Quarterback Situation

[Frak]

They do? Do you believe everything you read on message boards?

Yeah, if you were Rhoads, wouldn't you "poke your nose" in the offense as bad as it's been the past few seasons? I'm sorry, but if I had a $2M a year job riding on it and a major part of my business was underperforming, you're damn straight I'd have my nose in there. I have no doubt that he won't mess with Mangino because MM is a proven commodity. Mess wasn't. And actually, Herman wasn't either at the time.

 

[Aclone]

Yeah, if you were Rhoads, wouldn't you "poke your nose" in the offense as bad as it's been the past few seasons? I'm sorry, but if I had a $2M a year job riding on it and a major part of my business was underperforming, you're damn straight I'd have my nose in there. I have no doubt that he won't mess with Mangino because MM is a proven commodity. Mess wasn't. And actually, Herman wasn't either at the time.

What I was referring to was the part demeaning CPR. By the same reasoning, he "stuck his nose into" the defensive side of the ball--and didn't "do well" there, either.

I really dislike that ugly kind of thought process, that just looks for excuses to put down out coaches and players.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

No matter how you want to look at it, this year and next year will decide Rhoads' fate. At this point Pollard doesn't need him anymore if he can't perform. I think we will be fine, but the seat will start to heat up if this year is a flop.

 

[CYKOFAN]

No matter how you want to look at it, this year and next year will decide Rhoads' fate. At this point Pollard doesn't need him anymore if he can't perform. I think we will be fine, but the seat will start to heat up if this year is a flop.

JP's seat should heat up too if his 2nd football hire also fails since his first hire was a huge flop. But I think injuries to Richardson and the o-line killed us last year and I expect us to bounce back this year and get to 5 or 6 wins.

 

[CycloneErik]

JP's seat should heat up too if his 2nd football hire also fails since his first hire was a huge flop. But I think injuries to Richardson and the o-line killed us last year and I expect us to bounce back this year and get to 5 or 6 wins.

No. JP's done phenomenal things. Not his fault if we struggle to win at a place that struggles/fails to win at football. JP would be safe, CPR would not.

 

[dualthreat]

No matter how you want to look at it, this year and next year will decide Rhoads' fate. At this point Pollard doesn't need him anymore if he can't perform. I think we will be fine, but the seat will start to heat up if this year is a flop.

We will probably go 6-6 this fall then a bunch of our assistant coaches will leave and we will have another "rebuilding" year in 2015.

 

[Stormin]

No. JP's done phenomenal things. Not his fault if we struggle to win at a place that struggles/fails to win at football. JP would be safe, CPR would not.

CPR is under contract till 2021. As you said, it is a struggle to win at football at ISU. CPR has had more success in his first 5 years than about any coach we have ever had. Hell, McDermott was given how long and left on his own accord. How many coaches has JP fired, other than McCarney who "resigned"?

 

[CYKOFAN]

No. JP's done phenomenal things. Not his fault if we struggle to win at a place that struggles/fails to win at football. JP would be safe, CPR would not.

Not to make this a debate on JP, but not sure what he's done that's so phenomenol. He unjustly canned Morgan and made a mess of it as he did, his first two hires in football and basketball were huge failures, we lost our legendery wrestling coach under his watch, and he's had a habit of opening his mouth when he should keep it shut. Former alums like Fred and the Riemen's are doing "phenomenol" things for ISU. But JP is probably safe as long as Leath is safe. If we get a new president he may want an A.D. that knows something about football.

 

[isuno1fan]

Not to make this a debate on JP, but not sure what he's done that's so phenomenol. He unjustly canned Morgan and made a mess of it as he did, his first two hires in football and basketball were huge failures, we lost our legendery wrestling coach under his watch, and he's had a habit of opening his mouth when he should keep it shut. Former alums like Fred and the Riemen's are doing "phenomenol" things for ISU. But JP is probably safe as long as Leath is safe. If we get a new president he may want an A.D. that knows something about football.

You just successfully took stupid to a new level. Congrats.

 

[CYKOFAN]

You just successfully took stupid to a new level. Congrats.

Instead of throwing around names like stupid, why don't you tell me what I've said in my post that isn't true? I know the JP apologists have excuses for everything, but again, tell me what I said that isn't true.

 

[Me State]

Instead of throwing around names like stupid, why don't you tell me what I've said in my post that isn't true? I know the JP apologists have excuses for everything, but again, tell me what I said that isn't true.

Compare ISU athletics today to how things were prior to him taking over. That's all that is needed to prove you are wrong.

 

[CYKOFAN]

Compare ISU athletics today to how things were prior to him taking over. That's all that is needed to prove you are wrong.

