Feeling a little duped right now

[cytheguy]

We were all told this year's team was the fastest, most athletic team of the Rhoads era. We've been told for the last few years that Rhoads is the best coach ISU has ever had. Many made Sam Richardson out to be the best QB ever at ISU. I keep hearing about all this youth on the team. I keep hearing this is a rebuilding year. I keep hearing how recruiting is on a major upswing.

Well I'm sick and tired of hearing that kind of talk EVERY year. I want results. It's always, "next year is the year we turn the corner" or "we're a young team" or "we have a lot of injuries" or "it's the refs fault" and on and on.

I'm tired of it. Tired of all the excuses. If we're so fast and athletic, why are we getting blown out this bad? It made me SICK to look around at some "fans" laughing yesterday when we got down 21-0 and hearing things like, "this is the ISU I remember!" or "looks like our halftime happy hour will start early today!"

And if recruiting is so great, why are we currently ranked LAST in the Big 12 in recruiting? And rebuilding year? Really? HA! It's embarrassing to hear people call this a rebuilding year after a 6-7 season.

To me, the days of being impressed by locker room or postgame speeches are over. Rhoads has proven to us that he has passion and the players seem to like him. But now I want to see results on the field.

I guess what I'm trying to say through this little hissy fit is that I'm feeling a little duped by all the "talk" I've been fed these last few years.

Rant over.

 

[Spam]

Well, the rest of us knew this year would suck. We didn't expect it to be this bad though. But still, we knew this would be a down year.

 

[00clone]

Well, the rest of us knew this year would suck. We didn't expect it to be this bad though. But still, we knew this would be a down year.

^^^^seconded.

We were told this year's team is the most athletic team we've had. Those who have a sense of perspective knew it was going to be a young team. We realized that you don't take out 2 NFL linebackers and some solid corners and replace them with young guys all over and expect no dropoff on the defense. The defense kept us marginally 'in' games that our offense put us out of last year until either the offense did something or they couldn't do it anymore. I expected a dropoff in defense, but not this big. I hoped that if we could get some improvement on offense, maybe we could hit the same results as last year. I really say hoped because I knew it was a possibility we wouldn't see that improvement. You can't count on the injuries we've had on the offensive line, but I didn't expect such a fundamentally poor team. Some issues, yes, but not such horrible misses in the passing game, blown assignments on both sides of the ball.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I thought a successful year would be five or six wins. Still attainable but unlikely. There are some potential wins still out there if we're healthy and the o-line plays like they did yesterday.

 

[mt85]

A rebuilding year coupled with unprecedented injury issues is not a formula for success. Sadly too many of our fans have lost perspective.

 

[Cyclonesince78]

Well, the rest of us knew this year would suck. We didn't expect it to be this bad though. But still, we knew this would be a down year.

Wrong

 

[cygrads]

While I knew 6 wins would be wildly successful I did expect 4 or 5 and to be competitive. I expected the defense to get better and the offense to struggle. The defensive coaches have proven they can coach in the past so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt - the offense is another story - no progress in the CPR era.

 

[Rabbuk]

Go through the prediction thread... Very few people say anything about a down year.

 

[pourcyne]

I respectfullly disagree with your rant, cytheguy.

People would scream bloody murder if anyone dared to admit that their team wasn't going to be good in any given year.

So what? Not everyone can win all the time, or even some of the time.

At the end of the day, we need to ask ourselves what sports are really for.

If they're not about building character and teaching young people (it may be too late for their fans) to win with grace and lose with dignity, then they're just a giant sham and really only about the ka-ching.

And if that's the case, they need to become franchises and pay their players and quit pretending that they - like the university they are supposed to represent - have anything to do with teaching and learning.

Clone to the Bone, win or lose. THAT's what sets us apart from everyone else.

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[acgclone]

To compete in a BCS league like the B12 you need some future NFL players. I don't see more than 1-2 out there and that's being generous. It probably takes 4-5 (total, not in each class) future NFL'ers to get to around .500 as we have in the past.

The top teams in the league probably have 8+ in their starting line ups.

