How confident are you in Paul Rhoads ability to make ISU a winning program
- Thread starter GoSTATE71
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The B12 is no juggernaut this year, it is a good conference but not the monster some make it out to be every year. ISU has never been a winning program in the sense of consistently having winning records. Rhoads is basically doing what a good share of coaches have done at ISU, he has a losing record overall and a losing record in the league. Earl Bruce had a shot at doing something but left for a big time school. Can any coach turn ISU into a consistent winner? In all honesty the odds are against it.
Mac was 56-85 overall and 27-68 in conference. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and take away his first three years (which were 6-27 and 3-21), he was 50-58 overall and 24-47 in conference.
Compare that to Rhoads who is 25-32 and 12-25. Very similar numbers assuming you remove Mac's 3 worst years.
For a down year, only conference with 4 teams in the top 12 of the coaches poll....
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Next year will be telling of what we are in store for. Campos and Shawn Curtis are redshirting and are legitimate offensive lineman for the future.
We have plenty of WR talent coming in to the program next year and really we aren't losing all that much on either side of the ball.
Losing Jeremiah, Jacques & Jansen will sting a bit, but Tribune will be better next year, along with Richardson and others.
I'm optimistic and feel Coach Rhoads will get this turned around next year. We'll have a lot of talent for the next few years...
What I'd like to see though is us figuring out who our true QB of the future will be...at this point, I'm not sure Sam is the guy for our system (although I hate saying that).
We have plenty of WR talent coming in to the program next year and really we aren't losing all that much on either side of the ball.
Losing Jeremiah, Jacques & Jansen will sting a bit, but Tribune will be better next year, along with Richardson and others.
I'm optimistic and feel Coach Rhoads will get this turned around next year. We'll have a lot of talent for the next few years...
What I'd like to see though is us figuring out who our true QB of the future will be...at this point, I'm not sure Sam is the guy for our system (although I hate saying that).
I like Rhoads. He has passion for his players, the university, and I do believe he can lead this program to bigger and better things but I still have some very strong concerns about him as the coach. All the fiery speeches in the world won't help a coach that isn't willing to back those words up with strong actions. When a member of the staff isn't getting it done you fire their ***. When a player isn't getting it done you bench their ***. What you don't do is make excuses and allow mediocrity to become the theme of the program. I hate to admit it but I see that mentality setting in with the program. We don't need Danny Mac moral victories... we need victories that go in the win column.
His team has been extremely snake bit in two positions, OL and LB. So far this year ISU has lost enough starters to make a whole OL, that is pretty hard to overcome. I remember last year Iowa lost two guys against Penn State and they could run the ball the rest of the year. Multiply that times 3 and that is what ISU is facing.
At LBer, ISU lost out on a lot of guys in the recruiting process. Guys that did not show up or switch to another team on signing day. Ak47 and Jake Knott really erased a lot of the mistakes we are seeing this year.
With all that said, CPR absolutely needs to loose Messingham if he is to succeed or for that matter survive. My biggest concern with Messingham is that he does seem to be able to adjust what he is doing to his circumstances. IE, the OL is not good, so he should be trying to figure out how to work the edges of defenses, rolling out the QB, use the diamond formation more, etc., but all we see is the same old crap that everyone on defense is waiting for.
At LBer, ISU lost out on a lot of guys in the recruiting process. Guys that did not show up or switch to another team on signing day. Ak47 and Jake Knott really erased a lot of the mistakes we are seeing this year.
With all that said, CPR absolutely needs to loose Messingham if he is to succeed or for that matter survive. My biggest concern with Messingham is that he does seem to be able to adjust what he is doing to his circumstances. IE, the OL is not good, so he should be trying to figure out how to work the edges of defenses, rolling out the QB, use the diamond formation more, etc., but all we see is the same old crap that everyone on defense is waiting for.
"Pole"?
It's a good league don't get me wrong, time will tell how good Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State really are when bowl season arrives. Overall defese in the league is suspect at best.
