Monday Musings: "Adapt or perish"
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
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Our football program sucks because our Head Coach sucks. The sooner everybody realizes that the better off we will be. Best thing I did last year was not renew season tickets, and I wont this year either. Cant wait for basketball!
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He has done better than every head coach in the last three decades, and he has a harder schedule than pretty much anybody else had. Obviously he can't have too many years like this last one, but as a general rule he's doing okay given the situation.
Not saying that I don't agree with that to some degree, but the fact is that coaches have turned programs around in way more desolate places than Ames with far less money. We have gone to 3 bottom of the barrel bowl games in 5 years, and the program is only getting better because it couldn't get any worse.
I agree that everything fell into place for Mangino that one year. Similar to McCarney in 2000 except Mangino played the good teams tougher. That said, KU had a couple of years there where they were competitive in most games and they went back to the crapper after he left. And KU started at a lower point than ISU is at currently. Also, Mangino had really good teams as OC at OU and KSU. If he can get the talent, he'll get it to produce. I have no doubt about that.
I'm really glad Mangino is our coach. Hopefully we can keep him and his fellow offensive assistants for 3 years or more.
Two things here. One: Mangino signed a two-year contract if I recall correctly so this three year goal probably isn't happening because Two: I could totally see Mangino pulling a Doc Sadler and leaving after one year.
As far as the Adapt or Perish concept, I like the idea but ISU isn't good at adapting. Listen/read some things out there on Kliff Kingsbury's approach to running a program compared to what ISU is doing. Kingsbury says Twitter is very important when it comes to connecting to recruits. Paul Rhoads and Bill Snyder are the only two Big12 coaches not on Twitter and Snyder is like 30 years older than Rhoads. Kingsbury also says the football jersey combinations are also very attractive for recruiting. Yet ISU wears the same boring, bland jerseys that look EXACTLY LIKE USC. ISU is failing at this whole "branding" crap Pollard is throwing around. You can't build a brand for yourself when someone else has already trademarked the brand. New jersey designs are needed ASAP in order to build any "football brand" Pollard thinks he is building.
And to the people who say Rhoads isn't the guy for ISU: if not him, then who? Do you want a Chizik type fiasco again or do you want a guy that wants to be here? Rhoads may not get us to the 8-4 or 9-3 regular season we want but he can at least get us to 6-6 and that's about the best that is ever going to happen here.
I tend to agree with you.
When CW says "adapt or perish", I think Rhoads himself, along with JP, need to do the same. The idea that we're going to develop some kind of "identity" or "brand" here at Iowa State is just ridiculous. And it definitely isn't going to happen by looking exactly like someone else (USC).
I'm not saying that if we had better uniforms, then all of the sudden we'd be good, because that's not going to happen. It still takes having great facilities, great coaches, the ability to develop players, etc. Without any of that, you're going to be horrible.
However, I do think you can attract some better talent initially through the door if you do some things that appeal to the kids of today's generation. And yes, one of those things right now, is your look. It just is. You can't ignore it.
Watching SVP and Rusillo's show on ESPN this week, and they have a grouping of helmets on their desk. I believe they are South Carolina's, KU's, Baylor's, ISU's, and one other team I can't think of right now. Anyway, our helmet is by far the ugliest one on the desk IMO. Is that the kind of "identity" or "brand" that JP wants to create? A grouping of helmets is on a national TV show, and if I were a potential recruit, I'd be at home saying "man, that ISU helmet is sure ugly".
Does that make a kid not come to ISU? I don't know? That depends on a lot of factors of course for each kid, but it could definitely be a factor. We already have climate and being in a small boring Iowa town against us, and then having some of the ugliest helmets/uniforms sure isn't helping matters any.
Obviously winning is more important than anything, but you first have to start winning. Winning will cure everything, but you first have to start winning. And to first start winning, you have to attract Big 12 quality players to your program. Right now, for the most part, we are attracting MAC level talent to ISU. Sorry. It's true.