Obviously we'll never be loaded with 4/5 star athletes but we need to at least get the type of players that Iowa has been successful with. Tall, reasonably athletic guys with big frames. They have developed those types into NFL OL, TE's, DL, LB's and safeties. Amd they've had a fair amount of success with players like that. You can find lots of 3 star athletes that can fall into that category but typically they have at least a few other BSC offers.

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

Well, the rest of us knew this year would suck. We didn't expect it to be this bad though. But still, we knew this would be a down year.

What are we down from? Is our ceiling 6-6?

 

[westlbcyclone]

I thought this would be a 5 win year. I don't think there were too many people that seriously thought this was a 6+ win year. Did anyone think this was going to be a 1 or 2 win year? Probably not. A 3 to 5 win year? Much more likely.

You don't lose 3 NFL-caliber players at ISU and just keep going, there is going to be a drop off.

 

[clonedude]

I think I predicted 4 or 5 wins this year. So, yes, I did expect us to be worse than last year. I expected us to be young, inexperienced, but talented.

But when UNI completely dominated us in the first game, I knew we might only win 2 or 3 at the most. And now with all the injuries, we may only end up with 1 win.

Right now, we can only hope we can keep the commits we do have for next year.

 

[mcblogerson]

It's a rebuilding year, and we've been unlucky in injuries and had a win stolen. Preseason expectations for me were 4-6 wins. After the UNI game, I realized it was going to be a long ugly season. I still think we beat KU and maybe WV.

Next year I expect we'll be back in the 6 win, minor bowl club.

 

[Spam]

What are we down from? Is our ceiling 6-6?

I completely agree that just because we expected to be bad, does not make it ok to be bad. And yes, unfortunately, it does look like we're a team with 6 win ceiling, with the occasional big time win. Again, not acceptable.

I was simply disagreeing with the original poster that this year we were made to believe we would be awesome. It was quite apparent that this year would suck even in pre-season. Believing we would be good was more about hope. It was about "trust Rhoads". It was about being positive. All that was well and good, but hardly realistic.

But there was plenty of evidence that screamed this would be a down year. Again, that does not at all make it acceptable.

 

[Palmer]

It's a rebuilding year, and we've been unlucky in injuries and had a win stolen. Preseason expectations for me were 4-6 wins. After the UNI game, I realized it was going to be a long ugly season. I still think we beat KU and maybe WV.

Next year I expect we'll be back in the 6 win, minor bowl club.

When the program is rebuilding from losing seasons.....you know it is in the crapper.

 

[mustangcy]

The crybaby's on this board are reaching epic proportions. If anyone says they didn't expect a down year this year they are either a complete homer with no actual knowledge of college football or lying. Yes, we all thought we'd beat UNI and most, myself included, thought we could get potentially 4-5 wins but you can't just turn a blind eye to our injuries and pretend they don't matter. They do matter, injuries effect all teams. Some years injuries don't effect a team much at all and others years they do. Unfortunetly for us this year they are really effecting us in a big way.

To me the OP is the worst kind of fan. A guy that turns his back on a program after 1/2 of a bad season...after several before that very much should have exceeded expectations. Did you really think CPR would win 7 games his first year? Or go to 3 bowls in his first 4 years the day he took the job? My best guess would be that if someone told you that the day CPR took the job you would have **** yourself with excitement. I know I would have after the Chizik years. So yes, I'm still pretty goddamn content with Paul Rhoads.

And if you still can't see that the talent level of the underclassman is improving then you also don't know much about football.

 

[mt85]

When the program is rebuilding from losing seasons.....you know it is in the crapper.

It was a bowl season against one of the toughest schedules in the nation. Where have all these whiny ****** come from?

 

[Tornado man]

The crybaby's on this board are reaching epic proportions. If anyone says they didn't expect a down year this year they are either a complete homer with no actual knowledge of college football or lying.

To use your words, then CPR was "lying" to us at the Gridiron Club preseason scrimmage...

 

[letsCYber]

Wrong

^^ this. Someone pull up the pre-season prediction thread..?