Once again I'll ask you to tell me one thing I said in my post that isn't true. Take it apart statement by statement if you want to. You might come up with some excuses, but have I said that isn't a fact. As far as ISU sports, basketball is great and as I said, that's thanks to our favorite alum the Mayor wanting to come back home, and apparently he also wanted to come back when GMac was hired. With the horrible shape of our basketball program after JP hired GMac, Fred was not only by far the best hire but probably our only decent hire. But don't forget that when JP took over, Morgan was having winning seasons and winning post season games, which of course Morgan's firing and JP's hiring of GMac quickly reversed. Football right now is coming off a real bad season and there are questions about where the program is right now. JP's firing of Mac and hire of Chizik and his short era was certainly worse than the McCarney era. Those are by far the two most important sports. Wrestling has always been a source of pride at ISU and that's gone downhill. Women's basketball has always been good under Fennelly, though this year I don't think was one of his better years. I really don't know how we compare in cross country, track, golf, etc, now to when JP took over, but there are very few people that care about those sports, and they of course are big money losers that have no following. The football stadium is getting a huge and long overdue upgrade, but that's thanks to the Rieman's, and that's what extremely wealthy alums often do for their universities. Just not seeing the "phenomenol" job JP's done as described by one of his fans.

 

[mustangcy]

Once again I'll ask you to tell me one thing I said in my post that isn't true. Take it apart statement by statement if you want to. You might come up with some excuses, but have I said that isn't a fact. As far as ISU sports, basketball is great and as I said, that's thanks to our favorite alum the Mayor wanting to come back home, and apparently he also wanted to come back when GMac was hired. With the horrible shape of our basketball program after JP hired GMac, Fred was not only by far the best hire but probably our only decent hire. But don't forget that when JP took over, Morgan was having winning seasons and winning post season games, which of course Morgan's firing and JP's hiring of GMac quickly reversed. Football right now is coming off a real bad season and there are questions about where the program is right now. JP's firing of Mac and hire of Chizik and his short era was certainly worse than the McCarney era. Those are by far the two most important sports. Wrestling has always been a source of pride at ISU and that's gone downhill. Women's basketball has always been good under Fennelly, though this year I don't think was one of his better years. I really don't know how we compare in cross country, track, golf, etc, now to when JP took over, but there are very few people that care about those sports, and they of course are big money losers that have no following. The football stadium is getting a huge and long overdue upgrade, but that's thanks to the Rieman's, and that's what extremely wealthy alums often do for their universities. Just not seeing the "phenomenol" job JP's done as described by one of his fans.

Good lord...where to begin. Do you really think Fred just stumbled on campus and JP accidentally hired him? JP going up to Minny the day after Greg left to hire Fred was a stroke of genius. Fred didn't call JP after Greg left, JP called Fred. Gene Chizik no matter what anyone wants to say won the national title 4 years after JP hired him...not with ISU but still, JP hired a national champion on his first coaching hire. You think the Reimans didn't have JP in their ear all the time to write that check? Like they just drove to campus and took JP by total surprise? The basketball facility, the football facility, the SEZ...all things past AD's have tried to do...and FAILED to do. I mean, you could go on and on regarding the fabulous job JP has done at ISU.

 

[DuckDynastyCy]

Good lord...where to begin. Do you really think Fred just stumbled on campus and JP accidentally hired him? JP going up to Minny the day after Greg left to hire Fred was a stroke of genius. Fred didn't call JP after Greg left, JP called Fred. Gene Chizik no matter what anyone wants to say won the national title 4 years after JP hired him...not with ISU but still, JP hired a national champion on his first coaching hire. You think the Reimans didn't have JP in their ear all the time to write that check? Like they just drove to campus and took JP by total surprise? The basketball facility, the football facility, the SEZ...all things past AD's have tried to do...and FAILED to do. I mean, you could go on and on regarding the fabulous job JP has done at ISU.

Going after Fred wasn't genius, that was the common sense thing to do after Fred expressed interest earlier. Chizik winning a NC? Seriously? Do you even know the controversey surrounding Cam Newton? There is no doubt that he got paid (or his preacher daddy did) to go to Auburn. Auburn just outbid MS State's Alumni. Without Cam, Auburn is a .500 team at best and Chizzy probably loses his job 1 year earlier than he did. He is a HORRIBLE leader and on the field coach, but is a great recruiter, especially so with $$ behind the school to "help" him. JP has done well at creating interest and buzz surrounding the programs, he's a good fundraiser, and made great decisions in CPR and Fred, but after some failed hires in Chizzy and McDermott before that. Remember Auburn had to pay us to get Chizzy...think about that for a minute. That's a stroke of luck! Bottom line is, I am glad JP is our AD, but I also see Cyko's point of view on this.

 

[clonedude]

JP is a great marketer and salesman IMO, which is a HUGE part of being a good AD.

He has done a great job at "selling" Iowa State athletics to the fans, the big donors, the recruits, coaches, etc. What he's done with facility upgrades has been fantastic IMO.

