MONDAY MUSINGS: Matt Campbell's greatest challenge
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
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I agree as well except for one point. It's much easier to turn a program around in basketball than it is in football. All you need in basketball is a couple of star guys and role players that know what is expected of them.
That isn't the case in football, sure bringing in your own guys makes a big difference but the losing culture and here we go again mentality is much much harder to get rid of when dealing with a football team when you have so many more guys that all have to be on the same page and believe in what is needed to actually turn the program around.
That isn't the case in football, sure bringing in your own guys makes a big difference but the losing culture and here we go again mentality is much much harder to get rid of when dealing with a football team when you have so many more guys that all have to be on the same page and believe in what is needed to actually turn the program around.
I think what we've seen the past 2 games is how razor thin winning and losing is.
You can really point to one play or point in the game where ISU just needs guys to make one play to win the game. Obviously that's oversimplifying a 60 minute game, but these guys are right there.
I'm remaining optimistic. I don't remember a Rhoads team showing this much improvement through the year.
Hopefully these close games allow the recruiting momentum to continue. Upgrade the talent and I think its obvious these coaches will know what to do with it.
You can really point to one play or point in the game where ISU just needs guys to make one play to win the game. Obviously that's oversimplifying a 60 minute game, but these guys are right there.
I'm remaining optimistic. I don't remember a Rhoads team showing this much improvement through the year.
Hopefully these close games allow the recruiting momentum to continue. Upgrade the talent and I think its obvious these coaches will know what to do with it.
Inside the football facility hours after the game, Campbell out loud pondered why people were telling him “good job” for losing a football game and blowing a 14 point fourth quarter lead.
Campbell could not have handled both losses better publicly. No excuses. “We’ve got to get better.” You know the drill.
That sticks with me, Campbell knows the game should have been won, and is angry that it wasn't. Though it's a little sad how most fans we're congratulating him on almost winning. As fans, we're content with just being close.
Campbell could not have handled both losses better publicly. No excuses. “We’ve got to get better.” You know the drill.
That sticks with me, Campbell knows the game should have been won, and is angry that it wasn't. Though it's a little sad how most fans we're congratulating him on almost winning. As fans, we're content with just being close.
Depending on how the baseball postseason goes, there may be some merit in hiring this guy as a consultant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Epstein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Epstein
Sadly I think ISU's athletic budget and various other minor laws will prevent us from being too active in this year's college football player free agent market.
Good job, CW. The last couple Saturdays have hurt like hell for the team and the fans, but I'm looking at the overall progress made from the UNI debacle to now. The players and staff are making big strides every week, and I was really encouraged by the fact that they didn't follow up a deflating almost-but-not-quite game with a dud, which was all too common during the Rhoads era. Good things are coming. Just gotta be patient.
So what. It doesn't matter a whit what the "fans" think. All that matters is what goes on in the meeting rooms, practice field, weight room, etc. Harbaugh turned around Stanford even with their fans not caring or with low expectations.
A program's "culture" is what Campbell creates within the program. Fans saying "good job" when not warranted are irrelevant...
I think that analogy is just about right, but....A cynic would say that CMC's biggest challenge is to win enough games to get a better job than ISU and leave Ames IA in the dust.....
I accepted a long time ago ...actually it was 1983 after the New Mexico State Loss, that the football program would always have major problems winning more than a few games a year.............
CMC is only 36years old and has a very long successful career ahead of him, unfortunately most of it will be somewhere else....Sad for us really ............But that's Cyclone Football
Ben Bruns..... I agree with U....I also Love to Win but absolutely Hate to LOSE......Birds of a feather I would say....and btw I started my career working for your employer Thee Weitz Co.............
GO Cyclones, Lets Shock Texas......and of course make my little brother in law an ISU Alum HAPPY
I accepted a long time ago ...actually it was 1983 after the New Mexico State Loss, that the football program would always have major problems winning more than a few games a year.............
CMC is only 36years old and has a very long successful career ahead of him, unfortunately most of it will be somewhere else....Sad for us really ............But that's Cyclone Football
Ben Bruns..... I agree with U....I also Love to Win but absolutely Hate to LOSE......Birds of a feather I would say....and btw I started my career working for your employer Thee Weitz Co.............
GO Cyclones, Lets Shock Texas......and of course make my little brother in law an ISU Alum HAPPY
The question I always have is does the fans attitude matter that much? I want to feel more confident in 4th quarters with leads but there is zero evidence to support any at this point. I just show up and support, with dollars and a butt in the seat.
I think the only people Campbell needs to believe right now are the players. The last two games should help the process, as they were so close. He needs a statement win. Hoping it comes this week against a UT team that is in turmoil. Love that we get them after their biggest game of the year. Most of the players know these guys are beatable and Strong has to know it is all over at this point.
Hey Tornado was that the Helmet that Dave Hoppmann and Tom Vaughn wore back in Oct 1962 at Lincoln NE when we played the Huskers......Couldnt tell from the third row bleachers behind the south endzone.......My 1st College Football game and I had a great time in a stadium that was NOT SOLDOUT.................
"A" players need to make "A" grades. With the game on the line in the fourth the staff has to identify their playmakers and put them in position to make that momentum swinging play.
I posted this in another thread but it is worth repeating as it is a glaring stat relative to these losses. I don't see this as "culture" or "Sweet Caroline" causing the losses. It is as simple as failing to keep doing what got us the leads in the first place. In quarters 1-3 of the past two games we have scored 73 points while having our RB's touch the ball 53 times for 245 yds and 4 TDs. In the past two 4th quarters, we have scored 0 points while our RBs have touched the ball 2 times for 8 yds.
I really like the analogy with Fred Hoiberg's first year. we were close to pulling off a ton of victories but we didn't in the end. We didn't have talent or depth that year so hopefully we will turn it around next year and hit a bowl.
I believe in 1962 we wore all-gold helmets - similar to ND or what Navy used to wear. That continued until 1967, when we added the Walking Cy. My favorite helmet! Sadly, the team wore them for just one year - Majors came the next and switched helmets.
I don't know the X's and O's of football well enough to say what was really happening in the 4th quarter the last two weeks, but it sure felt like they scrapped the offense and tried to rely on the QB run really heavily. If you look at what they were doing well up to that point, they were really mixing in screens to Ryen and Jones, fly sweeps and short passes to go along with QB runs and zone read. Then, both weeks, there came a point where the offense became Lanning trying to run on every play.
I've bolded the parts that I think were the biggest issue in the fourth quarter on Saturday. The game changed significantly after the Ryen injury.
