Does Hawkins getting fired hurt or help ISU?

HandSanitizer

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Apr 19, 2006
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I don't like the feeling I have right now. Their backs are against the wall and they could still win out getting them bowl eligible. (although unlikely). We really need to come out strong and lay the hammer down.
 

RayShimley

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Sep 9, 2008
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"You are what your record says you are" - Bill Parcells

I think it is absolutely crazy to question the direction of a program based on one game. You are right that the old coach is gone and the new one plays to win, but that doesn't guarantee a victory in this game and I don't think it would tarnish what CPR has done building this program over the last two years.

Colorado has played well this season, especially at home. They beat a solid Georgia team and they have a couple of those "we should have won" type games as well. If you are ready to fire Rhoads and get off the bandwagon due to a loss this weekend, then more power to you. I am just trying to point out that this game is not a gimmie by any means. At least not to me.

I don't think anyone is saying that they would want to fire Rhoads and "get off the bandwagon" should we lose at Colorado, but it will certainly tarnish our season if we don't end up making it to a bowl. That win at Texas isn't quite as good if we don't go bowling because we can't take care of business in Boulder or pull out a win against Mizzou. These next 2 games have us at a crossroads; we can win 1 or both games and continue on an upward trajectory, or we can lose out and flatline or possibly step backwards.
 

jburke

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Apr 11, 2006
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"You are what your record says you are" - Bill Parcells

I think it is absolutely crazy to question the direction of a program based on one game. You are right that the old coach is gone and the new one plays to win, but that doesn't guarantee a victory in this game and I don't think it would tarnish what CPR has done building this program over the last two years.

Colorado has played well this season, especially at home. They beat a solid Georgia team and they have a couple of those "we should have won" type games as well. If you are ready to fire Rhoads and get off the bandwagon due to a loss this weekend, then more power to you. I am just trying to point out that this game is not a gimmie by any means. At least not to me.
I think we can expect to win this game, we have turned a corner and need to keep this train Rollin. With that said we do need to show up to win, this team is 0-6 in the conf this year, may have beat a decent GA team at home but the landscape of the team has changed a lot, coaching change, lost a devistating game last week, have 1 healthy QB on the roster......
 

mt85

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Mar 24, 2006
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When did we become Iowa fans? This is a football game between two BigXII teams and it is at their place. In no way is a loss "inexcusable". Colorado has won 6 out of the last 7 times we have played them in Boulder and 11 out of the last 15 overall. Also, ISU is 4-21 in our last 25 road games.

Yes CU fired its lame duck awful football coach. Not sure if this is a + or - for them to be honest. Also, we are coming off an emotional loss. There are a ton of warning signs here - yet I read people all over this board caulking this up as a win.

I'll be rooting hard for ISU, my family lives in CO and my little brother is a student at CU. I just think it is pre-mature to start saying things like a loss at CU is "inexcusable".

I agree with you Clones33. This is going to be a huge test for this team. Colorado has demonstrated they are a dangerous team at home. They have beaten Colorado State, Hawaii and Georgia at home, and they had close games with both Baylor and Tech.

Colorado is not without talent. The firing of their head coach could potentially bring them closer together as a team.

Some of our fans may act like this is a walk in the park, but I will guarantee you that our coaches don't think that. I want to believe our players will come back stronger then ever after the emotional loss, but we won't know for sure until Saturday.

I'm uneasy about this one, and I pray that I am wrong.
 

Clones33

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Did I say that? Nope. But it would be a huge step backwards for this program to lose this game. Huge.

And what I am saying is if this program is moving forward as much as the coach wants us to believe (and I do believe) the game is a W and we're moving onto Mizzu.

There is no rational excuse to lose to CU, regardless of their motivation factor. If they end up having more motivation than we do, our coach did not do a good enough job getting the team prepared to take the field.

You are right, you never said you fire CPR or jump off the bandwagon. Just that you would have your doubts that the direction the program was heading was different that the direction you think it is heading in today. Sorry, I didn't mean to put words in your mouth.

I get what you are saying, I just think that it is a bit of an emotional roller coaster to get that High and Low after each win and loss. After the Utah and OU games people were jumping off bridges. Then we beat Texas and were favorites for the North. I get that we are on a message board (it even has fanatic in its title!), but that is a little too much of a roller coaster for me and I think that if we did happen to lose to a underrated -on this site- Colorado football team, that it wouldn't automatically delete the strides that CPR and his staff and this team have made in the positive direction for Cyclone Football.
 

cyhiphopp

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Did I say that? Nope. But it would be a huge step backwards for this program to lose this game. Huge.