The list of "issues" is beginning to pile up.
(1) Lack of QB development, ie, improvement.
(2) Lack of DL recruiting. CPR is a defensive coach, why so hard to attract DL recruits?
(3) The whole stable of RB seems to have been mismanaged. Other than Wimberly, I don't know why the staff cannot get better production out of this group, or do they even have a coherent plan for who plays?
(4) OC
(5) I guess you have to give new OL coach some time, but count me among those that do not understand the benefits of the new shifting alignment. Maybe it is a wave of the future that our guys have not grasped yet, but it seems confusing to me.
(6) Wally is old. Won't be around much longer.
If promoting Mess was a mistake a la Fine and Barney Cotton for Mac, CPR better recognize it and deal with it. There has got to be some young stud OC available. If not, I would take fat *** Mangino in a heart beat.
(1) Lack of QB development, ie, improvement.
(2) Lack of DL recruiting. CPR is a defensive coach, why so hard to attract DL recruits?
(3) The whole stable of RB seems to have been mismanaged. Other than Wimberly, I don't know why the staff cannot get better production out of this group, or do they even have a coherent plan for who plays?
(4) OC
(5) I guess you have to give new OL coach some time, but count me among those that do not understand the benefits of the new shifting alignment. Maybe it is a wave of the future that our guys have not grasped yet, but it seems confusing to me.
(6) Wally is old. Won't be around much longer.
If promoting Mess was a mistake a la Fine and Barney Cotton for Mac, CPR better recognize it and deal with it. There has got to be some young stud OC available. If not, I would take fat *** Mangino in a heart beat.
Gene did his share of damage to the program so IMO it's fair to compare their winning percentages straight up...that said we have to stop talking about Dan. I don't regret that we fired Dan. If he wasn't going to get us to a B12N title in '04 & '05 he sure wasn't going to get back to a nine win season or the top third of our new 10 team league.
As far as the OP; I'm very confident that PR can make us a +.500 team w/ a bowl every year.
I'm 100% confident in Paul Rhoads. If he can't do it we might as well pack it up and go NAIA, because no one else would be able to do it either.
It all depends on your expectations. If you expect that ISU should be winning 8-10 games every year and playing for a conference title every year, we will be replacing the head coach every 2 or 3 years. You have to be realistic - 8 to 10 wins per year is NEVER going to happen at ISU - EVER. Nick Saban could be our coach and he wouldn't be able to achieve that. It's simply too hard to get the best recruits out of Texas and Florida to come to ISU. There are 4 conference teams in Texas that snatch up the best recruits before we even get a look.
The fact is - even the traditional powerhouses can't expect to consistently win 8-10 games every year like they used to. Nebraska might win 10 this year because of their weak schedule. Texas has been irrelevant as far as a title contender for a long time. Michigan has been down for quite a while. Ohio St. and Alabama are about as close as you get to teams that expect to win 10 every year. And Alabama is not too many years removed from squeaking out a bowl win over ISU!
What ISU can legitimately EXPECT to be able to accomplish is: fairly regularly going to a bowl game, occasionally winning 8-9 and occasionally having that 2-3 win season. Rhoads has done that and I expect he will turn this year around next year and continue to build success.
GO CYCLONES!!!
The fact is - even the traditional powerhouses can't expect to consistently win 8-10 games every year like they used to. Nebraska might win 10 this year because of their weak schedule. Texas has been irrelevant as far as a title contender for a long time. Michigan has been down for quite a while. Ohio St. and Alabama are about as close as you get to teams that expect to win 10 every year. And Alabama is not too many years removed from squeaking out a bowl win over ISU!
What ISU can legitimately EXPECT to be able to accomplish is: fairly regularly going to a bowl game, occasionally winning 8-9 and occasionally having that 2-3 win season. Rhoads has done that and I expect he will turn this year around next year and continue to build success.
GO CYCLONES!!!
