There's something I don't get here. I've read so many posts that talk about how this "shouldn't" be happening in year 5 in the CPR coaching regime. As if there's some guarantee that postulates that all programs should be on a consistent trajectory that continues only to rise by year 5. Pardon me for talking about my own experience, but please indulge me for a moment while I make a point. I played college soccer many years ago. We were a top 10 team, nationally. My coach was in his 8th year when I arrived on campus. He was named national coach of the year my sophomore season, after we finished 23-2, and ranked number 3 in the country. We never finished better than 14-9, the rest of the time I was there. It got even worse the next season or two. "Should" that have happened after year 10? I don't know, but 6 years later, after I was long gone, coach captured a national title. My point? There is nothing magical about year 5, or any other year for that matter. ISU's record, if plotted on a graph, is gonna go up and down as it always has. For the last 10 years, ISU has hovered around the .500 mark, minus a few %age points. It will continue to look the same 10 years from now. No other modern day Cyclone FB coach has breached the .500 mark, and stayed there for any significant amount of time. For all you who think that just because it's magical year # 5, and ISU isn't performing how a team should in said amount of time, and think CPR should be shown the door, who the hell do you think is gonna come to Ames and do any better? You have to go all the way back to Earl Bruce to find an ISU coach who has as good of a winning percentage as CPR. And that's when there was a whole lot less disparity between the haves and have nots in college FB. I'm as frustrated as anyone about last night, and about the season in general, but anybody who has played competitive sports, and been on the same team for 3, 4 or 5 years, knows that it is rarely an upward only trajectory towards success. Let go of the "it's year 5..." bull****, because it exposes one thing only, and that's your ignorance about sports in general. I know, I know....cool story, huh?
You say it's year 5?
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Actually I think what people are referring too when we say this shouldn't happen in year 5 is that it doesn't make sense to retain a coach who loses like this. It's unacceptable to lose like this 1 YEAR after beating a team by 2 touchdowns. That's on recruiting, that's on Paul Rhoads. It's not on the players, it's not even on Mess, it's all on Rhoads.
ami calling for a firing? No, but it's getting close. This is not acceptable and it isn't fair to defend him despite what he's done. It's been 2 years since that Oklahoma State win. Time to do something.
ami calling for a firing? No, but it's getting close. This is not acceptable and it isn't fair to defend him despite what he's done. It's been 2 years since that Oklahoma State win. Time to do something.
Great Post. Understand that 70% of the regular posters here have not played sports in their life and don't understand. You are spot on. Think about if we have not played kids like Jake and AJ as true freshman and they were on the field this year. We win these close games this season. If people don't see the potential in some of these guys that are playing this season they are crazy.
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OP makes some fair points. I certainly don't think there is an iron clad rule about something big happening in year 5. However, when you start from the low point that was Gene Chizik it is fair to at least see some evidence of systemic stability. We've been redshirting entire freshman classes, recruiting at a higher level (yes I believe this) and upgrading facilities. There should be some sense of momentum even if there is a dip. Many of us have sensed that momentum on the defensive side (we were respectable the last couple of years in the scoring defense category). The defense lost some horses and so its understandable that there's been a struggle there. There has been no momentum whatsoever on the offensive side in spite of the talent upgrade (Wimberly, Bibbs, Bundrage etc.). If it's an O line problem, it's all the more distressing. How can we be this vulnerable in that category after 5 years even with the injury bug biting the way it has?
Someone please name a good coach that wen't 1-11 or 2-10 well into his career at a program cause I can't.
What do you mean, "retain a coach who loses like this"? He's the winningest coach in 40 years at ISU. Answer me this. Do you truly believe some coach is going to stroll into Ames, with the lowest salary in the Big12, and turn things around to your liking? I don't have the answer to that personally, however, starting from ground zero with a new coach, replacing the best one here in the last 40 years doesn't sit too well with me. I agree it's time to do something....what that is, though, I won't pretend to know.
To put it simply, it's a little difficult to defend that you are "BUILDING" a program over the last 5 years, when that program just suffered its biggest margin of defeat in school history.
Yes, we can agree on that. Can we take a whole body of work and realize that it has gone up? Four steps up and a step or two back is okay with me, considering who we are and where we are, if we start climbing back up. "If" is the operative word. I just happen to be one who thinks that next year we are back to 6+ wins. Call me a blind optimist but I've ben saying this since last year.
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Agreed but no reasonable person expected this year to be an uptick. That comes next year.
Really wont be hard when we finish 1-11 or 2-10 this year. Should we get all giddy next year if we improve to 5-7?
If we have really taken four steps up since Rhoads got here, then this year has been 5 steps back, not just one or two. We lost to UNI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then the worst loss in school history!
The trend line has a negative slope right now and will next year even if we get 6 wins. So I don't agree we are trending up.
If ISU would let Rhoads go because he has a hard time getting over 6 or 7 wins they are incredibly stupid. ISU has and probably always will be a cycle school minus getting a hall of fame coach and if they did most likely that guy would be gone in 2-3 years. There is has not been a coach that has been able to win at ISU consistently, with maybe the exception of Earl Bruce and he only had 3 8 win seasons, who knows if he we would have been able to continually put up those kinds of win totals. It was also in the Big 8 and it was an easier conference to win in than the Big 12 IMO.
Its one thing to say I want CHANGE or SOMEONE different but just having someone new doesn't mean better results.
Its one thing to say I want CHANGE or SOMEONE different but just having someone new doesn't mean better results.