I watched the Texas spring game on TV the other night, and their 3rd and 4th string guys look like our starters. That's the hill we have to climb. But it's always been that way. But in order to attract the better athlete, you have to pull out all the stops IMO at a school like ISU to get them.
While I don't disagree here...and I never thought I would say this as I've bee a diehard ISU fan now for over 30 years actively following...but losing to UNI and IOwa both at least every other year pretty much guarantees ISU a 3-4 win season every other year it seems. Problems is that the Iowa game is a huge revenue generating game for both teams believe it or not Hawk fans but yes especially for ISU when we host Iowa. You are looking at the sole reason that JP will never drop the series($$$$).
Losing to UNI like we have is just unacceptable. Losing to Iowa is understandable. I agree with others that have sad that our key to having consistent 6-7 win seasons and an occassional break out season of 8-10 wins is all about recruiting. I do believe that CPR has put together an incredible staff for recruiting and we will have to wait 3-4 years and see when the players they are now recruiting hit the field...but I like the level of talent this staff appears to be going after.
Lastly, ISU's problem had been and continues to be a lack of O and D line recruiting and development. It's just been so hit and miss and never have we seen a year where we have both a good O line and good D line.
Because Prince was better?
In his 3 seasons at KSU, they went 7-6, 5-7, and 5-7, with one bowl game. That is not much different than what Rhoads has done here. In fact, Prince won a higher % of games at KSU than Rhoads has at ISU.
Granted, I like Rhoads a LOT more as a person and I'm glad we have him instead of Ron Prince, but let's not act like Rhoads has lit the world on fire here either. Rhoads has had ONE year where he's won more games than he's lost, and he's never come close to a winning record in conference play. Yippee!
But I will also say this.... we probably can't do any better than Rhoads either. He loves ISU, and for the most part ISU fans love him. That is worth quite a bit.
As an outsider who hasn't really followed ISU football that closely (but will start to now that I work at ISU), I don't think the program is in as bad a place as some of you are making it out to be, but maybe I'm just optimistic. In my unbiased opinion I think ISU wins between 4-6 games this Fall.
I think Mangino is a great hire at OC, but as others have mentioned he only signed a two year contract and I don't see him staying any longer than that - either he's successful and takes a new job or is mediocre and doesn't get an extension. I'm hoping for the first option and that the offense turns the corner and can put up some points.
I also think that if ISU wants to improve the branding thing is HUGE: Stadium upgrades - I know the one endzone will be renovated next year, but after that I think you have to look at a new pressbox (the current one is an eyesore IMO and makes the stadium look outdated); why not try uniform upgrades - I know almost everyone is going to the chrome helmets and crazy uniform combos so it's hard to set yourself apart, but kids seem to like that stuff and if it helps recruiting, why not try it?
I think Mangino is a great hire at OC, but as others have mentioned he only signed a two year contract and I don't see him staying any longer than that - either he's successful and takes a new job or is mediocre and doesn't get an extension. I'm hoping for the first option and that the offense turns the corner and can put up some points.
I also think that if ISU wants to improve the branding thing is HUGE: Stadium upgrades - I know the one endzone will be renovated next year, but after that I think you have to look at a new pressbox (the current one is an eyesore IMO and makes the stadium look outdated); why not try uniform upgrades - I know almost everyone is going to the chrome helmets and crazy uniform combos so it's hard to set yourself apart, but kids seem to like that stuff and if it helps recruiting, why not try it?
Prince's SOS was easier as a general rule. He played in the old Big 12 north, and there were four non-conference games then instead of three.
I still maintain Rhoads would have won 8 or 9 games in 2012 with the right OC. Doesn't mean he'll be able to do that consistently, but now that he has the right coaches a lot more is possible than many previously thought, IMO.
Obviously the football budget is different but at Oregon they had a one time only SPRING GAME UNIFORM this year. And guess who noticed this? SportsCenter. Free advertising and exposure!! Guess who watches SportsCenter and follows them on Twitter: every one who watches sports, especially recruits. Seriously they put more money/design/effort into their spring game uniform than what we do for our entire standard uniform.
