Coaching Staff Evaluation

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madguy30

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Let's not lose sight of the quality young men coach has brought into this program. 7-6 is a disappointment, but if ISU is represented by players of this quality who leave here a little better than when they first stepped on campus.....its a winning season

As real as it gets! Watch an emotional Marcel Spears Jr. (senior linebacker - @the_heavengates) thank his teammates and tell them what they mean to him, after a tough loss to Notre Dame. This example of brotherhood is why the game is so special. https://t.co/se5IDw5G5p

Amen.

Repeating but I stayed in the spot where the team stays in October, so saw the players and coaches milling around a bit. Just college kids (HUGE but still college kids) being what they are. I remember Friday night, a lineman was walking around getting some ice, and on the way out, made sure to jump up and touch the ceiling like anyone that age would do. Just kind of dorking around. (BTW this was the TCU weekend before anyone goes 'not focused!' about it).

Imo coaching decisions of grown ass men are fair game (and CMC has been upfront that he needs to be better) but these players aren't video game characters that are just interchangeable pieces that a fan's happiness should revolve around. And something as emotional and adversity filled as football, over a span of 4 years, can create a connection that you don't get in a lot of areas of life, along with the work that was put into it. That's likely what we're seeing from Spears there. Great stuff and SHOULD be a sobering reminder for some.
 

intrepid27

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Oct 9, 2006
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CMC recruits over current players all the time and started a true freshman at RB. Where the hell have you been?

I'm OK with the model of bringing in better players each year and having consistency n the coaching staff. Seems to work for TOE and others.

Just curious...... do you think Croney or Lang are more talented than Hall?
 
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quasistellar

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ah right. let’s forget Baylor was successful before that.

we weren’t

I take some issue with this. Before Art Briles, Baylor was a **** program, and had been a **** program since, like, the '80s. Even back in the day they just had moderate success at best.

Don't act like they're OU or Texas, or hell even Nebraska.

EDIT: I just want to go on record saying Campbell is doing an overall great job IMO. I can't ****ing stand seeing people compare this to the basketball situation. Campbell has taken ISU--a perennial doormat of the BigXII (aside from just a couple years)--and made us respectable. And we're on an upward trajectory with what appears to be more talented players coming in.
 
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ISUMojoMan

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We fumbled the first two times we got the ball, I don't think you can blame that on coaching. We were a young team and got over-matched. The game reminded me of the ND v. Clemson game last year which I had the opportunity to attend on the way back from the Alamo Bowl. ND seemed to bounce back from that game and I expect this coaching staff and team to bounce back as well. Winners learn from their mistakes and move on while losers ***** and moan and blow up their team... see Nebraska for an example.

I say we tip our hat to ND, let CMC do his job and look forward to next year. More than any other Coach I have had the experience of watching at ISU I think CMC is well equipped to make any changes that are needed. The process is not necessarily linear or immediate but I trust the outcome will lead to unheralded success.
 

CoachHines3

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I take some issue with this. Before Art Briles, Baylor was a **** program, and had been a **** program since, like, the '80s. Even back in the day they just had moderate success at best.

Don't act like they're OU or Texas, or hell even Nebraska.

EDIT: I just want to go on record saying Campbell is doing an overall great job IMO. I can't ****ing stand seeing people compare this to the basketball situation. Campbell has taken ISU--a perennial doormat of the BigXII (aside from just a couple years)--and made us respectable. And we're on an upward trajectory with what appears to be more talented players coming in.

never said they were ou/texas.

i said they have had more success than us which is 100% fact. they had plenty of 6/7/8 win seasons with a few 9/10 in the 80s 90s.

now before Briles got there they were a dumpster fire, yes. overall though they have been better, especially when Briles got there.

from 1980 to 2010 Iowa State had 130 wins compared to Baylors 156. Now if you include the 2010's then Baylor is much better.
 

Halincandenza

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As much as I appreciate the coaches taking us from where we were a few years ago, they need to have a hard evaluation of themselves this offseason. Thoroughly out coached in plenty games. Penalties, turnovers, it’s all comes down to coaching. Hope they can improve themselves.

Coaches always self evaluate after the season and look at tendencies and areas they can improve and visit other coaching staffs to learn things.

The TO's are random a lot of times, you can do things to try and prevent them but most are random. Penalties though, those are definitely coaching and attention to detail etc.
 

Cyinthenorth

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I think people calling for coaches heads are forgetting an important one: Strength and conditioning.