And what I am saying is if this program is moving forward as much as the coach wants us to believe (and I do believe) the game is a W and we're moving onto Mizzu.

There is no rational excuse to lose to CU, regardless of their motivation factor. If they end up having more motivation than we do, our coach did not do a good enough job getting the team prepared to take the field.

I agree. CPR will get the guy ready to play, especially on the road.

This is another "trap game" like KU was, but I think the team will be more fired up because of the loss to NU. They also saw first hand against KU what can happen if you don't execute out of the gate and I think they learned from that. They deffinitely looked like they learned from it in the second half vs. KU and most of the game vs NU. They manhandled KU in the third quarter and had backups in shortly thereafter. They overcame a 14 point deficit caused by turnovers vs. NU and consistently moved the ball against a very good NU defense.

I can honestly see ISU getting up big on CU in the first half and playing backups by the fourth quarter. If they execute anywhere near as well as they did against NU, they should win going away.
 

ISUFan22

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Apr 11, 2006
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You are right, you never said you fire CPR or jump off the bandwagon. Just that you would have your doubts that the direction the program was heading was different that the direction you think it is heading in today. Sorry, I didn't mean to put words in your mouth.

I get what you are saying, I just think that it is a bit of an emotional roller coaster to get that High and Low after each win and loss. After the Utah and OU games people were jumping off bridges. Then we beat Texas and were favorites for the North. I get that we are on a message board (it even has fanatic in its title!), but that is a little too much of a roller coaster for me and I think that if we did happen to lose to a underrated -on this site- Colorado football team, that it wouldn't automatically delete the strides that CPR and his staff and this team have made in the positive direction for Cyclone Football.

I'm not a homer, I don't get on the high/low wagon. I was disgusted with our games against OU/Utah because of how we played. The team has adapted as has the staff. We are playing at a much better level as should be expected. If we played Iowa/OU/Utah again I would still anticipate we would lose, but I would expect we'd look better doing it.

I am not impressed by Colorado's wins. The Georgia win keeps getting tossed out, Georgia is good at losing games they should not.

Would a loss delete what Rhoads has done? No! But it would absolutely set it back a few steps, no question.

ISU fans are only cautious about this game because we have been conditioned to losing this type of contest. Team looking good, prizes await and then Lucy pulls the ball out from in front of us. That was the past - this is a new team with new leadership. I will expect them to win games like this until proven otherwise.
 

Dryburn

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Apr 3, 2006
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I think the biggest factor may be the mindset of the qb........the former coach's son. Does he want to win badly, or is he ****** off that his dad got canned, and so he doesn't give a **** anymore?
 

Cyclophile1

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Dec 14, 2009
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I don't think it helps us, but it should be up to us to control this game at this point. We just went toe-to-toe with one of the top two teams in the conference and came within a hair's breadth of beating them, and arguably played better overall. CU may come out emotionally high and fired up, but we need to control this game and execute well. We need to keep them from gaining momentum and riding a wave to some weird victory.

Bottom line for me is that we need to take care of things on our end, and the outcome will take of itself. If we are worse than -1 in the turnover category, we will have not taken care of business and all bets are off. Just be ready to play, dictate the tempo and wear them out. They don't have the confidence so just don't do anything to give them any.

Cheers
 

tazclone

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Apr 14, 2006
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I'm not a homer, I don't get on the high/low wagon. I was disgusted with our games against OU/Utah because of how we played. The team has adapted as has the staff. We are playing at a much better level as should be expected. If we played Iowa/OU/Utah again I would still anticipate we would lose, but I would expect we'd look better doing it.

I am not impressed by Colorado's wins. The Georgia win keeps getting tossed out, Georgia is good at losing games they should not.

Would a loss delete what Rhoads has done? No! But it would absolutely set it back a few steps, no question.

