Uphill for a bowl game this year...Yeah thats like a ninety degree incline this year.
I will give cpr another three years but if no bowl then its no Rhoads either.
Schlabach: ISU heading in wrong direction
- Thread starter PabloDiablo
- Start date
Uphill for a bowl game this year...Yeah thats like a ninety degree incline this year.
I will give cpr another three years but if no bowl then its no Rhoads either.
We probably wouldn't be in this position had your favorte coach been able to get over the hump. But he failed miserbly.
The Colorado game hurt the worst with hawkins fired and no new coach we lose to a stumble bum of a football program....
And then our Yearly LOSS to eiu didnt feel too good either....
This is a good post.
I thought when mac left it was at least a 5 year build (there was still so much to be done, and the recruiting was awful his last couple of years, it was circa 96 all over again). Changing coaches two years later pushed that timetable back.
I think that it will be very difficult for us to acheive a level where we are a consistent power in the league, especially with losing two teams, and having to play everyone.
But, what I have seen from this staff is that they have done a good job paying attention to detail. We are well prepared, the CU game not withstanding, and we have lost because we got run over. That is what we need to see this year. This team, and program, needs to step up and physically compete with the teams on the schedule.
I don't expect us to ever consistently beat OU, and UT. There are too many limitations in place for that to happen. But I would like to see us line-up against these schools, and not get completely run over. This year needs to be the start of that phase of building the program. I know we beat UT last year, but they fell apart badly. It was a big win for our recruiting in the area, but that was not a good team that we beat.
I don't really have expectations for another couple of years. By year five, the program will be in place, and that is when we can see where we will stand against the rest of the Big 12.
If you want to see the progress of the program look at how the team competed last year. We got blown out by Utah, OU, and Iowa In the first half of the season. Even though the team missed a bowl game I saw improvement of the team and the program. We beat Texas, and almost beat NU, and competed against MU.
Yes, Texas wasn't very good last year but they were ranked and are a traditional power. Missouri and NU were ranked in the top 15 I believe at the time. ISU's football tradition isn't very good so if you look at how we have competed against ranked teams in the past it gets ugly. The fact the team competed against good teams shows the direction of the program even though it doesn't show in in the the win loss columns.
Yes, Texas wasn't very good last year but they were ranked and are a traditional power. Missouri and NU were ranked in the top 15 I believe at the time. ISU's football tradition isn't very good so if you look at how we have competed against ranked teams in the past it gets ugly. The fact the team competed against good teams shows the direction of the program even though it doesn't show in in the the win loss columns.
Last edited:
That improved you saw, got there ***** handed to them by CU in the second half of the season... Did you forget that?
I have a hard time saying our program is going in the wrong direction. Things won't be easy, but the program itself clearly has momentum. Yes, we get blown out a few times. No denying that. We're a game under .500 the past 2 years. These things are clear.
That said, under the new staff we won as many games in the first 15 times out than we had in the 3 years prior to it. We've beaten major powerhouses on the road in each of the last two seasons. ISU NEVER, EVER won big road games against those kinds of schools under Mac and Chizik. Our facilities are being upgraded at a fast pace. Our recruiting classes are bringing in better talent.
If you're an ISU fan who knows anything about this program, and feels its heading in a wrong direction, you are choosing to wallow in negativity. That's not "realism". There are plenty of posters on this board, and they're in this thread that choose to always take the negative standpoint (just like plenty are always wearing the cardinal and gold glasses). They're just as out of touch w/reality as the excessively positive.
ISU has a long ways to go, but we're undoubtedly moving in the right direction.
That said, under the new staff we won as many games in the first 15 times out than we had in the 3 years prior to it. We've beaten major powerhouses on the road in each of the last two seasons. ISU NEVER, EVER won big road games against those kinds of schools under Mac and Chizik. Our facilities are being upgraded at a fast pace. Our recruiting classes are bringing in better talent.
If you're an ISU fan who knows anything about this program, and feels its heading in a wrong direction, you are choosing to wallow in negativity. That's not "realism". There are plenty of posters on this board, and they're in this thread that choose to always take the negative standpoint (just like plenty are always wearing the cardinal and gold glasses). They're just as out of touch w/reality as the excessively positive.
ISU has a long ways to go, but we're undoubtedly moving in the right direction.
I think you are right here Al.
