The three years prior to Pollard Iowa State averaged 97th on the Director's Cup. The first year under Pollard ISU was exactly 97th. The second year ISU was 73rd. In the 10 years since then ISU's worst placing has been 64th which is still a 51% improvement over the hand he was dealt. For Fran to have a 51% improvement each year to Lick's average of .396 win percentage he would have to win 60% of his games. He has failed to do that four times in (half of) his eight years. The first were his first two years - just like Pollard's - no big deal. The last were these last two years. He is trending in the wrong direction and it is ridiculous to blame years 7 and 8 on the previous coach especially when you have had marginal success in some of the intervening years.
So no, it isn't the same thing. Not even close.
LOL at anybody using the Directors Cup.
JP fired one of the most successful coaches in ISU history for Chizik and then Rhoads. He is 1/3 on football hires.
He let his 2 best coaching hires walk. He is 2/3 on basketball hires, although that could change if Prohm cant dig himself out of the cellar. He allowed the wresting program to tank to epic levels. Jury is still out on Dresser so I would consider him 0/1 on wrestling hires.
He has had to make a ton of HC hires for the major programs in the AD and has hit on less than 50% of them.