Coaching Graveyard theory.....
- Thread starter Beyerball
- Start date
Actually, we do know Iowa State inquired about Turner Gill and he had no interest.
I did answer the question...I said I didn't know and I don't think anyone knows outside of JP so since we will never know it's pointless to guess either way.
Look..I never said winning at ISU was easy..it's certainly not but outside of consistently recruiting talent to Ames(that's the real issue) most everything else about being a HC at ISU is as good as many other P5 programs and I'd argue being a HC here, today, has benefits other P5 schools don't have.
And that doesn't matter this time either. Paul Rhoads has actually done some good things here, even though he cannot seem to get over the hump, and the program has been regressing since the 2012 Liberty Bowl. However, when Iowa State lets him go and makes a serious Coaching search, they will be able to sell the 3rd largest stadium in the Big Xii with a passionate fan base that took 25,000 to the Liberty Bowl, with a program that was capable of winning @ Nebraska, @ Texas, @ Iowa and knock Okla. State out of a BCS Championship opportunity with a mediocre coach. Think what a really good coach could do here? You sell that along with the fertile Texas recruiting grounds in the Conference, etc. AND pony up for that HC who already has HC experience and shown that he can lead a program, etc. There will be more and better candidates available this time around than last time, or the time before, or the time before, etc.
Don't think saying we dodged a bullet there really applies, but if there's a phrase that describes where two parties each dodge a bullet only to be hit by another one, that would apply to this scenario, failure for all!
All of these reasons are pretty hypothetical. I think the best thing we can sell the next coach on is a returning roster with talent that gives him a chance to win some games and build on that success. In addition we can show great fan support, the new facilities shows we are committed to winning too. But, if you are trying to wage a one man campaign against the thought that it is a coaches graveyard you will be pretty unsuccessful until we have a coach here that wins consistently, imo.
Not my point. My point was that turner gill perceived the Kansas job better than the Iowa state job. He's probably not alone. And turner didn't sniff a bowl game with Kansas. Rhoads did have success in his first 4 years.
do you have to be so angry? If I hated Rhoads as much as you, I wouldn't watch games, I wouldn't go on message boards. But you want to be miserable and take everyone with you.
You cant be successful here. You can win 8-9 games every now and then but you cant get the kids to come here when they can go to warm weather non middle of nowhere schools. CPR said it himself, its near impossible to get kids to even visit based on the location of the airport and the costs associated with flying. Just give it up and accept it, I did long ago and now I still enjoy watching them play and hoping for an upset every 3-4 years.
First 4 years were decent enough. It is the last 2 plus years that are the issue.
Bottom line is that the perception of ISU is that it is an extremely difficult job to have success at. Those difficulties include that Iowa has a small population with very few BCS recruits. And we have 2 BCS schools in Iowa to divide up those limited recruits. That means we have no fertile recruiting ground within our state that we can build our foundation on. And it means we have to sell recruits from out of state on our program. We have no history and no tradition. We have no real brand name for our football program. All of that makes it a tougher sell to recruits. When the state of Iowa does happen to get a real blue chip recruit it is a challenge to keep them in state when the Blue Blood Programs come calling.
A young up and coming coach who comes to Iowa State and does not succeed can figure that he is likely not going to get a real prime time gig. And as proven by CPR, IF you have success in the first few years, then get the hell out of Iowa State while you can grab a much better gig. 3 or 4 years ago, CPR was a hot commodity. In retrospect he should have gotten out while the going was good. Go to a program with less obstacles to overcome. Both McCarney and CPR have proven that it is difficult to continuously have success year after year after year at Iowa State.
Well you said it was true 30 years ago and if that's it is graveyards we are talking about it certainly wasn't true then either. 6 coaches have left ISU to be a national title winning head coach. You'll be hard pressed to find many other schools that can say that. Plus I believe two have gone on to win Super Bowls and that doesn't even count Earle Bruce. If anything we have always been a great launching pad school. Do all right here and get the heck out quick and folks have a great career. Really outside of Criner and Walden nobody's career died here.
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McCarney is coaching Scott Bakula and Kathy Ireland, Rhoads is about to be coaching no one. The list is growing.
I know what you mean here, have said it before myself, but really am not starting to believe it as much as I used to. As soon as we start regularly going 6-6, with a bowl win every other year, people are going to start questioning why the coach can't get over the hump. Why don't we have 8 wins a year? In theory, yes, a .500 coach here would be very successful compared to what we had, but we all know fans get restless, and without doing more, the job certainly wouldn't be for life.
I remember Ed Cunningham saying the same thing we he said Turner Gill should take the KU job instead of ISU. The airport, cold weather, lack of DI recruits in Iowa are real, and are factors. Bring in Nick Saban, or any successful coach here and they would win. Saying it can't be done is something Johnny would give a big "FU coach!".
Finding the guy is a huge challenge, but the right guy can be successful here.
ISU has most of the college FB intangibles. GREAT fanbase, pretty damn good facilities, etc.
All you have to do is win a few games and the rest is there. Its not TCU with 15k in attendance. Easy as that, right? :twitcy:
All you have to do is win a few games and the rest is there. Its not TCU with 15k in attendance. Easy as that, right? :twitcy:
