Kickin’ It with Paul Rhoads: Coaching philosophy, love of the game, and more

[Aiden Wyatt]

Really special show this week! The icon Paul Rhoads hopped on with Mahoney and Woody. Still has the passion that he had 10+ years ago. Getting into his trick plays, philosophy, and so much more. Honored his late father, Cecil, at the end of the show, and the room got dusty. Great episode.

Enjoy!

Kickin' It with Paul Rhoads: Coaching philosophy, love of the game, and more

Grant Mahoney and Jeff Woody welcome on former Iowa State Head Football Coach Paul Rhoads to dive into his effective trick play calling, his coaching philosophy, and how he connected with Dan McCarney. His favorite parts about coaching, memories from Iowa State, and more. Presented by Kelderman Manu

cyclonefanatic.com

 

[Cycsk]

"I am SOOOO proud of you guys for doing this interview." Seriously, that was outstanding. I'll probably listen to it several more times.

Highlights:

• Still haunted by the KSU game.
• Taking swings at the pull-back guy.
• Recruitment as head coach by a headhunter.
• Hounding Dan McCarney for a job.
• Taught Grant to tackle.
• Joy in giving scholarships to walk-on's.
• Cecil's role, especially with kickers.

And those are just a few of the gems!

We all remember him for the "I'm so proud" and "bought in hook, line, and sinker" speeches, but my favorite was his statement in the opening press conference that "we will hit them coming off the bus."

 

[Cyched]

Nice tidbit that McCarney helped sell Wally on coming here.

 

[WISCY1895]

CPR is a great man and what happened in the past is in the past. Unfortunately his mismanagement of his staff at the end of day cost him his job. If he would have replaced Herman with a successful OC he probably doesn’t get fired when he did.

 

[Marcelason78]

Fantastic pod. Paul is my all-time favorite HC at Iowa State. Wish his W/L record would have allowed him to be in Ames much longer than seven years.

 

[Cyched]

Talked about the 2010 Big 12 crisis and how it affected recruiting. Interesting that when it went down ISU didn’t have confidence it would stay together and were looking for a landing spot. Probably not a big revelation, but to hear that from one of the coaches brings it home.

 

[CyDegen]

I starting crying at the end when CPR was talking about his dad being around the program. I miss the passion that he shows. Nothing against Campbell but you just don't get any of that with him.

 

[yowza]

I starting crying at the end when CPR was talking about his dad being around the program. I miss the passion that he shows. Nothing against Campbell but you just don't get any of that with him.

Different for Paul as an Iowan.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

CPR is a great man and what happened in the past is in the past. Unfortunately his mismanagement of his staff at the end of day cost him his job. If he would have replaced Herman with a successful OC he probably doesn’t get fired when he did.

I'll never understand how Courtney Messingham ever got another job as an OC after his tenure and dismissal here, let along how a smart program with a smart coaching staff at Kansas State were the ones to give him that chance.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Fantastic pod. Paul is my all-time favorite HC at Iowa State. Wish his W/L record would have allowed him to be in Ames much longer than seven years.

I enjoyed him as well, and wish he would've had more success. He would've been coach for life had it all shook out another way. Between the Big 12 missile crisis which deteriorated recruiting efforts, and staff mismanagement as someone else alluded to, Paul succumbed and I remember how you could literally see him age from season to season at the end. It sucks that Iowa State has had 2 guys that would have seen it thru until the end just not work out for one reason or another in Rhoads and McCarney. Either guy could have been our Ferentz.

 

[madguy30]

I enjoyed him as well, and wish he would've had more success. He would've been coach for life had it all shook out another way. Between the Big 12 missile crisis which deteriorated recruiting efforts, and staff mismanagement as someone else alluded to, Paul succumbed and I remember how you could literally see him age from season to season at the end. It sucks that Iowa State has had 2 guys that would have seen it thru until the end just not work out for one reason or another in Rhoads and McCarney. Either guy could have been our Ferentz.

Recruiting and wins/losses are pretty big reasons.

 

[JP4CY]

No matter his success or failures Coach Rhoads is a good, sharp man.
Hearing him talk about calling the Ramada on Duff, when he was at Pitt and the ACC poached (wild to think about how good Miami and VT were then), to knowing the town AJ Klein grew up in. Just all great thoughts.
Sad to hear his mom's health and her not knowing he was the HC at ISU.
Sad again later when talking about Cecil but ended it in a fitting CPR way of "he (Cecil) didn't know **** about kicking."

