Why is Pollard a bad AD?

[clones_jer]

Negatives:
->Every sport minus v-ball is doing worse, in the case of football and basketball - amazingly worse
-> coaches / players / icons running for the hills

Positives
->vball
-> new toilets & sinks at Jack Trice

 

[Angie]

Well...then JP got half the job done. He hired coaches other schools wanted...but he didn't keep them around long enough to reap any benefits. Big deal if he hired the hottest names...how about putting ISU in a position to win. If JP is going to keep hanging his hat on hiring NAMES that leave after 2 or 3 or 4 years (for whatever reason) then who really cares? If ISU is not winning as a result of JP's hires...then JP is not getting his job done!

How was he supposed to keep Chizik, exactly? Transplant ISU football closer to his home, family, and warmth in the south? Somehow produce a butt-ton more money that the school just doesn't have, especially when they were already paying him a huge salary? Immediately make Iowa State a big-time contender with a successful history, like Auburn has already? Those are all likely... :no:

 

[jumbopackage]

I understand what you are saying...but fans don't do homework on hiring coaches! ADs do. Fans cheer...lets be honest...no matter who JP hired to coach football...there would be a lot of fans cheering whatever decision was made because they were excited and hopeful! Of course, there are also fans that will react negatively because we didn't hire Urban Meyer or Pete Carroll! But the point is that fans are not and should not be an indicator on the day someone was hired in terms of whether or not it was a good or bad hire! ADs are responsible for hiring coaches to build winning programs! If a coach can't or will not do that...bad hire! AD should take blame! Just my opinion...which is not worth a whole lot I will admit...

It wasn't just our AD that wanted Chizik. Even after what he did here, Auburn just hired him. People wanted a grand slam hire, and Chizik was that. The national media thought so. The fanbase thought so, and Pollard had no reason to think otherwise. AND he had no conceivable way to know that Tommy Tubberville would "resign" and that Auburn - which I honestly do think is Chizik's dream job - would even sniff him after 2 years at ISU.

Even now, the Auburn hire is a huge head scratcher.

As far as GMac goes, the jury is still a bit out on him. He's had to deal with a lot of churn in the program and really hasn't had a chance to put together a team with upperclassmen from "his" guys. If we had a season like Missuori's this year, the heat would clearly be off him. When he was hired, though, it was a very solid hire. Iowa would almost certainly have hired him if he was still at UNI when Alford left.

As for Cael, firstly, despite what everyone may feel emotionally, wrestling is not an important sport in college athletics. If you're going to hire a guy to run it, though, how could you possibly go wrong with Cael? Penn State just hired him away from us for what will clearly be the biggest contract for a wrestling coach, outside of Jimmy "The Mouth of the South" Hart, in history.

The guy isn't a clairvoyant. The alternatives to the guys he hired would largely have been risks as well, with far less impressive resumes.

 

[cyfanatic]

I respect your arguments but at the same time there are plenty of coaches who will get to an environment far from home and love it! Gene might not been one of those guys! That said...Gene got the Auburn job...which is an incredible step up considering what he did while at ISU. But how many coaches were begging to replace Gene at ISU...even though a guy went from 2-10 to the Auburn job?

Do I blame gameday decisions on JP...heck no! But he is solely responsible for hiring the guys that do make gameday decisions! And I haven't seen too many positive results from those hires...minus Cael! And for whatever reason (people can say money all they want but most if not all of us don't know if that was the sole reason) JP can't get wins nor keep his hires in Ames. So we start all over...again! No way can someone convince me that this is how to build a solid, winning athletic department!

 

[cyfanatic]

Penn State just hired him away from us for what will clearly be the biggest contract for a wrestling coach, outside of Jimmy "The Mouth of the South" Hart, in history.

OUTSTANDING!!!

 

[clones_jer]

The guy isn't a clairvoyant.

That is amazingly clear at this point - I'm glad we agree, finally.

He may be the antithesis of a clairvoyant.

 

[jumbopackage]

AD's are judged on the winning the coaches they hire do. JP's had a great plan, raised a lot of money, and sold a ton of tickets by selling nothing more than hope, simply hope. Problem is he f'd up the football hire because simply put the guy didn't win and universally wasn't liked by the boosters because he had the personality of cardboard.

