it possible to get better talent to ames". So many people seem to think the answer is "No" but while there will always be challenges its clear that its at least possible to do better than current.

 

[CyCloned]

JP is a good AD. He has done very good things, including keeping us in a Power 5 conference. He deserves to stay and he deserves another mulligan. Paul was not a "bad hire" and did some good things. Bringing him on, the extension, they were all out of the box thinking. The problem is, it's not working any more. It's time to move on. Five consecutive losing seasons is enough of a data set. Yes, we play a tough round robin schedule. Problem is, we can't even compete with the bottom half of the conference. Jamie needs a lot of help and input picking the next guy.

The doom and gloom that the breakup or break down of the Big 12 has a lot to do with the current issues at ISU. ISU, KSU and KU where the three teams remaining in the old Big 12 that where not going to be grabbed by a major conference if the Big 12 had completely blow up. Negative recruiting was very bad for that year and even the year after. KSU survived this because they have Snyder and an amazing JUCO recruiting system.

CPR has had decent classes the last couple years, and that is being reflected by all the young guys playing. This is the main reason that I think it would be a mistake to fire CPR now.

 

[Skidoosh]

inb4 we blame Obama

 

[Senolcyc]

Baylor was in that group, too. How did it affect them?

The doom and gloom that the breakup or break down of the Big 12 has a lot to do with the current issues at ISU. ISU, KSU and KU where the three teams remaining in the old Big 12 that where not going to be grabbed by a major conference if the Big 12 had completely blow up. Negative recruiting was very bad for that year and even the year after. KSU survived this because they have Snyder and an amazing JUCO recruiting system.

CPR has had decent classes the last couple years, and that is being reflected by all the young guys playing. This is the main reason that I think it would be a mistake to fire CPR now.

 

[swarthmoreCY]

Baylor was in that group, too. How did it affect them?

Less than it did NDSU, UNI and Tulsa.

 

[CyBroncos]

Liberty Bowl. PinStripe Bowl. Remember all those extra weeks of practice and coaching up? That really paid off.

I try to forget that we lost by two touchdowns to both Tulsa and Rutgers.

 

[CyCloned]

Baylor was in that group, too. How did it affect them?

First, Baylor was not in that group that was going to not get into a major conference. Second, Baylor is in Texas, and has a great recruiting advantage there. Third, Art Briles may be the best coach in the country. Yes, he is a lot better than CPR, and he is in a much better place to recruit. before you start with why didn't we hire him instead of CPR; some other teams in the conference are probably asking the same thing about Fred. Sometime you make a great hire that no one sees coming.

 

[klamath632]

First, Baylor was not in that group that was going to not get into a major conference. Second, Baylor is in Texas, and has a great recruiting advantage there. Third, Art Briles may be the best coach in the country. Yes, he is a lot better than CPR, and he is in a much better place to recruit. before you start with why didn't we hire him instead of CPR; some other teams in the conference are probably asking the same thing about Fred. Sometime you make a great hire that no one sees coming.

If your first "fact" is a complete falsehood, is the rest of the post really even worth reading? Have you forgotten that Baylor was the one to threaten a lawsuit?

 

[mustangcy]

ISU will never, ever be great in football. Just can't happen. It's not that is unlikely...it's flat out impossible. I don't give a **** what anybody says. Not in the Big 12. Not with our schedule. ISU can be decent (6-7 wins...maybe 8) and they can be competitive but 6-7 wins is a max with our schedule. I won't bother writing the reasons why, everybody knows them.

With that said CPR was absolutely stabbed in the sack by the multiple(!) years of realignment issues...it just murdered our recruiting at a time that we should have been making some hay because of the insight bowl, Texas win and fan excitement. Just killed us and we are paying the price right know. You have to like the young talent we've recruited in the last 2-3 years on this team though...it's going to get better. This team will go bowling next year...I'd almost guarantee it.

ISU will always have a razor sharp margin for error. That margin of error the last two years has been blasted into bits. We've lost some very close games over the last two seasons. The program isn't as far down as our record would have you believe. If we just get a hint of luck in 2015 CPR will right the ship.

....if he doesn't than JP will have no choice.

 

[CYKOFAN]

"Elevate ISU to a higher level".....I've been waiting 52 years to get to the next level and its never gonna happen in my lifetime playing in the Texas Ten Conference...so sorry big xii

I know how you feel but I also believe it can be done. K-State stunk til Snyder came, Snyder leaves and they stink again, Snyder comes back and they're fighting for a conference title. Earl Bruce built the program up to a pretty high level where we were competing with the Big 8's best when the Big 8 was the nation's best conference. He also did it with a lot of Iowa kids. I haven't given up on CPR, but he's made some huge recruiting blunders on in state kids (David Johnson and Josey Jewel come to mind) that imo are hard to explain. Still don't understand why we didn't compete for Boyle either. It's always tough to build up a down program and it will take a very smart football coach and a very football smart a.d to find that coach, but it can be done, even at ISU. Still hoping CPR can turn it around, but we've been on a bad downhill slide even before the Tulsa bowl game.

 

[CYKOFAN]

ISU will never, ever be great in football. Just can't happen. It's not that is unlikely...it's flat out impossible. I don't give a **** what anybody says. Not in the Big 12. Not with our schedule. ISU can be decent (6-7 wins...maybe 8) and they can be competitive but 6-7 wins is a max with our schedule. I won't bother writing the reasons why, everybody knows them.

With that said CPR was absolutely stabbed in the sack by the multiple(!) years of realignment issues...it just murdered our recruiting at a time that we should have been making some hay because of the insight bowl, Texas win and fan excitement. Just killed us and we are paying the price right know. You have to like the young talent we've recruited in the last 2-3 years on this team though...it's going to get better. This team will go bowling next year...I'd almost guarantee it.

ISU will always have a razor sharp margin for error. That margin of error the last two years has been blasted into bits. We've lost some very close games over the last two seasons. The program isn't as far down as our record would have you believe. If we just get a hint of luck in 2015 CPR will right the ship.

....if he doesn't than JP will have no choice.

I agree with some of what you say, and we don't expect a lot as ISU football fans. But we should not get embarassed by teams like UNI who is built on a lot of kids we've overlooked or flat out rejected. I also could have handled a loss to NDSU, but not that complete butt kicking. Those kind of losses should not happen, especially well into a coach's tenure.

 

[CyCloned]

If your first "fact" is a complete falsehood, is the rest of the post really even worth reading? Have you forgotten that Baylor was the one to threaten a lawsuit?

Okay, I forgot that Baylor was one of the schools not being included in all of the negotiating, but none the less, Baylor was in much better shape than ISU in terms of recruiting, and coaching. Chances are they would have been picked up by whatever conference TX ended up going to. After all, that is how they got in the big 12 in the first place.

The complete failure of Texas also assisted Baylor in recruiting. The point is that there is a pretty vocal group on here that wants to pick out very successful program and wonders why ISU isn't like them. Well, the answer is because ISU is not like them.