What is everyone expecting? (in the long run)

  • After Iowa State won the Big 12, a Cyclone made a wonderful offer to We Will that now increases our match. Now all gifts up to $400,000 between now and the Final 4 will be matched. Please consider giving at We Will Collective.
    This notice can be dismissed using the upper right corner X button.

What do you expect?


  • Total voters
    56

ClonesTwentyOne

Well-Known Member
Feb 10, 2014
3,973
1,205
63
DSM Area
What's everyone expecting for Iowa State football for the long run? We are in the Big 12. Likely the 2nd best football conference behind the SEC. IMO we Iowa State football fans should be happy with a 6-6 or 7-5 year(s). It's just too hard to recruit and compete in the Big 12. Just is. I know people will say "oh we shouldn't settle for mediocre" but what it comes down to is recruiting and what conference you're in. If ISU can make a bowl game each year, that's what I want. I don't care what Bowl Game it is. Honestly that's where we all need to be at. Would I love an undefeated season or a BCS/Final 4 Playoff game? Hell yes, but lets be realistic. People don't need to be getting ****** off at 6-6 seasons.
 

Mesaclone1

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Oct 9, 2009
5,324
942
113
58
Mesa, AZ
The goal is to make a bowl every year...accepting that we'll have an occasional implosion like last season, and an occasional perfect alignment of the stars to get us an 8 or 9 win year. I don't thinks its a whole lot more complicated than that.
 

DuckDynastyCy

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2013
1,003
32
48
Nashville, TN
What's everyone expecting for Iowa State football for the long run? We are in the Big 12. Likely the 2nd best football conference behind the SEC. IMO we Iowa State football fans should be happy with a 6-6 or 7-5 year(s). It's just too hard to recruit and compete in the Big 12. Just is. I know people will say "oh we shouldn't settle for mediocre" but what it comes down to is recruiting and what conference you're in. If ISU can make a bowl game each year, that's what I want. I don't care what Bowl Game it is. Honestly that's where we all need to be at. Would I love an undefeated season or a BCS/Final 4 Playoff game? Hell yes, but lets be realistic. People don't need to be getting ****** off at 6-6 seasons.

Funny, after reading posts in other threads, I was thinking the same thing. People have to stop and think a moment. In Basketball, where do many of the recruits come from? Up North. How hard is it to steer a kid from Canada or the East Coast to come to Ames? Not so hard, they are already used to the snow. You only need 8-10 good recruits.

Wrestling, where do those kids mostly come from? Midwest, Iowa, PA, NJ? How hard is it to recruit to ISU? Shouldn't be that hard, with our history.

Football, where do most of the National recruits come from? Florida and Texas. How hard is it to keep a kid to stay at home at Texas A & M, Univ. of Texas or University of Florida, Florida State etc? Should be a piece of cake. How hard is it to recruit a Texas kid to OK State or OU? Not very, as the rosters of both schools have mostly Texas kids on there, the parents can drive to most of those games etc.

Now look at Iowa State. 5-6 Division I kids out of the state each year. The rest must come from out of state. Is it harder to recruit a kid from one state away or several states away (ie. CA, FL or Texas to Iowa)? It is a tremendous challenge, being that you need 66 players to develop a 3 deep at every position. A lot of kids, and their parents, simply don't want to go that far away from home.

We should not settle for losing to a UNI... ever. But come on, some of you youngsters are spoiled. CPR has taken a team that lost 10 straight the year before to a bowl the next season. Now he has the extra challenge of a round robin schedule each year.

What I expect is the team to scrap, fight and provide us the occasional upset (which until last year, CPR has done each year). I expect him to develop players, which I believe he has done. I expect us to compete in every game. I expect him to recruit high character kids, overachievers with chips on their shoulders who want to prove they belong and play like it. I love to see a Lane Danielson type walk on come in under the radar and dominate. Love to see Iowa kids succeed in the Big 12! And I expect a bowl game in most years, which again he has done vs. a much tougher schedule than his 2 predecessors. Cut CPR some slack. He is the right man at the right place. His decision with Mess definitely set us back a few years, but he is still our long term best option IMO. Let's get behind him. There is no other coach in the nation with as much passion and will to win at Iowa State.
 