The product in the department isn't fine. You can't say that if you've watched fb and bball at all. the icon of isu athletics, the only coach he's hired who's won on a national scale just left us for a worse program. he retained bf but what else was he going to do. And when Minnesota (their coach could retire anytime) or Wisconsin (they haven't been winning as expected) comes calling, our other successful coach, the VB coach will be out there door as well same as our gymnastics coach, and our wrestling coach. now he doesn't have the money to fund those sports enough becuase his plans called for him to sell hope in football, which would translate to success on the field, which would become money on saturdays and booster donations, which then could be used to support the dept including those other sports. unfortunately his hire of chiz was a disaster and he's left trying to sell hope to those that have none.

I've watched both of them plenty, and yes, it is just fine.

ADs are judged on far more than the winning the coaches they hire do.

Firstly, he has made very responsible hires in the coaches he has hired. It's inconceivable to me that anyone would argue otherwise with any sort of valid position.

You want to fire the guy because the guys he hired didn't turn moribund programs around instantly? Nevermind that the Big XII got considerably better in the last couple years than it had been before the football coach was hired. Or that the basketball team had to basically start from scratch.

Quite frankly, ANY athletic department has to make money on football. It's the biggest cash cow in D1 sports. If you don't focus on football, you're losing money. Basketball isn't even close in terms of revenue generation. On one hand you say that he has sold football based on hope, but on the other you say he hasn't done enough to make money? Which is it? How do you expect him to make money? Bake sales?

At any rate, there is much more to it than just winning and losing. ISU's athletic department is, from all appearances, clean, and well run. We don't have felons on our football team. We don't have massive academic fraud going on. From what I can tell, we don't have basketball players smoking pot on chartered flights while the coach road trips his way to away games stopping whenever he gets thirsty.

I, for one, am happy with the athletic department as a whole. I'd love to see more winning on the field/court, but I'd rather hold my head up high and not have to read about our players getting arrested, or our program being investigated by the NCAA every month on cbssports.com.

 

[JRE1975]

I've watched both of them plenty, and yes, it is just fine.

ADs are judged on far more than the winning the coaches they hire do.

Firstly, he has made very responsible hires in the coaches he has hired. It's inconceivable to me that anyone would argue otherwise with any sort of valid position.

You want to fire the guy because the guys he hired didn't turn moribund programs around instantly? Nevermind that the Big XII got considerably better in the last couple years than it had been before the football coach was hired. Or that the basketball team had to basically start from scratch.

Quite frankly, ANY athletic department has to make money on football. It's the biggest cash cow in D1 sports. If you don't focus on football, you're losing money. Basketball isn't even close in terms of revenue generation. On one hand you say that he has sold football based on hope, but on the other you say he hasn't done enough to make money? Which is it? How do you expect him to make money? Bake sales?

At any rate, there is much more to it than just winning and losing. ISU's athletic department is, from all appearances, clean, and well run. We don't have felons on our football team. We don't have massive academic fraud going on. From what I can tell, we don't have basketball players smoking pot on chartered flights while the coach road trips his way to away games stopping whenever he gets thirsty.

I, for one, am happy with the athletic department as a whole. I'd love to see more winning on the field/court, but I'd rather hold my head up high and not have to read about our players getting arrested, or our program being investigated by the NCAA every month on cbssports.com.

I agree with you, good post.

 

[Gizmo]

Money is the problem and it is not a quick fix. Anytime one of our teams finishes higher than 11th or 12th we have over acheived based on our budget. The top football schools in the big 12 spend more on just football than we have for a total budget for all sports. JP did not cause this problem.

 

[acody]

Not his fault the top asst coach in the country ended up sucking ballz. And that the coach that took UNI to 3 straight NCAA's has recruited some top talent, but yet they continue to leave every year for one reason or another. ALL TOTALLY POLLARDS FAULT!

The MBB coach has not recruited top talent. He's has recruited a large number of mistakes and players who are not D-1 talent.
Pollard has been a disaster. Not only are the Wins/Losses self explanatory, the entire athletic mood is poor. Pollard is the leader and in my opinion he is a failure. But we do have better bathrooms and concessions at JT.

 

[Dave19642006]

I just want to know what has Pollard done for Iowa State in comparison to what Iowa State has done for him

 

[ketelmeister]

I've watched both of them plenty, and yes, it is just fine.

ADs are judged on far more than the winning the coaches they hire do.

