Is it really coaching?

In last week's press conference after the Tech game, Coach threw the team under the bus. He told the world that his team was scared of Tech. This week, after the TCU game, Coach said Lanning's pass should have never been thrown. He also said Sam Richardson's performance was "spot on".


The problem is coaching. Period. End of story.

Guess the open competition for kicking did not matter last game. We still lost.
 
As a suffering fan of ISU and the San Diego Chargers I say yes. Hell yes. Add in a cheap athletic director/owner that refuse to do what is necessary because it might be costly and the results are........... well, the results are Cyclone and Chargers football.
 
Yes. It really is coaching. I've seen enough out of our team this year to know that they have the talent to compete in the Big 12. Win it all? No way. But we are at least talented enough to win 6-8 games with the players we currently have. We will be lucky to win 3.
 
It is recruiting. You do not have the worst recruiting in the conference year in year out without finally saying we need better recruiting. Taking two stars and making them into all conference did not work last year. No one really made a dent last year.

It also seems that Paul is going through the motions like he will be back again next year. That will not be a surprise. Maybe mark and Wally will move on next year and we will replace the OC and DC like Gene Chizlack did. Paul looked more worried last year about his job.

... or he's resigned to the fact he'll be fired at the end of the season; that wouldn't surprise me either.
 
The problem at Ia State is lousy failed Recruiting Until Recruiting gets a whole lot better be prepared to fight it out with KU for Last Place
 
As far as Head Coaches are concerned. I personally don't think the head coach means much. I feel if you sat down at a round table the top ten head coaches in the Country and added Coach Rhoads to the discussion and quizzed them on every aspect of football offense, defense, special teams, QB play, line play, d backs on and on, there wouldn't be 2 cents difference between them. It's not what we KNOW as leaders, its what we can get others to DO! Coach Mac is a example. Got every player to play over their heads. Problem is TALENT!

For most of the coaches in college football, you are probably right. But, then there are those special coaches the literally turn a program around after the first game. Take Michigan for example, Brady Hoke had a great resume coming into Michigan and quickly crashed the program. He later said he was unprepared to coach at Michigan. Then enter Jim Harbaugh, they lost their first game to Utah, then win the next 5 games before losing to MSU on a miraculous last play. He takes an OK QB from Iowa and turns him into a solid major college QB, who would have thought that was possible!

Some coaches, like CEOs, have a special talent/gift and make you better than you thought you could be. They know how to select talent and get you to perform at a higher level than others. Those are the special coaches and only years of winning can show you who they are.
 
Is it really coaching? Short answer....yes, coaching is part of it. But it is not the only answer or gap that needs closed in this case from what I as an outsider can see. I certainly think that you have to have it and that it can be a force multiplier, but in today's college football landscape, I would put leadership at a premium over ability to coach and here's why.

I think if you cracked open consistently successful football programs to look at their recipe for success I think you will find that, there are a ton of things that have to happen (sometimes in order) for success (i.e. winning) to take place (similar to finding success in the business world).

Perhaps one of the biggest force multipliers is getting everyone (including the administration / leadership / staff on the same page). I cannot stress this enough. Without it, forget it as you are already starting off in the hole and the personal / philosophical differences get in the way and you spin your wheels and literally get nowhere.

You then need to make sure that you have the right people necessary to make your goals and vision a reality, and then (here is the challenging part that trips some up)......get out of their way, remove their roadblocks, and let them do their jobs. Give them your support, let them know the expectations, develop them in areas that will create win / win scenarios for both them and the company (program), praise them when they succeed, hold them accountable when they make mistakes, and celebrate (deflect praise) when the team performs well, and shoulder all the criticism when things don't go well.

In short.....Leadership trumps pretty much everything. With it, you can go further and accomplish more as a team than you ever thought possible. Without it, you get a lot of people asking themselves, "Why am I here"?
 
Is it really coaching? Short answer....yes, coaching is part of it. But it is not the only answer or gap that needs closed in this case from what I as an outsider can see. I certainly think that you have to have it and that it can be a force multiplier, but in today's college football landscape, I would put leadership at a premium over ability to coach and here's why.

I think if you cracked open consistently successful football programs to look at their recipe for success I think you will find that, there are a ton of things that have to happen (sometimes in order) for success (i.e. winning) to take place (similar to finding success in the business world).

Perhaps one of the biggest force multipliers is getting everyone (including the administration / leadership / staff on the same page). I cannot stress this enough. Without it, forget it as you are already starting off in the hole and the personal / philosophical differences get in the way and you spin your wheels and literally get nowhere.