Last edited:

DFWClone

Well-Known Member
Aug 19, 2013
978
661
93
I expect to beat FCS teams but that's become too much to ask lately.
 

boyd

Member
Feb 19, 2012
356
1
18
What's everyone expecting for Iowa State football for the long run? We are in the Big 12. Likely the 2nd best football conference behind the SEC. IMO we Iowa State football fans should be happy with a 6-6 or 7-5 year(s). It's just too hard to recruit and compete in the Big 12. Just is. I know people will say "oh we shouldn't settle for mediocre" but what it comes down to is recruiting and what conference you're in. If ISU can make a bowl game each year, that's what I want. I don't care what Bowl Game it is. Honestly that's where we all need to be at. Would I love an undefeated season or a BCS/Final 4 Playoff game? Hell yes, but lets be realistic. People don't need to be getting ****** off at 6-6 seasons.
I am expecting ISU to become like Ohio state and The UI to become like the University of Ohio
 

pourcyne

Well-Known Member
Feb 19, 2011
7,405
8,637
113
I predict at least one solid upset and a couple of other very pleasant surprises this year.

mangino yes.jpg
 

Mesaclone1

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Oct 9, 2009
5,324
942
113
58
Mesa, AZ
I am expecting ISU to become like Ohio state and The UI to become like the University of Ohio

Well...you're half way to your wish already. Iowa is mediocre...very mediocre...but they have the good fortune to play a schedule that isn't much tougher than a MAC slate.
 

Thomasrickj

Well-Known Member
Feb 26, 2012
6,702
4,199
113
Arlington, VA
I expect not to lose to UNI. It's pathetic for our program to do so and will just dig us further into a hole with gaining any respect. While coaching at ISU is no easy task, just about every school in the power 5 conferences recruits better than us and that's inexcusable. Recruiting needs to pick up. For those of you saying we are doing the best we can, no, we aren't. Lazard was a big step in the right direction and a rare recruit, but that combined with a big new stadium renovation, recruiting needs to get better. Does that mean I'm expecting to beat Alabama for recruits? No. But we should be able to get at least 2-3 recruits a year in the top 300. Go ahead and let the bashing begin since I know a lot of you will for saying stars and ratings mean diddly.
 

DuckDynastyCy

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2013
1,003
32
48
Nashville, TN
I expect not to lose to UNI. It's pathetic for our program to do so and will just dig us further into a hole with gaining any respect. While coaching at ISU is no easy task, just about every school in the power 5 conferences recruits better than us and that's inexcusable. Recruiting needs to pick up. For those of you saying we are doing the best we can, no, we aren't. Lazard was a big step in the right direction and a rare recruit, but that combined with a big new stadium renovation, recruiting needs to get better. Does that mean I'm expecting to beat Alabama for recruits? No. But we should be able to get at least 2-3 recruits a year in the top 300. Go ahead and let the bashing begin since I know a lot of you will for saying stars and ratings mean diddly.

I agree, recruiting can get better. Especially at certain position groups. But I think now, with young, hungry coaches like Ayeni and Linguist, we will see, and already have seen, improvement in recruiting there. LB recruiting has been hit and miss the last few years, like to see more consistency there in getting all 3 star recruits from bigger high schools. DL recruiting can always improve, but I think Cousin, Garcia and Trent are better than average.
 

swarthmoreCY

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2008
16,374
736
83
Here nor there
We should expect to have a talented staff that knows how to win at an upper-Midwest program in a low-population state. With a talented staff it is reasonable to expect:

1.) 2-1 in the non-conference every year and 3-0 50% of the time. (which especially means beating FCS schools).
2.) 4-5 in the conference, on average (normal range of 2-7 to 6-3)

This means peak years of 9-3 and down years of 4-8. Imo CPR can meet these expectations. Rosters are cyclical for most of college football programs and largely determine which side of the average you are on. 2012 was a peak year and we only won 6 games, while the roster suggested 2013 had a chance of being a down year since 2011, and we fell one game short of 4-8.

There are two causes for these deviations (imo). First, in the peak (roster) year, the QB position must also be on the plus side. This usually means an experienced QB, which for 2012 meant a QB from CPR's first two classes or getting a premium juco recruit. Recruiting is tough as it is, and I am not going to lose too much sleep over the fact we did not strike gold in a transition year or the juco QB ranks.
The second reason is highly incriminating though- not having a damn clue on offense. Hindsight is not needed to know that hiring a career lower-level position coach to run someone else's offense is a bad idea. As was hiring an OL coach to "lead from behind". His plan on what type of offense would get the ISU program he inherited the most amount of wins in his first 4 years was also suspect.
 