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Rhoads is a quality person, but not the type of individual that can be really successful at a school like ISU. Poor recruiting as best, way to many poor choices on his coaching staff that never should have been given the opportunity in the first place.

 

[jsb]

I have a theory that former coaches aren’t completely appreciated until a team is on their second replacement. Or maybe it just takes a certain amount of time. But it took a while for mccarney to get to that point. Hopefully we are getting there with Rhoads.

Rhoads was the first Iowa State coach that made me believe we could beat good teams that weren’t Iowa. McCarney never made me believe that. And Rhoads was the first coach that made me think that Jack Trice could almost be as fun as Hilton.

It ended poorly. But it’s hard to say we didn’t end up exactly where we needed to be.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Always liked Paul as a person. As a coach he has his good and bad as does anyone. His bads simply outweighed the goods.

 

[CPG4ISU]

Always liked Paul as a person. As a coach he has his good and bad as does anyone. His bads simply outweighed the goods.

The further we get away from it, the more he reminds me of Steve Prohm.

A pretty nice guy who is not a good coach, but caught some lucky recruiting breaks early in his career due the guy before him.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

The further we get away from it, the more he reminds me of Steve Prohm.

A pretty nice guy who is not a good coach, but caught some lucky recruiting breaks early in his career due the guy before him.

I don't think you are too far off here. I think Rhoads did more with less whereas Prohm did less with more, but the end of their careers are remarkably similar, where it just didn't seem like anything was working no matter what they tried. Rhoads was a defensive leaning head coach whose defenses salty early on his career but eventually sucked. Prohm was supposed to be an offensive minded coach who always seemed to struggle with simple things like calling in bounds plays or playing with any sort of clear identity offensively. He was good at having one guard who could kind of show out statistically. Monte, Donavan Jackson, Shayok, THT, Tyrese, Bolton, even Jalen Coleman-Lands had his best statistical season under Prohm. That all but dried up toward the end too, though, as guys like Bolton and JC-L were only putting up numbers based on being the best players on otherwise terrible teams.

 

[stateofmind]

The further we get away from it, the more he reminds me of Steve Prohm.

A pretty nice guy who is not a good coach, but caught some lucky recruiting breaks early in his career due the guy before him.

I respectfully disagree that he wasn't a good coach. That's a very broad brush. He was the DC for 2 power 5 schools and became a head coach. That's a lot of interviews to go through vs lucking into the jobs.

Now, was he a great evaluator of coaches or recruits, maybe that was the issue. And I'm sure you can say that's part of being a head coach. But the shitstorm that was a result of the Big XII's demise set the program and his recruiting way back. Unfortunately, at a school like this, you need everything out of control to go your way.

I agree that Prohm was not a great coach. Paul, I think was a perfect fit for the time and was a really good coach. But you can't miss on the other areas whether your fault or the fault of things you can't control.

It's obvious that Woody and Mahoney loved this guy as their coach.

 

[cykadelic2]

Paul, I think was a perfect fit for the time and was a really good coach. But you can't miss on the other areas whether your fault or the fault of things you can't control.

CPR ran into the same issues that Mac and Chiz both encountered as DCs with no prior HC experience, the biggest issue being staff mismanagement IMO. I was disappointed when CPR was hired as the 3rd straight DC with no HC experience but his passion for the job made me a fan and certainly supported him through his tenure despite my concerns with his hire.

 

[CPG4ISU]

I respectfully disagree that he wasn't a good coach. That's a very broad brush. He was the DC for 2 power 5 schools and became a head coach. That's a lot of interviews to go through vs lucking into the jobs.

Now, was he a great evaluator of coaches or recruits, maybe that was the issue. And I'm sure you can say that's part of being a head coach. But the shitstorm that was a result of the Big XII's demise set the program and his recruiting way back. Unfortunately, at a school like this, you need everything out of control to go your way.

I agree that Prohm was not a great coach. Paul, I think was a perfect fit for the time and was a really good coach. But you can't miss on the other areas whether your fault or the fault of things you can't control.

It's obvious that Woody and Mahoney loved this guy as their coach.

For what it's worth, I bet the majority of the fanbase agrees with you. It's always hard to differentiate what is luck and what is talent in success/failure. I used to think Paul was a good coach who caught a ton of bad breaks, but now I think he's a bad coach who got good breaks. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

And no doubt, the way fans feel about Rhoads vs Prohm could not be more different. Many fans were behind Paul when things got rocky, but even in the good times, the fan base never really got behind Prohm. The passion Paul had was maybe his best asset.