You then need to make sure that you have the right people necessary to make your goals and vision a reality, and then (here is the challenging part that trips some up)......get out of their way, remove their roadblocks, and let them do their jobs. Give them your support, let them know the expectations, develop them in areas that will create win / win scenarios for both them and the company (program), praise them when they succeed, hold them accountable when they make mistakes, and celebrate (deflect praise) when the team performs well, and shoulder all the criticism when things don't go well.

In short.....Leadership trumps pretty much everything. With it, you can go further and accomplish more as a team than you ever thought possible. Without it, you get a lot of people asking themselves, "Why am I here"?

Great post. When ISU hits the re-set button after the season, there needs to be a much more solid foundation set for the program and the next Coach. It starts with the President and AD committing to football and making it clear that it's no longer acceptable to represent the university and the state as poorly as this program has. Very few people are naive enough to think we can be the upper Midwest version of Alabama, but it's time to set some goals and targets for this program and start holding people accountable for meeting them. There's enough money and current support to be much more competitive and competent. A .400 lifetime winning percentage is just flat out embarrassing and not worthy of a great institution.
 
It's all about having talented players. People can say Wally Burnham sucks but the dude won a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP at FSU as a defensive coach. Gene Chizik went 5-19 here and Gus Malzahn won a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP at Auburn a few years later. These guys can coach but it's all about getting talented players and it just doesn't happen at ISU.
FIFY
 
Sam Richardson, Grant Rohach and Jerome Tiller were 3* QBs coming out of HS, so were Nick Florence, Bryce Petty and Seth Russell. The guys on the end of that list have season stats similar to the career totals of the first 3 combined, despite playing at one of the least prestigious schools in the p5.
 
One thing about these forums is if you read them long enough you have pretty much read it all as much don't change. I have one question and one statement to make about our "issue" with winning at ISU on the gridiron.

Why in heck do the Coaches NOT put in Lanning at QB enough that he can make a difference? Putting in a player for one or two plays doesn't accomplish anything for the most part as it's all about rhythm. Having said that, he goes in and throws a TD in his second play and to my knowledge never sees the field again? Really? Height of insanity is to change NOTHING yet expect different results. Coming in cold off the bench is risky also but I would think given the pressure Coach Rhoads is in he would pull out every rabbit out of as many hats as he can. Lanning is a athlete. Period! he is also a winner and a tough kid. It's in the genes. NO, I am not a relative, just proud of who he is and what I feel he can do.

As far as Head Coaches are concerned. I personally don't think the head coach means much. I feel if you sat down at a round table the top ten head coaches in the Country and added Coach Rhoads to the discussion and quizzed them on every aspect of football offense, defense, special teams, QB play, line play, d backs on and on, there wouldn't be 2 cents difference between them. It's not what we KNOW as leaders, its what we can get others to DO! Coach Mac is a example. Got every player to play over their heads. Problem is TALENT!

I feel it's less about the actual x's and o's and more about talent. Skills can be developed, but talent it is already there. It's ALL about recruiting. Period! Give me talent and the coaching doesn't matter much. ISU has to figure out how to get the TALENT! If Utah can do it we can too. We must change to be successful. AND, I will say that the current ISU players are giving us their all as you could see it in the 1st quarter against TCU. But they can't sustain it over the long haul as we don't have ENOUGH skill players to hang around the whole game. RECRUITING IS THE ANSWER! We need a closer in recruiting. Someone that can tell you to go to hell and have you looking forward to the trip. Get some salesman !!! IB

ask kansas state, baylor, utah, tcu, and this new to the list michigan.
 
It is recruiting. You do not have the worst recruiting in the conference year in year out without finally saying we need better recruiting. Taking two stars and making them into all conference did not work last year. No one really made a dent last year.

It also seems that Paul is going through the motions like he will be back again next year. That will not be a surprise. Maybe mark and Wally will move on next year and we will replace the OC and DC like Gene Chizlack did. Paul looked more worried last year about his job.

Looks more like he knows he is burnt toast. Why would any coach "go through the motions" and dig a deeper bad legacy hole.
 
It's a combination of coaching and recruiting but mostly recruiting. They just don't have the talent to compete game in and game out.
 
Yes, it is about coaching. The second half of the Iowa game was 100% the coaches not making the right adjustments to the ones Iowa's defensive coordinators made. I would say the TCU game would be the same thing, although I don't think it would have mattered. ISU wasn't going to outscore TCU anyway. The Texas Tech game, well, I put that on one coach and one qb.

CPR and the ISU staff are consistently being out coached in the second halves of games. Patterson changed up his defense after the first quarter, EIU tweaked their offense at half, etc...watch the past couple of years, ISU just gets schooled in the second half of most games because other staffs adapt and change it up, whereas ISU tries to stay with the same old tried and not true methods.