And he's done a good job with the non revenue sports as well, and that's why we are consistently up there pretty high every year in the Director's Cup standings and almost always ahead of schools like Iowa. He's done WAY better than Barta over in IC. Iowa has football and wrestling and that's about it. But of course, football is everything revenue wise, so Iowa is fine. But in overall athletics, Iowa is almost always worst in the entire Big 10. So JP has done a great job with the overall success of the athletic teams IMO.

MBB is doing great thanks to Fred, but you have to give JP some credit there because he hired him. And no, it wasn't an easy decision. MANY across the country thought he was an idiot for hiring a head coach with no coaching experience. That was not an easy slam dunk decision.

Football and Wrestling are not seeing the success they need to however IMO. I just really don't think JP cares much about Wrestling at all it seems? Not sure why? But I think it's important for ISU to be have a great Wrestling program again. We have such a great history in that sport. I'm not sure what he could have done about Cael though? It would have been dumb to bankrupt your athletic department to keep Cael here and put the kind of money that Cael wanted to be put into the Wrestling program. Especially when that sport isn't a revenue generating sport. But I think there's more that JP could be doing here.

Football is another story. Although I believe hiring Rhoads was the correct hire, the verdict is still out on whether it will be a successful hire or not? As many have said, he's had the best 5 year start of any ISU football coach. However, last year was a complete disaster by any measure. A couple more years like that, and he'll have to be gone IMO, just in order for JP to put people in the seats and support this new SEZ project.

As with any athletics program today, football is basically everything. You can be horrible at all sports except football and do just fine. Look at Iowa. But you can be pretty decent at all sports except football, and not be doing well. That is just the facts. So there is tremendous pressure on JP, and Rhoads of course, to get this football program turned around and heading back in the right direction. Without a healthy football program, you can't have a healthy athletics department.

So IMO, JP has been a great AD for ISU and I can't imagine where we would be without him, however, the performance of this football team in the next 2-3 years will say a LOT about how healthy this athletics department continues to be, and what kind of legacy JP will have here.

 

[Stormin]

Once again I'll ask you to tell me one thing I said in my post that isn't true. Take it apart statement by statement if you want to. You might come up with some excuses, but have I said that isn't a fact. As far as ISU sports, basketball is great and as I said, that's thanks to our favorite alum the Mayor wanting to come back home, and apparently he also wanted to come back when GMac was hired. With the horrible shape of our basketball program after JP hired GMac, Fred was not only by far the best hire but probably our only decent hire. But don't forget that when JP took over, Morgan was having winning seasons and winning post season games, which of course Morgan's firing and JP's hiring of GMac quickly reversed. Football right now is coming off a real bad season and there are questions about where the program is right now. JP's firing of Mac and hire of Chizik and his short era was certainly worse than the McCarney era. Those are by far the two most important sports. Wrestling has always been a source of pride at ISU and that's gone downhill. Women's basketball has always been good under Fennelly, though this year I don't think was one of his better years. I really don't know how we compare in cross country, track, golf, etc, now to when JP took over, but there are very few people that care about those sports, and they of course are big money losers that have no following. The football stadium is getting a huge and long overdue upgrade, but that's thanks to the Rieman's, and that's what extremely wealthy alums often do for their universities. Just not seeing the "phenomenol" job JP's done as described by one of his fans.

The biggest problem with Morgan was that he was a decent enough recruiter but there were definitely underlying problems. At the time GMac was seen to be a pretty good move.

IMO, JP has done a pretty remarkable job. He took over from BDV. A numbers guy who was tightfisted and wasn't willing to grow the Athletic Department. BDV was more the type to cut costs to make the finances work. No doubt in my mind that if we had BDV as an AD that we would be talking about our upcoming MAC schedule or Mountain West or something like that. JP is an important reason why there is a Big 12 Conference today.

Since JP has arrived we have seen a great improvement in our facilities and infrastructure. Our improvements in those things along with increasing the fan base has ensured that Iowa State will remain a BCS school. And also gives greater strength to the Big 12 Conference as well in being one of the top conferences in the nation. IMO, Iowa State is on an up trend going forward and is poised to keep going forward. Basketball is clearly doing very well. And football now needs to do the same. And IMO they will. Look at the youth of our football team and talent level. Look at the numbers and the where they are at in their careers and you will see that we have a young and talented team. Our problems we had last year were a result of injuries and also recruiting misses and attrition in certain areas. No question that Jared Barnett's transfer hurt us when SR got injured. Rohach was really struggling early. Barnett had experience and likely could have run the Zone Read that we insisted on running, better. Especially after SR got injured. The OL problems were with injuries. First, potential starter Shaban Dika goes down to injury and his career is over. Then the rest of the injuries. At LB we are woefully weak, due to attrition and then injuries.

