Worst Iowa State Team Ever?

GMan

Member
Jun 13, 2008
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Why do you think Paul Rhoads is capable of winning 7+ games on a consistent basis? What has he done to prove he is a good coach this season? One great upset and one fluke upset shouldn't give a coach this long of a leash. We very rarely demolish lesser competition and we don't compete with the good teams. He has not shown me he can recruit exceptional talent. Our team is not disciplined and our coaching staff is usually out-schemed.

When he went to the Insight Bowl with Chizik/Mac's players I thought he could be a great coach once he got his own recruits. That has not been the case.

No coach at ISU has consistently won 7+ games. Rhoads has come as close as any. Earl Bruce did it in 3 of his 6 years, which I would not call consistent. Rhoads has not done much to prove he is a good coach this season, but some of us look at his entire tenure at not just 1 year.
 

JUKEBOX

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Oct 27, 2008
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No coach at ISU has consistently won 7+ games. Rhoads has come as close as any. Earl Bruce did it in 3 of his 6 years, which I would not call consistent. Rhoads has not done much to prove he is a good coach this season, but some of us look at his entire tenure at not just 1 year.

Bruce built the program to a point where he was most likely going to win 7+ games in the Big 8 every season and occasionally compete for championships. Rhoads has not accomplished much in his entire tenure. I do not have unreasonable expectations. I expect our coach to...

A) Win at least 2-3 of our non-conference games
B) Win at least 3-4 conference games.
C) Have a good bowl winning percentage

Down years should be six wins. Normal years should be seven wins. Great years should be 8-9 wins. Once in a decade should be 10+ wins. With a decent coach, I believe our program has the resources to make this a very achievable goal.
 

Luth4Cy

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Sep 19, 2012
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Ames, IA
Bruce built the program to a point where he was most likely going to win 7+ games in the Big 8 every season and occasionally compete for championships. Rhoads has not accomplished much in his entire tenure. I do not have unreasonable expectations. I expect our coach to...

A) Win at least 2-3 of our non-conference games
B) Win at least 3-4 conference games.
C) Have a good bowl winning percentage

Down years should be six wins. Normal years should be seven wins. Great years should be 8-9 wins. Once in a decade should be 10+ wins. With a decent coach, I believe our program has the resources to make this a very achievable goal.

He's done your A and B every year except this year, and he doesn't have a very large sample size for C yet. He also would have probably had 8-9 wins last season had the OC been competent.
 

JUKEBOX

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Oct 27, 2008
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He's done your A and B every year except this year, and he doesn't have a very large sample size for C yet. He also would have probably had 8-9 wins last season had the OC been competent.

I lost hope that he could build a good offense around 2011-2012. What scares me is that I think Rhoads' ceiling may be ~6 wins.
 

Luth4Cy

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Sep 19, 2012
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Ames, IA
I lost hope that he could build a good offense around 2011-2012. What scares me is that I think Rhoads' ceiling may be ~6 wins.

He probably can't build a good offense, the OC he hires this off season might be able too. You really don't think he could have won 8 games last year with a decent OC?
 

JUKEBOX

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Oct 27, 2008
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He probably can't build a good offense, the OC he hires this off season might be able too. You really don't think he could have won 8 games last year with a decent OC?

I think we could have won 8 games last year with a decent OC.

I don't think an OC will make our team go from 1-11 to 7+ wins in one year though. I know the OC is part of the problem, but there is more than just that I think.
 

mikem

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Jul 27, 2010
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Why do you think Paul Rhoads is capable of winning 7+ games on a consistent basis? What has he done to prove he is a good coach this season? One great upset and one fluke upset shouldn't give a coach this long of a leash. We very rarely demolish lesser competition and we don't compete with the good teams. He has not shown me he can recruit exceptional talent. Our team is not disciplined and our coaching staff is usually out-schemed.

When he went to the Insight Bowl with Chizik/Mac's players I thought he could be a great coach once he got his own recruits. That has not been the case.

Who has won 7+ games at Iowa State consistently? Seriously, who?

There is a reason that history matters.

I don't know how much you can win at Iowa State. I just choose to look at five years instead of just one, and I can see a coaching staff that has been solid, not spectacular.

I know we can't ever talk about the first THREE recruiting classes for this staff, and the effect of realignment, where every day the national sports media would actually say that we were going to be on the outside looking in, so who knows how many kiss we lost out on because of that. Because it's only a coaching problem, nothing else.

Forget that the program was in shambles in 2006 when mac was forced out, easily VERY EASILY could have been a winless season. Forget how ****** Chizik did the kids in the program, leaving a build after barely putting down a quarter of a foundation, telling coaches from other schools how bad this job was.

