The "Fan's Plan" segment on his coaches show shoulda been nixed by someone. Also, his interviews w/ visiting coaches on the show were sometimes uncomfortable. Tom Osborne refused to participate. Coach was a good guy, but a below average coach. RIP.
RIP Coach Jim Walden
- Thread starter BigJCy
- Start date
My favorite memory of Walden occurred when I went into Kelly’s on a Thursday before that start of the Big 8 men’s basketball tournament. There was Jim up on the stage leading the crowd in singing the ISU fight song.
Although he never took us to a bowl game, I know he gave it everything he had. RIP Coach Walden.
Although he never took us to a bowl game, I know he gave it everything he had. RIP Coach Walden.
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Too bad for ISU that Walden did not turn out for ISU like Major's did for Tennessee. Walden had a losing recored at WSU and a losing record at ISU. He was a great guy, and did his best, just not a good football coach.
Reason why Majors was successful was his assistant coaches. Walden never had people like jimmy johnson and Jackie Sherrill. Johnny’s coaching tree while at Iowa state was the greatest of any coach we have ever had.
Walden was effectively tasked from day one with rowing upriver in a cardboard boat, only the NCAA took away one oar (Criner), then the university took away the other (Lester).
Never beat Iowa, but had the game in doubt in the 4th quarter several times, which was far better than the 45-point loss average of his predecessor. And sure, for every ranked win there was an equally stupefying loss -- which was not a unique occurrence among ISU coaches before or after.
Nebraska, never ranked lower than 11th
Oklahoma, ranked every year
Colorado, ranked 6/8 years (and at the height of the McCartney era)
Kansas, who even cracked the rankings and went to a bowl game under Mason
The very beginning of the K-State upward push with Snyder
Oklahoma State with the Sanders/Gundy/Dykes trio (first 2 years)
...and of course, Iowa
If nothing else, at least it was entertaining.
Never beat Iowa, but had the game in doubt in the 4th quarter several times, which was far better than the 45-point loss average of his predecessor. And sure, for every ranked win there was an equally stupefying loss -- which was not a unique occurrence among ISU coaches before or after.
Nebraska, never ranked lower than 11th
Oklahoma, ranked every year
Colorado, ranked 6/8 years (and at the height of the McCartney era)
Kansas, who even cracked the rankings and went to a bowl game under Mason
The very beginning of the K-State upward push with Snyder
Oklahoma State with the Sanders/Gundy/Dykes trio (first 2 years)
...and of course, Iowa
If nothing else, at least it was entertaining.
My timeline might be off, and if it is I apologize, but when Walden was hired, wasn’t Fry pushing for Snyder to get the job? Just another “what if” in Cyclone history.
Once the administration started to get behind the athletic department, did we start to experience success (albeit slowly).
Once the administration started to get behind the athletic department, did we start to experience success (albeit slowly).
Yep. But honestly at the time people thought Fry was the offensive genius and didn't want to hire his waterboy as our head coach.
And by "people" I mean idiots like myself lol
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Thanks for finding that -- Made to order! I was going to ask who was being considered. Lot of names in the mix, nothing jumps as inspiring, retrospectively.
Most of those in the main batch who had or eventually had "power league" experience were .500 or below at respective programs. Mason did OK at KU, but actually did better at Minnesota. Groh was at Wake, so you can't expect much; I think he went to NFL as asst then did OK at Virginia after that.
We have 20/20 hindsight w/ Snyder, but at the time he would've been another "who?" choice. If he could rebuild KSU, he could've done it at ISU, but that's also just a guess.
The final five were Walden, Mason, Groh, Lynn Amedee (A&M OC under Sherrill) and Chuck Banker (ISU interim).
Urick also reached out to John Cooper, who declined but tipped Urick off to Walden.
I don’t think you realize how horrible the situation was. A President that actively hated and tried to tank athletics. Funded like a FCS team and facilities like a D3 school. Never on TV. Kids would turn down scholarships to walk on elsewhere. No coach was going to succeed. Not saying Walden was good but I don’t think a P5 program has ever been more poorly supported.
This probably sounds asinine to any fan of a P5 program, but there was a charm to those awful teams. Only the diehards were in the stadium. If we were within 17 points, the crowd legitimately thought we could still come back and win. You could hear the band and student section cheers clear as day lol. I was a kid, so it was still cool to see the pageantry of a college football game. The 90s were a magical time for college football, even if your team was absolute *******.
He got a bad rap. He truly did more with less. Plus he knew how to pivot so he could maximize what he had.
I remember the game with KU in 92 where we were down 21-7 then we scored 40 in a row only for 29 straight to be scored by ku to lose 50-47.
Think that game featured a now illegal fumblerooski.
He got a bad rap, because he ran his mouth about nothing ever being his fault, and that he was as good as the best coaches in the game, dragging ISU through the mud, because he couldnt admit he was part of the problem, and the cheap hire because he wasnt very good, which went right along with the lack of Athletic support.
Then there is this:
Troy Davis stats:
94 Walden
95-96 McCarney
Not exactly "Maximizing what he had"
I didn't see the game (not sure if was televised at all, or at least not in my area), but I recall tracking some of it on ESPN. Mind-blowing. I think I saw score when it was 47-21 or 47-28, and saw time remaining, and thought, "we might win this!" (And KU was top 25 at the time, I think)
Then ... wow.
Maybe there is a clip floating on YouTube?
Walden gets a lot of blame for running ISU Football in the ground, but in reality in was all Criner..
Walden was there when other schools starting pumping money into their programs and TV appearances were being unlocked from the networks. The president was part of the problem, but even if he had been on board, I really doubt that Walden would have seen a large improvement in his record. Guy was just not a very good coach. It took coach Mac a few seasons, and money starting to flow back into the program for it to change.
Criner started the problem and Walden just never could cope with lack of numbers, and lack of money. He was also hurt by EIU starting to win, he basically gave up recruiting any kids from Iowa that EIU was looking at.