So going forward, I fully expect to win around 5 or 6 games this coming year. In 2015 I expect to win at least 6 to 8 games. Combined with a stadium expansion set to open that season, I see Iowa State as having even greater success on the recruiting trail. The foundation is laid. Now we have to execute and win. That being said, in a worst case scenario, I see us still rolling with CPR even if we are extremely mediocre. For one thing, he is under contract through 2021. For another, I don't see another potential replacement that would be considered to be an upgrade that would get better results. CPR has shown that he can pull off the major upset of traditional powers. Something that his predecessors could not even accomplish. CPR has shown that he can make the gutsy calls that are successful and pull out a victory from what looks to be a defeat. As evidenced by the fake punts and onside kicks.

It all comes down to the players performing and executing and the coaches implementing their game plans and achieving success. Like it or not, we are committed to these coaches and players doing those things. Because we have already made those choices going forward. We can either choose to support them wholeheartedly and go ALL IN, or we can complain and delude ourselves into thinking that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence........which we all know isn't necessarily the case.

 

[ExCyment]

Not to make this a debate on JP, but not sure what he's done that's so phenomenol. He unjustly canned Morgan and made a mess of it as he did, his first two hires in football and basketball were huge failures, we lost our legendery wrestling coach under his watch, and he's had a habit of opening his mouth when he should keep it shut. Former alums like Fred and the Riemen's are doing "phenomenol" things for ISU. But JP is probably safe as long as Leath is safe. If we get a new president he may want an A.D. that knows something about football.

First of all definitely wrong on the Morgan thing. Both of the bad hires were good hires at the time they just didn't pan out. The legendary coach was a legendary wrestler not. coach with little loyalty to ISU, no way we could have competed with Penn State and frankly there was no reason to try. Did a great job leading when the Big 12 was on the ropes from an inherently weak position. Facilities, fan base, attendance and revenue have all greatly increased in his tenure, and finally Hoiball. That out of the box hire alone should be enough evidence of the kind of job he is doing. I think those who dislike JP are just holding a misplaced grudge for firing Morgan. Morgan needed to be fired and the scorched earth strategy he had on his exit should show he did not care about ISU. Decent recruiter, horrible coach who was on the path to getting ISU NCAA sanctions.

 

[cuphues]

Let me draw a little comparison for you. Six years of Bruce Van de Velde or the last six with Jamie Pollard?

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Van de Velde was an idiot that goes without saying. Pollard has done well and anyone who doesn't think so needs to wake up. ISU has been terrible in almost all athletics for a long time. We are doing very well in many sports that are not football and basketball. That alone is enough for me. Now throw in the all the infrastructure upgrades and increase in student attendance due in part to the success of many programs besides football.

I want to win so bad in football it hurts... so I'm right there with everyone lamenting about how many times we have to take it in the junk as Cyclones, but that's who we are. We persevere, and it shows from the Alumni success that ISU has outside of athletics. There are so many more things more important than winning a college football game, and you can learn a lot about yourself in the humility of failure. It's why our fan base is so passionate and IMO so deserving of a winning program.

Even if Rhoads never gets us to the national power level, I love what he has done for us, as well as Pollard. I see rumblings of what happened to poor old McCarney, but he didn't get the money Rhoads is receiving.

 

[Luth4Cy]

Once again I'll ask you to tell me one thing I said in my post that isn't true. Take it apart statement by statement if you want to. You might come up with some excuses, but have I said that isn't a fact. As far as ISU sports, basketball is great and as I said, that's thanks to our favorite alum the Mayor wanting to come back home, and apparently he also wanted to come back when GMac was hired. With the horrible shape of our basketball program after JP hired GMac, Fred was not only by far the best hire but probably our only decent hire. But don't forget that when JP took over, Morgan was having winning seasons and winning post season games, which of course Morgan's firing and JP's hiring of GMac quickly reversed. Football right now is coming off a real bad season and there are questions about where the program is right now. JP's firing of Mac and hire of Chizik and his short era was certainly worse than the McCarney era. Those are by far the two most important sports. Wrestling has always been a source of pride at ISU and that's gone downhill. Women's basketball has always been good under Fennelly, though this year I don't think was one of his better years. I really don't know how we compare in cross country, track, golf, etc, now to when JP took over, but there are very few people that care about those sports, and they of course are big money losers that have no following. The football stadium is getting a huge and long overdue upgrade, but that's thanks to the Rieman's, and that's what extremely wealthy alums often do for their universities. Just not seeing the "phenomenol" job JP's done as described by one of his fans.

A lot of AD's wouldn't have hired Fred. Pollard had the presence of mind to recognize Fred's plan for Iowa State and make a hire that received criticism. And if you really think Fred was our only good option, you really don't understand college athletics. As long as a school is in a major conference, they'll certainly have good candidates applying for their coaching positions.