That is pretty disturbing about what Pollard said. As I mentioned before, context matters. It is one thing to have a season like this if you just finished a 9-3 season, but when you put something like this out there from a coach coming off of 3 straight losing seasons and has never finished higher than 8th place in the conference or won more than 6 games in a year, it is a concern. And I hate to say this, but we have no standing to be criticizing the dbags to the east right now. They will likely be going to their 11th bowl in 13 seasons under Ferentz, and I cannot think of any rational person who would prefer what we have experienced during that time frame.
And I hate it when we compare Rhoads to other coaches. One is because each program has unique circumstances, but I especially hate it when he is compared to people like Beamer and Pinkel who were late bloomers. Those guys are exceptions. For every Beamer and Pinkel out there, there are 10 guys who failed miserably. And for every Beamer and Pinkel there is a Barry Alvarez or Mike Bellotti or Bobby Bowden or Mike Gundy who was able to achieve regular winning seasons within a few years and sustain it. Mike Gundy got Oklahoma State to 9 wins in his 4th year, and now their version of a "down season" is an 8-5 finish and absolutely destroying a Big Ten school in a bowl game. Even Bill Snyder, who many people here seem to be fond of comparing Rhoads to for some reason, took Kansas State of all places to 9 wins in his 5th year and did not have another losing season until 12 years later (finishing with at least 9 wins in 10 of those 12 seasons).
I hate negativity, but I also dislike the kook-aid drinkers who are oblivious to reality and I especially dislike all of the apologists. I am sick of excuses and this "but we are Iowa State" mentality. I am not ringing the death knell for Rhoads this year, but this offseason will be pivotal for him. How he responds to this colossal failure of a season will define him as a coach, dictate the direction of our program for the next 5-10 years, and determine if the is "the one". If he bounces back with a season better than his first 5, I will have hope that he has had enough and is ready to start kicking *** instead of making excuses. If he rebounds with yet another sub-.500 finish, I will have next to no faith that he is the right guy to get it done.