ISU fans are only cautious about this game because we have been conditioned to losing this type of contest. Team looking good, prizes await and then Lucy pulls the ball out from in front of us. That was the past - this is a new team with new leadership. I will expect them to win games like this until proven otherwise.
not completely true. I am cautious about this game due to a couple other things.
  1. Thin air- I lived in Colorado for 7 years and the air definitely has an effect. We do not have the depth at certain positions to rotate guys in and out so the thin air hurts us more than some teams and definitely will affect us more that CU. It also affects the flight of the ball in botht the kicking game and passing game. Less oxygen affects the mind as much as the body and I have saw some goofy things from players when I lived in Colorado.
  2. Long travel- Long travel usually has a negative effect on a team. CPR has done well on the road and texas was a our first win that had long travel. I would like to see more continuity on this before claiming long travel does not affect this team.
  3. Coaching change- While I am one that believes it will help us rather than hurt us, you just never know how 18-23 year old kids will react.
Personally, I am beyond the "kick to the groin," "ball being pulled away" crapola. I haven't had that affect me since shaggy kicked 5 field goals to beat iowa. There are other reasons that this game scares me.
 

jdoggivjc

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Sep 27, 2006
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When did we become Iowa fans? This is a football game between two BigXII teams and it is at their place. In no way is a loss "inexcusable". Colorado has won 6 out of the last 7 times we have played them in Boulder and 11 out of the last 15 overall. Also, ISU is 4-21 in our last 25 road games.

Yes CU fired its lame duck awful football coach. Not sure if this is a + or - for them to be honest. Also, we are coming off an emotional loss. There are a ton of warning signs here - yet I read people all over this board caulking this up as a win.

I'll be rooting hard for ISU, my family lives in CO and my little brother is a student at CU. I just think it is pre-mature to start saying things like a loss at CU is "inexcusable".

If ISU wants to be a credible bowl-eligible team and taken seriously as an "up-and-coming" team in the Big 12 Conference, then a loss on Saturday to Colorado is absolutely inexcusable. Yeah, Colorado is (barely) a Big 12 team - but so is/was Kansas, and a loss to them would have been inexcusable as well.

If we are going to move up the Big 12 food chain, we have to put teams like CU away.
 

Cyclonestate78

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May 23, 2008
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When did we become Iowa fans? This is a football game between two BigXII teams and it is at their place. In no way is a loss "inexcusable". Colorado has won 6 out of the last 7 times we have played them in Boulder and 11 out of the last 15 overall. Also, ISU is 4-21 in our last 25 road games.

Yes CU fired its lame duck awful football coach. Not sure if this is a + or - for them to be honest. Also, we are coming off an emotional loss. There are a ton of warning signs here - yet I read people all over this board caulking this up as a win.

I'll be rooting hard for ISU, my family lives in CO and my little brother is a student at CU. I just think it is pre-mature to start saying things like a loss at CU is "inexcusable".

CU has been awful for 5 years now, just fired an awful coach, their starting QB was injured and is out for the remainder of the season, their new starting QB is Cody "Pick 6" Hawkins, and they are coming off of one of the all-time greatest 4th quarter meltdowns in NCAA D-1 history in a loss to Kansas (Yes..... the same Kansas that might be one of the worst D-1 teams this year).

ISU has been solid for 2 years now, just hired a young and determined coach, our starting QB is not injured but does have a tendency for a pick 6 here and there, and we are coming off playing a fantastic game on both sides of the ball against #9 Nebraska.

ISU has been playing pretty damn good on both sides of the ball with the lone exception being the first half against Kansas. ISU played 1 solid quarter of football and beat up on KU..... a feat which Colorado couldn't even achieve.

Colorado has absolutely no business even being in this game from a competitive standpoint. There will be no Nebraska game hangover. ISU is going to show up in a bad mood and unfortunately poor Colorado is going to be playing the role of whipping boy this Saturday.
 

Clones33

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CU has been awful for 5 years now, just fired an awful coach, their starting QB was injured and is out for the remainder of the season, their new starting QB is Cody "Pick 6" Hawkins, and they are coming off of one of the all-time greatest 4th quarter meltdowns in NCAA D-1 history in a loss to Kansas (Yes..... the same Kansas that might be one of the worst D-1 teams this year).

ISU has been solid for 2 years now, just hired a young and determined coach, our starting QB is not injured but does have a tendency for a pick 6 here and there, and we are coming off playing a fantastic game on both sides of the ball against #9 Nebraska.

ISU has been playing pretty damn good on both sides of the ball with the lone exception being the first half against Kansas. ISU played 1 solid quarter of football and beat up on KU..... a feat which Colorado couldn't even achieve.

Colorado has absolutely no business even being in this game from a competitive standpoint. There will be no Nebraska game hangover. ISU is going to show up in a bad mood and unfortunately poor Colorado is going to be playing the role of whipping boy this Saturday.