All CPR did was restore a little pride, provide some of the best moments in the history of Iowa State football, and go to three bowl games in four years.

Now, I have no idea if he can right the ship, and turn this around, and neither do you. I believe he has earned the right to try.
 

JUKEBOX

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Oct 27, 2008
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Who has won 7+ games at Iowa State consistently? Seriously, who?

There is a reason that history matters.

I don't know how much you can win at Iowa State. I just choose to look at five years instead of just one, and I can see a coaching staff that has been solid, not spectacular.

I know we can't ever talk about the first THREE recruiting classes for this staff, and the effect of realignment, where every day the national sports media would actually say that we were going to be on the outside looking in, so who knows how many kiss we lost out on because of that. Because it's only a coaching problem, nothing else.

Forget that the program was in shambles in 2006 when mac was forced out, easily VERY EASILY could have been a winless season. Forget how ****** Chizik did the kids in the program, leaving a build after barely putting down a quarter of a foundation, telling coaches from other schools how bad this job was.

All CPR did was restore a little pride, provide some of the best moments in the history of Iowa State football, and go to three bowl games in four years.

Now, I have no idea if he can right the ship, and turn this around, and neither do you. I believe he has earned the right to try.

Bruce is someone who could consistently win.

I feel like a lot of the excuses and problems with our program from the 80s and 90s have been dealt with. We have good facilities, we have a dedicated fanbase, we are in one the premier conferences, we are on TV every week, we make a lot more money, etc. Yet we still see the same (or worse) results. With a loss next week, Rhoads falls behind Jim Criner's winning percentage. If he loses out, he will be behind Duncan, Criner, and McCarney, making him one of our worst coaches of the last few decades.

In the past, I though our coaching hires were poor, but our facilities and support were also not good. Now, I think our facilities and support are pretty good, but our coaching has simply not improved.
 

mikem

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Jul 27, 2010
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Bruce built the program to a point where he was most likely going to win 7+ games in the Big 8 every season and occasionally compete for championships. Rhoads has not accomplished much in his entire tenure. I do not have unreasonable expectations. I expect our coach to...

A) Win at least 2-3 of our non-conference games
B) Win at least 3-4 conference games.
C) Have a good bowl winning percentage

Down years should be six wins. Normal years should be seven wins. Great years should be 8-9 wins. Once in a decade should be 10+ wins. With a decent coach, I believe our program has the resources to make this a very achievable goal.

What the ****???

I think your goals are fine, about what I'd like to see from this program myself. But just when the **** has that ever happened?

Just because you think that this program, that has zero tradition has play in a conference where they are a complete outlier geographically, is in a state that produces little BCS caliber talent, and most of those go to the other in state school, can all of a sudden become a to 35program (that is what those goals and averages would make us), doesn't mean it's going to happen overnight.

Add the changes in scheduling losing a non con, playing everyone so you don't get to miss the best teams in the conference, also affect that possibility as well.
 

mikem

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Jul 27, 2010
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Bruce is someone who could consistently win.

I feel like a lot of the excuses and problems with our program from the 80s and 90s have been dealt with. We have good facilities, we have a dedicated fanbase, we are in one the premier conferences, we are on TV every week, we make a lot more money, etc. Yet we still see the same (or worse) results. With a loss next week, Rhoads falls behind Jim Criner's winning percentage. If he loses out, he will be behind Duncan, Criner, and McCarney, making him one of our worst coaches of the last few decades.

In the past, I though our coaching hires were poor, but our facilities and support were also not good. Now, I think our facilities and support are pretty good, but our coaching has simply not improved.

Yes Earle Bruce, and Johnny majors were outstanding coaches. It was also 40+ years ago when there were no scholarship limitations, the game was different.

They also left, majors to take a job that wasn't any better, Earle to o$u, because they could move up.

Sigh, the facilities are better now, especially the new building, but it's brand new, we don't know yet if it will assist in recruiting or not. But the stadium is still not a top flight structure. We have a dedicated fan base, that is growing slowly, but still way behind iowa in state.
 

JUKEBOX

Well-Known Member
Oct 27, 2008
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What the ****???

I think your goals are fine, about what I'd like to see from this program myself. But just when the **** has that ever happened?

Just because you think that this program, that has zero tradition has play in a conference where they are a complete outlier geographically, is in a state that produces little BCS caliber talent, and most of those go to the other in state school, can all of a sudden become a to 35program (that is what those goals and averages would make us), doesn't mean it's going to happen overnight.

