Phil Steele Prediction
- Thread starter Aclone
- Start date
I think a lot of the problems with the OL have been from the cupboard being pretty bare when Campbell got the Ames. I think a couple of the guys that were returning starters retired due to injuries, which further reduced the numbers. CMC tried to fill in the gaps with grad transfers and JC guys, a lot of which were not good enough or didn't show up, again making things worse. At this point he has a lot of HS guys that have been in the program a couple years, so hopefully we will be pleasantly surprised in 2020.
Funny how CMC has had pretty good luck with the DL. which is something that Mac and CPR struggled with a lot.
The first couple classes were almost all misses on the o-line. Many of them didn't last three years in the program. It's year five, but the first two classes basically put the o-line at year three. I'm confident in the direction now, though.
Well, Ubben never made it to Ames when he was the Big 12 writer for ESPN.com. I don't think he even ever covered a game involving ISU while at that gig.
So that makes him perfectly qualified.
All good points here. Steele and Forde are puppets to flunkies research and outdated analytics. Bias against B12 has to be factored as well. Honestly our OL has been a letdown every year. TM was supposed to be a guru but never was. Hope I am wrong but the OL Coach has been a bummer. The pundits laugh at TCU/TTU/KU and ISU as football teams. Cannot deny we have no history of winning or overcoming our deficiencies. Hate it but realistic.
LOL! You didn’t want a guru, you wanted a wizard who could wave his magic wand and make everything better!
You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, and you can’t make bricks without straw. Jeff Myers did well with a group of guys who...didn’t have such high ceilings, getting them up around average performance. The straw CMC harvested for himself has been in the barn drying, and is about to be made into bricks.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this OL turns out. It may not yet be at it’s best this season, but by the time ‘21 rolls around, this unit should be a monster.
It's almost like CMC has some experience with what it takes to play on the D-Line at an All America or All conference level...
There have been a lot of good players that have sucked at being coaches. CMC is just a good coach, and he sees things that some other coaches do not. The OL thing is just a series of unfortunate situations all happening in the first 2 years in Ames. Remember his first game for ISU he had zero returning starts, not starters, starts, on the OL. Campos broke his leg in spring drills....
Ubben's mailbag almost weekly discussed it. It's amazing he never came to a game.
I haven't seen a specific stat on that, but do remember numerous disappointments on 3rd and long situations. But according to Phil, they were surprisingly ranked 72 in pass efficiency defense. It's an area of needed improvement I didn't anticipate. But with more experience at CB, a healthy Greg Eisworth, and the return of Jaquan Bailey, they'll get just that.
The Bailey injury of course was huge, but Eisworth being dinged up changed this defense. In my opinion the most important player after Purdy.
That first OL under Campbell was arguably better than any he's had here. Maybe 2019 was better, but it's close. And that was with starting walk-ons at LT and LG.
Look at those first few classes:
2016
Keenan Forbes - Transferred
Sean Foster - Was clearly overrated and hasn't contributed much (yet?).
Josh Mueller - Transferred
Karson Green - Never contributed and I think transferred out.
Oge Udeogu - Transferred
2017
Jacob Bolton - Transferred
Robert Hudson - May start as a JR
Alex Kleinow - Hasn't contributed and was switched to DL
Jeff Nogaj - Transferred
Colin Newell - 4 year starter
Josh Knipfel - 3 year starter from JUCO
2018
Joey Ramos - Projected starter as a RS Soph
Trevor Downing - 4 year starter
Zach Ross - Hasn't contributed.
That first class was a killer. Things have gotten better...slowly. But it's easy to see why they've had to depend on upperclassmen that were limited like JGJ, Meeker, Olsen. I think that they're turning a corner. It looks like after this season, they are going to finally be stocked with upperclassmen that are ready to play.
In 1976 most all of the pundits picked ISU to finish 7th in the old big eight conference.....but Coach Earle Bruce had a better idea and finished with 8 wins and beat Nebraska in JTS, in the hardest, roughest football game ever played in Ames Iowa.....On a sunny but cold afternoon......
If you want better ISU has to beat the Univ of Everything er Iowa, just to get the attention of all these supposed brillant football forecasters......
That is one ding on CMC. Before he came along, Kirk could never say he had a winning record against ISU in 18 years of trying. I'm still pissed at CMC for saying he didn't think it was much of a rivalry.