Last edited:

boyd

Member
Feb 19, 2012
356
1
18
I expect not to lose to UNI. It's pathetic for our program to do so and will just dig us further into a hole with gaining any respect. While coaching at ISU is no easy task, just about every school in the power 5 conferences recruits better than us and that's inexcusable. Recruiting needs to pick up. For those of you saying we are doing the best we can, no, we aren't. Lazard was a big step in the right direction and a rare recruit, but that combined with a big new stadium renovation, recruiting needs to get better. Does that mean I'm expecting to beat Alabama for recruits? No. But we should be able to get at least 2-3 recruits a year in the top 300. Go ahead and let the bashing begin since I know a lot of you will for saying stars and ratings mean diddly.

I fully expect UNI to beat iowa this year. If I am wrong, I will man up.
 

Luth4Cy

Well-Known Member
Sep 19, 2012
5,520
134
63
Ames, IA
To make a bowl game roughly every 2 out of 3 seasons, with anywhere from 5 wins to 8 wins each year. I think now that Rhoads has the right OC, and if he can keep solid coaches on each side of the football he'll have a chance to accomplish this. If he can ever string a couple 8 win seasons back to back, there might be an opportunity to take another step forward.
 

ISUKyro

Well-Known Member
Oct 28, 2006
12,717
2,329
113
Houston, TX
Anything less than a winning CONFERENCE record is a failure for me.

I'm tired of this we are in the B12 talk as a point of pride. We sure are in it - but we haven't done a damn thing with it in a long long time.

I will talk a top half finish in the B12 over bowl games and wins of Iowa. That's how much I want to be competitive in the B12. That being said I don't see it happening anytime soon. I hope I'm wrong. We're just not even close at this point and that's will arguably one of the best coaches we may have the chance to get for our program.
 

clonedude

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2006
30,570
25,721
113
I think expectations should be about what they've always been.... 4-7 wins.

Losing to any FCS team should be unacceptable. We should expect to beat Iowa half the time IMO. No reason why we shouldn't beat Iowa at home IMO. And then we should expect to always be able to beat the bottom 2 or 3 teams in the Big 12 and then surprise someone else in the Big 12 we weren't expecting to beat.

Anyone who expects ISU to win 8+ games a year is delusional IMO. We just aren't set up for that in this league we play in. Most the teams we play are from either Texas or Oklahoma, and thus have much bigger recruiting advantages over a "northern" school like ISU.

Teams like Iowa play other schools basically from the midwest, which face the same recruiting challenges as Iowa and ISU do. Southern schools have BIG recruiting advantages over the midwest IMO. So competing against mostly southern schools is extremely difficult for ISU.
 

GoClones123

Active Member
Sep 5, 2010
936
180
43
Clive, IA
Well I expect to be competitive in league games. I know we won't win against OU or Texass very often, but I would like to see us not be rolled by 50 points by any league team.

I would like us to be more in the middle of the conference stat wise.

I guess I have issues with those who say we can't recruit to Ames because we are too far north. I see KSU in the same boat. But they remain competitive in the conference. It speaks to recruiting the right people and years of coordination and having a plan for your offense and defense.

Bottom line, I expect ISU to choose a scheme, choose a type of athlete they want, and execute this with consistency over the next few years with Mangino at the helm.
 

DuckDynastyCy

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2013
1,003
32
48
Nashville, TN
Well I expect to be competitive in league games. I know we won't win against OU or Texass very often, but I would like to see us not be rolled by 50 points by any league team.

I would like us to be more in the middle of the conference stat wise.

I guess I have issues with those who say we can't recruit to Ames because we are too far north. I see KSU in the same boat. But they remain competitive in the conference. It speaks to recruiting the right people and years of coordination and having a plan for your offense and defense.

Bottom line, I expect ISU to choose a scheme, choose a type of athlete they want, and execute this with consistency over the next few years with Mangino at the helm.

Never said we can't....just saying we are at a major disadvantage geographically in Football as compared to other sports. K State has the benefit of recruiting multiple JUCO's in the state of KS. We are tapping into IA Western now, but they have had that strategy recruiting in state Juco's for years. Hats off to them.