I hope you are right with the final outcome, but I disagree that you are able to accurately compare the ISU v Kansas game and the Colorado @ Kansas game. Home/Road makes a huge difference in CFB and you even said yourself that ISU played a bad half vs Kansas. Colorado played a bad quarter AT Kansas.

It doesn't matter, as the transitive property doesn't work for sports. My whole point in playing devils advocate is I just don't think we as fans can/should automatically assume that this game is going to result in a W. However, I can't tell you what to think - nor would I want to - so I just tried to point out that ISU has had trouble in Boulder in the past and Colorado isn't as bad as people here seem to think they are.
 

mt85

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Mar 24, 2006
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Comments from some posts:
We should win and do so convincingly - no excuses.

a loss on Saturday to Colorado is absolutely inexcusable.


Colorado has absolutely
no business being in this game.

For all the fans that think this is a slam dunk, wasn't Texas saying the same thing about us after beating Nebraska on the road? How did that work out for them?

Isn't this the same type of arrogance Mack Brown was chastising his team for before they played us?

It is one thing to believe in your team, but you better respect your opponents in the process.
 
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aeroclone

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Oct 30, 2006
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This game has scared me ever since the final play of the Nebraska game. I hope I am wrong but I think that we will come out flat.

Hate to say it, but I see this too. I see it going much like the KU game where we just come out looking flat. The problem is CU probably has more talent than KU and the game is on the road. If they go into that game with a backs against the wall mentality and then take a lead into the locker room at the half, I don't see ISU making the run in the 3rd quarter to grab the game back like they did against KU.
 

tazclone

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Apr 14, 2006
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CU has been awful for 5 years now, just fired an awful coach, their starting QB was injured and is out for the remainder of the season, their new starting QB is Cody "Pick 6" Hawkins, and they are coming off of one of the all-time greatest 4th quarter meltdowns in NCAA D-1 history in a loss to Kansas (Yes..... the same Kansas that might be one of the worst D-1 teams this year).

ISU has been solid for 2 years now, just hired a young and determined coach, our starting QB is not injured but does have a tendency for a pick 6 here and there, and we are coming off playing a fantastic game on both sides of the ball against #9 Nebraska.

ISU has been playing pretty damn good on both sides of the ball with the lone exception being the first half against Kansas. ISU played 1 solid quarter of football and beat up on KU..... a feat which Colorado couldn't even achieve.

Colorado has absolutely no business even being in this game from a competitive standpoint. There will be no Nebraska game hangover. ISU is going to show up in a bad mood and unfortunately poor Colorado is going to be playing the role of whipping boy this Saturday.
Good to hear AA is okay. Iw as worried about his ankle and I still didn't think the shoulder was 100%. Is Lamaak 100% as well? That would make me feel a lot better.
 

Cyclonestate78

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May 23, 2008
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I hope you are right with the final outcome, but I disagree that you are able to accurately compare the ISU v Kansas game and the Colorado @ Kansas game. Home/Road makes a huge difference in CFB and you even said yourself that ISU played a bad half vs Kansas. Colorado played a bad quarter AT Kansas.

It doesn't matter, as the transitive property doesn't work for sports. My whole point in playing devils advocate is I just don't think we as fans can/should automatically assume that this game is going to result in a W. However, I can't tell you what to think - nor would I want to - so I just tried to point out that ISU has had trouble in Boulder in the past and Colorado isn't as bad as people here seem to think they are.

ISU played 1 good quarter of football against Kansas and that was enough to win. Colorado played 3 great quarters against Kansas and found a way to lose the game. Huge difference.
 

Cyclonestate78

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May 23, 2008
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Comments from some posts:
We should win and do so convincingly - no excuses.

a loss on Saturday to Colorado is absolutely inexcusable.

Colorado has absolutely no business being in this game.

For all the fans that think this is a slam dunk, wasn't Texas saying the same thing about us after beating Nebraska on the road? How did that work out for them?

Isn't this the same type of arrogance Mack Brown was chastising his team for before they played us?

It is one thing to believe in your team, but you better respect your opponents in the process.

Make no mistake.... Colorado can win this football game. Our coaches and players know this. The point is... if our team shows up and plays as CPR describes it as "Cyclone Football" then we are going to mop the field with Colorado.

Colorado's program is in full meltdown mode and it should be. ISU has things moving in the right direction and momentum is building. Colorado is fighting momentum going in the wrong direction and picking up steam quickly.