This team seemed to shy away from physical play thru the course of the season. Kansas State and Notre Dame physically man handled us. Down the stretch, this team lacked strength and the toughness that comes with it. I'm not sure who the S&C coach even is, but maybe that is where some of the lack of development is coming from. Maybe that is why we haven't seen improvement along the o-line and the younger guys don't seem to be any more ready now than they were under Rhoads. Maybe that is why our d-line consistently regressed in pressuring the QB and stopping the run over the course of the season. I'm spit balling a bit here, but there was a noticeable regression during the season, and some want to point blame here and some there, but I haven't heard this brought up yet, and I think it's as good a theory as any.

And injuries? No, there weren't a ton of serious ones (that we know of) but a lot of nicks and bruises along the way that even if they weren't holding a player out, they were hampering performance fairly drastically (see Purdy). Let's get a D1 S&C coach if we don't have one. Same with OL and OC if those guys aren't up to snuff.
 

Statefan10

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I think people calling for coaches heads are forgetting an important one: Strength and conditioning.

This team seemed to shy away from physical play thru the course of the season. Kansas State and Notre Dame physically man handled us. Down the stretch, this team lacked strength and the toughness that comes with it. I'm not sure who the S&C coach even is, but maybe that is where some of the lack of development is coming from. Maybe that is why we haven't seen improvement along the o-line and the younger guys don't seem to be any more ready now than they were under Rhoads. Maybe that is why our d-line consistently regressed in pressuring the QB and stopping the run over the course of the season. I'm spit balling a bit here, but there was a noticeable regression during the season, and some want to point blame here and some there, but I haven't heard this brought up yet, and I think it's as good a theory as any.

And injuries? No, there weren't a ton of serious ones (that we know of) but a lot of nicks and bruises along the way that even if they weren't holding a player out, they were hampering performance fairly drastically (see Purdy). Let's get a D1 S&C coach if we don't have one. Same with OL and OC if those guys aren't up to snuff.
I'm pretty sure we have a S&C coach and if I'm not wrong, I thought I remember reading an article saying the players have made a lot of improvements in the weight room.

I think a lot of what you're talking about comes down to scheming around the defense we have. Teams started to figure out how to combat the 3 front we're running and we have to do a better job of figuring out how and what we're going to do.
 

madguy30

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Time to get rid of Campbell and replace him with an actual can of soup.

Edit: but make sure the can of soup knows how to call a QB sneak.

'bout damn time there was a chance at a WHAS reference. Not soup but POINT STANDS.

wet-hot-american-summer-movie-review-cook-gene-and-talking-can-of-vegetables-christopher-meloni.jpg
 

CyCloned

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I think people calling for coaches heads are forgetting an important one: Strength and conditioning.

This team seemed to shy away from physical play thru the course of the season. Kansas State and Notre Dame physically man handled us. Down the stretch, this team lacked strength and the toughness that comes with it. I'm not sure who the S&C coach even is, but maybe that is where some of the lack of development is coming from. Maybe that is why we haven't seen improvement along the o-line and the younger guys don't seem to be any more ready now than they were under Rhoads. Maybe that is why our d-line consistently regressed in pressuring the QB and stopping the run over the course of the season. I'm spit balling a bit here, but there was a noticeable regression during the season, and some want to point blame here and some there, but I haven't heard this brought up yet, and I think it's as good a theory as any.

And injuries? No, there weren't a ton of serious ones (that we know of) but a lot of nicks and bruises along the way that even if they weren't holding a player out, they were hampering performance fairly drastically (see Purdy). Let's get a D1 S&C coach if we don't have one. Same with OL and OC if those guys aren't up to snuff.

S&C takes time, especially on the lines. ISU has been fortunate to get some very physical JUCO guys on the DL. Not so much on the OL. It is definitely an issue, and there are certainly some potentially more physical guys in the program along the OL, it just will take some time to develop them. CMC recruiting for the OL his first 2 years was pretty much a train wreck in terms of guys that actually showed up and stayed. I feel like there is now a foundation of better young guys there, they just need to grow up a bit.

Don't be surprised if the line is more physical next year.
 

tolfbfan

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Nov 29, 2015
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I think people calling for coaches heads are forgetting an important one: Strength and conditioning.

This team seemed to shy away from physical play thru the course of the season. Kansas State and Notre Dame physically man handled us. Down the stretch, this team lacked strength and the toughness that comes with it. I'm not sure who the S&C coach even is, but maybe that is where some of the lack of development is coming from. Maybe that is why we haven't seen improvement along the o-line and the younger guys don't seem to be any more ready now than they were under Rhoads. Maybe that is why our d-line consistently regressed in pressuring the QB and stopping the run over the course of the season. I'm spit balling a bit here, but there was a noticeable regression during the season, and some want to point blame here and some there, but I haven't heard this brought up yet, and I think it's as good a theory as any.

And injuries? No, there weren't a ton of serious ones (that we know of) but a lot of nicks and bruises along the way that even if they weren't holding a player out, they were hampering performance fairly drastically (see Purdy). Let's get a D1 S&C coach if we don't have one. Same with OL and OC if those guys aren't up to snuff.

