ISU administration started to give a damn when Mac got here. Right away construction of the Jacobsen Building began when Mac started.
RIP Coach Jim Walden
- Thread starter BigJCy
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ISU administration started to give a damn when Mac got here. Right away construction of the Jacobsen Building began when Mac started.
Gene Smith was bright enough to know what needed to be done. Mac could have held out and taken a much better job than ISU. He was a top tier assistant. It just shows you the kind of person Mac is and how much he loved being in Iowa. He could have inevitably taken over that Wisconsin program and I believe he would have kept it rolling. The coolest thing about him was that he wanted to be in Ames. He probably could have held out and taken the job in Iowa City too.
Danny Mac was frankly lucky to have kept the ISU job when shortly after he was hired, it was revealed he had some domestic issues that would have precluded him from ever being hired as Iowa’s HC.
@1SEIACLONE go ahead and try to tell us Paul Rhoads was a good coach while telling us how bad Walden was.
The point was I was replying to the comment that Walden "Maximized what he had" When he had arguably the best running back in college football not just the Big 8 sitting on the bench.
As far as Calvin Branch being so great, in 3 years at ISU he didnt even break 1000 yards rushing total in those 3 years. Barely broke 1000 total yards when including receptions etc. He was maybe the best running back in the WAC after he left Iowa State, but best in the Big 8 while at ISU, is a bit of a stretch.
And yeah you are right I dont like Walden, really the only coach I like less would be Chizik.
Walden was a terrible coach, he was the cheap hire, because he was bad, and refused to accept that he was hired at a place that didnt care about athletics because he was bad and cheap to go along with the lack of athletic support. The guy had 3 winning seasons in 17, and of those 3 only 1 was more than 1 game above .500. That is not good, that is not ok, that is bad.
This below is bad, really bad, and with the so called "best running back in the Big 8" starting and arguably the best running back in CFB on the bench. Yep our defense sucked, because our head coach sucked and surrounded himself with terrible coaches and coordinators.
Did he have a ****** situation, yep. Did the University help at all, nope. But the point is, he was hired because he was not good, because the University was looking for the cheap hire, because they didnt want to support the program. So we got what we paid for a mediocre at best coach that could not accept that he was as much of the problem as anything. And as soon as he threw in the towel, drug ISU through the mud and cried that nothing was his fault. Because in his own mind he was the greatest coach in the history of the sport, so it couldnt have been anything do do with him.
Its funny though. You all say we didnt support the program, but the ISU Center was still pretty new in the 80s (JTS was barely a decade old when Walden came), facilities were right in line with most, I would say at least in the 80s, By the mid 90s we had started to fall behind on facilities, because of many years of no upgrades, and unless you expected the University to buy players under the table, not much else was going to help.
As far as freshmen not playing in that era, heres a few that might want a word:
Jamal Lewis
Jamelle Holieway
Tommy Hodson
Herschel Walker
Ron Dayne
Tony Dorsett
Marshall Faulk
Just to name a few....
Never mentioned Rhodes, why don't you continue to tell us what a great coach Walden was. Rhodes was 32- 55 at ISU, while Walden was 28-57 -3, but here you are talking up Walden, while he won fewer games than Rhodes and lost more.
Here you are defending the record of Walden, and calling others an idiot, you are truly clueless. Keep singing the praises of a guy that never had a winning record at any college job. You must be his son or something.
Duncan did not give two ***** for Iowa State. He was terrible! He placed all his marbles on beating Iowa, knowing it would win fans.
Duncan was the start of the decline, Criner completed it.
Walden was a deer walking across an interstate. He had an assistant that recruited Florida well. I remember one night in a local bar, said assistant commented on Davis was a premier back - but it would take many people to keep him eligible. His freshman year he wasn’t even close, with the direction the staff was given - he had to sit.
You all probably heard of his testing at the draft.
Duncan was the start of the decline, Criner completed it.
Walden was a deer walking across an interstate. He had an assistant that recruited Florida well. I remember one night in a local bar, said assistant commented on Davis was a premier back - but it would take many people to keep him eligible. His freshman year he wasn’t even close, with the direction the staff was given - he had to sit.
You all probably heard of his testing at the draft.
I was at the '93 Iowa game. We were down 31-7 going into the 4th, cut it to 31-28 and recovered an onside kick with over a minute left...and then fumbled the ball on the first play. Great game, horrible ending.
How many ISU football games have gone something like this?
They have to have some sort of record, right?