I think that it is hard for people to see what the nation really thinks about us, our public image if you will. We have people on here talking about how we were relevant when mac the mediocre was here. That is the self image, nationally we were always irrelevant. That was why Holtz made jokes after mac wet himself against KU. That was why Beano Cook said on ESPN when Walden was fired that Iowa State is one of the major conference schools (now BCS) that was never going to win a national championship, that it was impossible.
This is not a fast process. This program is being built from the ground up. There was a few ****** bowl games the first five years of the century, and people think that is a big deal. It isn't most of the bowl games that we have gone to are ones that teams end up at. No team in America starts the season thinking "we need to win enough so we can go to Shreveport, or Boise," or even that lousy Houston bowl that I am not sure we ever got paid from.
We have to realize that all of that "success" that people like Tornado Man clamors for looks like failure to most of the teams in the BCS.
Now as for the two big wins we have the last two years, they are important. Yes the teams weren't good, but it drew attention. Symbolicly, they were very important.
This is a long process. This will take more than five years probably. I am willing to be patient while it happens. But the team, more importantly the program, really needs to take steps to compete better, physically. Again, I don't expect us to start beating OU regularly, we have 5 wins in the history of the series.
But we do need to line up against them, and look the part, and play like a BCS school when we do play them.
Let's face it folks... we don't deserve any kind of recognition right now at all.
Yes, Rhoads has had some nice wins (Nebraska, Texas), and took us to the Insight Bowl, but we didn't build on that this season. We didn't make it to a bowl. And we can't use our schedule as an excuse anymore because it's going to be one of the toughest in all of college football every single year going forward. It's not going to get easier.
Until we put a couple of bowl seasons together, I don't think we deserve to be considered going in the right direction.
As for facilities, yes they are getting better, but we still have a long ways to go. Jack Trice still has to be in the bottom 1/4 of stadiums at our level IMO.
As for recruiting, who says it's improved? We are all assuming it's improving, but have yet to see it on the field. Our classes sure haven't been ranked any higher than they normally are. Everyone is just assuming that Rhoads has found a bunch of "diamonds in the rough" with guys like Shontrelle, West, some of the young OL, Jantz, etc, but what have they shown on the field so far? We won't know if recruiting has improved much until these guys show us something.
If we want more recognition, we'll have to earn it on the field. I'm sure Rhoads feels the same way.
Yes, Rhoads has had some nice wins (Nebraska, Texas), and took us to the Insight Bowl, but we didn't build on that this season. We didn't make it to a bowl. And we can't use our schedule as an excuse anymore because it's going to be one of the toughest in all of college football every single year going forward. It's not going to get easier.
Until we put a couple of bowl seasons together, I don't think we deserve to be considered going in the right direction.
As for facilities, yes they are getting better, but we still have a long ways to go. Jack Trice still has to be in the bottom 1/4 of stadiums at our level IMO.
As for recruiting, who says it's improved? We are all assuming it's improving, but have yet to see it on the field. Our classes sure haven't been ranked any higher than they normally are. Everyone is just assuming that Rhoads has found a bunch of "diamonds in the rough" with guys like Shontrelle, West, some of the young OL, Jantz, etc, but what have they shown on the field so far? We won't know if recruiting has improved much until these guys show us something.
If we want more recognition, we'll have to earn it on the field. I'm sure Rhoads feels the same way.
Good of you to speak for him, then. :skeptical:
Frankly, the only real difference between the '09 and '10 regular season was an incomplete pass. Based solely upon that, I really, really can't say that the program is "headed in the wrong direction"--which is a whole different ballgame from "not getting any recognition".
Of course, I wouldn't care to speculate about how CPR feels.
What's your benchmarks for a good team? Wins? That's what mine is. ISU won 5 games in 2 seasons under the previous coach. Rhoads won 7 his first year and 5 last season. What are benchmark wins for the program? Wins in Austin and Lincoln sound good to me. To think this program has not improved is comical.
Nebraska was a big win.
Everyone beat Texas last season, so to an outsider to the program, it wasn't a big win.
This years class? The 2002 class was the best looking class on paper by far. On paper this isn't even as good as the last years class. Not only that, but you can't declare this class as being the best when nobody has seen the field. On top of that, ISU finished 9/10 in Big 12 recruiting rankings. So even if this were the best class, it still isn't better than 8 other schools in the conference.