I think fans would be shocked with the injuries football players suit up with during a season. I remember one year at Toledo five or six starters had surgery immediately at the end of the season. Seem to be a lot of shoulder type issues. These young men play often in pain without complaining because they will not leave their family [team] down.
 

bozclone

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I think people calling for coaches heads are forgetting an important one: Strength and conditioning.

This team seemed to shy away from physical play thru the course of the season. Kansas State and Notre Dame physically man handled us. Down the stretch, this team lacked strength and the toughness that comes with it. I'm not sure who the S&C coach even is, but maybe that is where some of the lack of development is coming from. Maybe that is why we haven't seen improvement along the o-line and the younger guys don't seem to be any more ready now than they were under Rhoads. Maybe that is why our d-line consistently regressed in pressuring the QB and stopping the run over the course of the season. I'm spit balling a bit here, but there was a noticeable regression during the season, and some want to point blame here and some there, but I haven't heard this brought up yet, and I think it's as good a theory as any.

And injuries? No, there weren't a ton of serious ones (that we know of) but a lot of nicks and bruises along the way that even if they weren't holding a player out, they were hampering performance fairly drastically (see Purdy). Let's get a D1 S&C coach if we don't have one. Same with OL and OC if those guys aren't up to snuff.

I think CMC has made huge improvements in out strength and conditioning program. Plus the guys he is recruiting are physically ready to play much sooner than ever before. For many years we were just physically smaller than most quality D1 teams. That doesn’t seem to be the case as much anymore. ND was different though, they had the size of Nebraska when Nebraska was good. It showed me that there is still a sizable gap between us and schools like ND, Ohio St, LSU, Georgia... That gap isn’t due to S&C in my opinion. That gap is the difference between 5 star kids and 3 star kids. As our program continues to improve, we will get more 4 star kids and hopefully at some point our program will get to place that 5 star kids want to come here. That is going to take time though. That is why CMC talks about winning in the margins. We didn’t do that as well this year, but I believe this staff will be working their butts off to fix that for next year.

I was really frustrated by our bowl game, but it was obvious ND was just better than us. If we played well we could have completed with them, but the margin for error was really small. We need guys like Purdy, Hall, Rose, Bailey, and McDonald to take big steps next year. I thought this year we lacked guys that made big plays at a critical times in the game that we have had the last couple of years. I think some of that was due to youth. From day one, CMC said your best players have to play their best for our team to win. I think it is even more important that they play their best at key times in the game. I think we have some really talented young guys in place to do that going into next year. I’m excited to see how this program continues to evolve.
 
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Cycsk

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As much as I appreciate the coaches taking us from where we were a few years ago, they need to have a hard evaluation of themselves this offseason. Thoroughly out coached in plenty games. Penalties, turnovers, it’s all comes down to coaching. Hope they can improve themselves.


Are you aware of how Campbell and staff evaluate every aspect of the program each January? They take this very seriously. I don't think we have to worry about whether they will do serious assessment and make changes.
 
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Cycsk

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I think fans would be shocked with the injuries football players suit up with during a season. I remember one year at Toledo five or six starters had surgery immediately at the end of the season. Seem to be a lot of shoulder type issues. These young men play often in pain without complaining because they will not leave their family [team] down.


I think we all tend to underestimate the impact of injuries to Eisworth, Purdy, and who knows who else. Week-to-week uncertainty about how much capacity these guys would have was a big factor this season. And that doesn't take into consideration other factors related to the maturity level (or immaturity level) of some of the 20 year olds on the team.
 

Cycsk

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As much as I appreciate the coaches taking us from where we were a few years ago, they need to have a hard evaluation of themselves this offseason. Thoroughly out coached in plenty games. Penalties, turnovers, it’s all comes down to coaching. Hope they can improve themselves.


Penalties? I can only recall 1 against Notre Dame. And from what I heard in post-game interviews, the coaches took responsibility even for that one (which seemed simply like a wrong starting count by the right tackle).
 
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CTTB78

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We're fortunate to have CMC and staff in Ames. We have the talent with developing depth to win, and win big. They'll coach and work to improve fundamentals.
But, what's the wish list for 2020? Here's mine.
1) Fatten the play book and add (even if it's a few per game) screens, end arounds, and vertical bombs. A wheel route or two wouldn't be bad either.
2) Take the gimme at the 25 on kick offs but develop some time of punt return again.
3) Continue throwing on first down.
4) Blitz more on third and long.
5) Get the plays into Brock much earlier
And of course
6) Have Re-Al be our under center 4th and inches guy. Practice the hell out of it and put this whining behind us.
 
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