Firstly, he has made very responsible hires in the coaches he has hired. It's inconceivable to me that anyone would argue otherwise with any sort of valid position.

You want to fire the guy because the guys he hired didn't turn moribund programs around instantly? Nevermind that the Big XII got considerably better in the last couple years than it had been before the football coach was hired. Or that the basketball team had to basically start from scratch.

Quite frankly, ANY athletic department has to make money on football. It's the biggest cash cow in D1 sports. If you don't focus on football, you're losing money. Basketball isn't even close in terms of revenue generation. On one hand you say that he has sold football based on hope, but on the other you say he hasn't done enough to make money? Which is it? How do you expect him to make money? Bake sales?

At any rate, there is much more to it than just winning and losing. ISU's athletic department is, from all appearances, clean, and well run. We don't have felons on our football team. We don't have massive academic fraud going on. From what I can tell, we don't have basketball players smoking pot on chartered flights while the coach road trips his way to away games stopping whenever he gets thirsty.

I, for one, am happy with the athletic department as a whole. I'd love to see more winning on the field/court, but I'd rather hold my head up high and not have to read about our players getting arrested, or our program being investigated by the NCAA every month on cbssports.com.

Jumbo, great posts tonight!

 

[kingcy]

Pollards Hires
Chizik- Hot name good hire at the time, some felt he was a steel. Didnt win but left a lot of good young talent behind that he brought to Ames. Left the program in better shape talentwise than he found it. Was a cocky ******* though.

GMac- Another hot name at the time. Had the resume from UNI. A nobrainer hire. Rumors are the BB program was in a mess when he took over and still trying to recover from that. Pollard did miss the fact that Mac didnt understand what it would take to win in the Big 12, from the outside that looks to be changing.

Cael- Another homerun hire. Who would have ever thought he would leave. This is why you have to be carefull when your own hire former great athletes.

Rhoades-Not such a hot name but a guy that will work to get it done right. Jury still out.

Hell yes I am pissed about the whole deal but we need to take a step back and look at what is going on.

 

[MontyBurns]

Has it? And if it has, is it something that JP actually has had the ability to influence?

In his first two years, Jamie spent over $4 million replacing these coaching staffs:
football
men's basketball
wrestling
gymnastics
soccer
cross country
track & field
women's golf
tennis
softball

Jamie did not replace the coaching staffs for:
women's basketball
volleyball
swimming & diving

To answer your question, yes, the product has gotten worse. The only programs that are exceeding expectations are the ones that escaped Pollard's rampage. It is not a coincidence.

 

[CyBobby]

In his first two years, Jamie spent over $4 million replacing these coaching staffs:
football
men's basketball
wrestling
gymnastics
soccer
cross country
track & field
women's golf
tennis
softball

Jamie did not replace the coaching staffs for:
women's basketball
volleyball
swimming & diving

To answer your question, yes, the product has gotten worse. The only programs that are exceeding expectations are the ones that escaped Pollard's rampage. It is not a coincidence.

Grate to hear from ya Monty and welcome to Pollard World of athletic losing....I dont know if the fans can take another 5 years of losing under Jamie...

The fans seem to be getting a little thin skinned....sez Martha You cant say anything to them!!!:no:

 

[ameshammer]

I would say it is because he sucks.

 

[isuforlife]

Cael = good recruiter not so good coach.......... Have fun in Penn.

 

[ISUKyro]

I'm not really too worried about Pollard, but I'm getting very worried about how ISU looks nationally.
For the most part we're not well known, and most of the BIG news that we've produce is that no one wants to stay here saying everything is better elsewhere. That scares me the most. Seems like it just makes the battle to make the sports programs an even bigger up hill battle each time something like this happens.... I just hope it's still an up hill battle and not trying to run through a brick wall that won't budge

 

[desertbound]

Remember, too, that the current President of Penn State is an Iowa State alum - Graham Spanier. He was here in the late 1960s, and certainly saw ISU wrestling at its peak. Not that this has anything to do with Cael's leaving...just an interesting point.

 

[clone99]

his only decision that has worked out is keeping Fennelly, good or bad that is the truth. He had made some good decisions on hiring coaches I thought at the time of the hires. But 0 have really worked out. Unfortunately for him, that all comes back on him regardless if it is all his fault or not.

Just like the head coach of any sports team, the performance of the team is always reflective on the coach. Whether it is really the coachs fault or not doesn't really matter.