Makes a low tier bowl than doesn't make a bowl the next season. To an outsider, the bowl game is no big deal, and having a losing record the next season, followed by losing your starting QB and RB doesn't say the program is heading in the right direction.
Unless ISU can win 8+, they will never have more than a 2 on that scale.
It's called continual improvement. There were times last season were it looked like that team was lost and not properly coached/prepared. (Oh no I went against almighty CPR). If we cannot continually gain wins and be competitive then we will have to go a new direction. I love CPR as the next guy, but there have been times the last two seasons where he and the coaching staff should have been held accountable for not preparing the players well enough and getting them fired up enough to go out and win. I never said the program hasn't improved, please show me where I said that UNIGuy? Wait you can't. You just are off in la de da land of douchebags. There are still uncertainties that need to be addressed this year, and we will have to wait and see if these potential problems are addressed.
Last year our class ranked 59th. This year we ranked 51st. That's the highest we've been ranked since 2004 when we were ranked 42.
Last year we ranked ahead of 19 BCS schools: Wake Forest, Duke, NC State, Uconn, Syracuse, USF, Pitt, Minnesota, Indiana, NW, Purdue, Kentucky, Vandy, Wash State, ASU, Arizona, Oregon State, Kansas State, Colorado. We are getting better. We do still need to improve to get to where we want to be, but with the new facilities and the more comfortable our staff gets it should.
Last edited:
This is such a silly comparison....Anyone who thinks that CPR would have won many more than five games in those two years is kidding themselves.
mac the mediocre left an empty cupboard. It was a minimum five year build, not even "rebuild" when Chizik took over. He made it tougher by hiring the wrong people.
BUT, this is an extremely undertalented program NOW. It was barren in 2006 when mac left.
It is all about recruiting and player development. I think that CPR's staff has shown that players on the defensive side of the ball have grown. But we have a looooonnnnngggggg ways to go before we can feel like we should line up against the best teams in the league, and match their physicality and speed position by position.
I agree that the attitude is the best I have ever seen it in the Iowa State football program. I agree that we are getting kids that we can develop into Big 12 players. I agree that the wins at nebbie and UT are significant in that they were nationally recognizeable. I am sure that this staff has gotten into houses that they wouldn't have gotten into without those wins.
I am willing to trust the staff. I am willing to buy in to what they are doing. It will be at least a couple more years before I fall off the bandwagon if the records aren't good.
But these silly comparisons, and the hatred of Chizik, is ridiculous. Think of it this way....Everyone hates Chizik, and still sings the praises of mac the mediocre. Well Chizik left with a lousy record, and got a historically top 20 job, while ol' mac had to wait FOUR years to get a middle of the road job, even though he tried and tried to land another head coaching job.
so are we just supposed to jump into the top 5 recruiting classes in the b12 with the snap of a finger? are you serious? give it time. CPR is building this program and he will get us playing championship football, but it will take some time. just relax and enjoy the show.
IMO, this is WAY over the top. We MUST hold on to CPR for as long as we possibly can IMO... hopefully forever. He is the right man for this job... period. He's only had two years. It will take longer than that to turn this thing around.
With that being said, I do think Tom Herman will be on the hot seat the next two seasons. He should be given two more years IMO to prove himself though. But IMO, he's done next to nothing so far. And no, I didn't expect miracles from him, but I thought we'd be a little better than around the 100th ranked offense in the country out of 119 teams. I could probably get us ranked that high.
CPR has never claimed to be an offensive genius, he's a defensive guy, that's why the offense is basically 100% on Herman's shoulders. And in your second year, there's no excuse for basically not even being able to get a single first down in the entire first half against Iowa. That's a disgrace.
I think us ISU fans realize we "might" be in the process of turning the corner, but I surely don't expect the rest of the country to know this. What do we have to show the rest of the country to prove we're headed in the right direction? Not much. Recruiting cannot be analyzed until the guys hit the field.
I'm cautiously optimistic that we're headed in the right direction, but still think we have a lot to prove.
I agree with a lot of what's written here. Herman's seat is going to be getting warm pretty quickly if the offense doesn't kick it into gear soon. The one thing he does have going for him, however, is he's been trying to ram square pegs into round holes - the players he has had to work with are not necessarily geared to run the kind of offense he's trying to run. that excuse, however, will start to dry up pretty quickly over the next year or two as he's now had time to bring in players suited to his system.
And yeah - CPR has done an incredible job with the defense so far, but still has a ways to go.