Add the changes in scheduling losing a non con, playing everyone so you don't get to miss the best teams in the conference, also affect that possibility as well.

It doesn't happen overnight, but it you can usually tell if a coach is going to be able to accomplish it by his fifth season. Just for comparison, in Snyder's first stint at KSU they won 9 games in his fifth year. They were a worse program than us and face many of the same if not more challenges than us. Snyder found a way to get talent and was successful. In his second stint, he started at the same time as CPR but has accomplished way more in that time period.
 

twojman

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Jun 1, 2006
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This team lost 5 games by one score of less.

LOL, that is what the scoreboard said. We were physically dominated by a 1-aa school, Iowa, really? Who was dominated that game? Tech? we had a TO in the red zone and a kickoff return. We were dominated in that game too. You will realize that UNI, Iowa and Tech are not really that good and we were dominated by them. TCU has zero offense and was missing several of their top players. If you want to hang your hat on that I guess go for it. Moral victories get you nowhere. We are really bad and if you can't see the need for changes well you are looking through cyclone colored glasses.
 

temperflare

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Jul 9, 2007
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Bondurant
Since I've been a fan since 2000 I can say the worst season I've experienced was 2003. Marty Fine was the O-Line coach and Austin Flynn (Flynneca) spent the entire season running for his life. JaMaine Billups (FS) led the team with tackles which is NEVER good. Teams ran the ball on us like a fat kid chasing a smarty. They rarely passed. That year was extremely demoralizing.

This team has shown flashes of ability. It has also shown a lot of youth and inexperience, something that will hopefully change next year. I am chalking this season up as a complete building season to set a foundation for next season. Of course, I am already nervous for next season since improvement has been nothing short of sporadic and inconsistent.

I really do feel that any time you have a lack of consistency at the levels we've seen this year it is a coaching problem. This will be CPR's toughest challenge yet. Its his first HC job and he's going to have to make tough choices that will most likely cost him in terms of relationships. I don't envy his job at all right now.
 

Palmer

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Jun 10, 2008
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Johnston, IA
Football programs like ours requires a transcendent coach (See K.St) to pull the program out of the mire and get to new levels. CPR is a great guy and has the ability to pull some upsets...but I fear we are starting to see he is not that coach eventually needed. Next year will be telling.
 

UNIGuy4Cy

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Nov 11, 2009
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LOL, that is what the scoreboard said. We were physically dominated by a 1-aa school, Iowa, really? Who was dominated that game? Tech? we had a TO in the red zone and a kickoff return. We were dominated in that game too. You will realize that UNI, Iowa and Tech are not really that good and we were dominated by them. TCU has zero offense and was missing several of their top players. If you want to hang your hat on that I guess go for it. Moral victories get you nowhere. We are really bad and if you can't see the need for changes well you are looking through cyclone colored glasses.
I loled when I saw that post. UNI fumbled at the 1 or that game is a 15 point loss.
 

intrepid27

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Oct 9, 2006
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Nope


1994: 0-10-1

Coach:
Jim Walden




W/L
Date
PF
Opponent
PA
Location
Notes
L
09-03-1994
14
Northern Iowa
28
Ames, IA
L
09-10-1994
9
Iowa
37
Iowa City, IA
L
09-17-1994
19
Western Michigan
23
Ames, IA
L
09-24-1994
18
Rice (TX)
28
Ames, IA
L
10-01-1994
6
Oklahoma
34
Norman, OK
L
10-15-1994
23
Kansas
41
Ames, IA
T
10-22-1994
31
Oklahoma St.
31
Stillwater, OK
L
10-29-1994
20
Missouri
34
Ames, IA
L
11-05-1994
20
Kansas St.
38
Manhattan, KS
L
11-12-1994
12
Nebraska
28
Ames, IA
L
11-19-1994
20
Colorado
41
Boulder, CO
192
Season Totals
363
 

Madclone1

Well-Known Member
Oct 21, 2007
2,035
69
48
I loled when I saw that post. UNI fumbled at the 1 or that game is a 15 point loss.

Doomsday posts and trollish comments .... Can one make the argument most of you are not Cyclone fans? Hmmm?

My money is still on PBR ... And I will support him through this one year nightmare. Why don't the rest of you go and support your paaaanthers and hawks and leave the heavy lifting to the rest of us?
 

clonedude

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2006
33,064
29,316
113
We might not be the worst ISU team ever, but I'd definitely say we're the worst ISU team ever for the amount of talent that we have.

There were some really bad ISU teams in the past, but they didn't have any talent on them whatsoever. I do think this team has enough talent to have won between 4 and 6 games this year. So we might be the most underperforming team in ISU history.
 

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