Please excuse this question, I know I'm treading over very dangerous waters here. However, I need to know the answer because I'm fairly new to CF and to the Cyclone family in general and right now I just don't understand.
Seneca Wallace had a .500 Record at ISU and threw 1 more INT that TDs (27 to 26) in his career. He had a 57% completion rate (below average for college). He accounted for 6,000 yds in 2 seasons (decent).
Why is this guy a god? Why are all other ISU QBs compared to him?
This is asked with the purest of intentions, I simply am wondering if I missed something. I don't want to be ignorant.
OK, no one else bit so I will.
TO understand the Seneca Wallace phenomenon you really have to have seen him play. Looking at his career stats will not do it. Seneca was one of the most electrifying individual athletes I have ever seen play. His downfall, as far as stats and record goes, was the talent around him, the system he played in and that he only played at ISU for two years.
I truly believe that if he had been a 4/5 year player at ISU with our current staff, he could have accomplished much more than he did. As it was, he only got 2 years as a Big 12 QB. It think as a 4/5 year D1 player he would have had better strength and conditioning, better grasp of the QB position and, with the current staff, a better system and position coaching. Marty Fine (2002 OC) was a horrible offensive coordinator and the offensive line nosedived under his instruction.
There were many times that the team had to rely on Seneca to win the game for them. He did not have the best supporting cast. In 2001, he had Ennis Haywood which helped them win more in 2001. It was Senecas first eyar at QB and he showed flashes of what he could do in the future. I don't think the defense was nearly as good as we had in 2005.
In 2002, he did not have a real running back. Seneca had some good posession recievers in Danielsen and Whitver, but there is a reason that they were both walk-ons. He didn't have much of a real downfield threat. After the first few games, opposing coaches knew what was coming and gameplanned to stop Seneca. A combination of bad offensive coaching and supporting players led to a complete nosedive after a 6-1 start (with a last second loss to FSU). With better coaching a supporting cast in 2002 there is no way we like we did the second half of the season. Granted, we ran into a lot of ranked teams, but we got smashed. No way we lose to UConn, that's for sure.
Seneca is truly a gifted athlete. You need look no further than his tenure in the NFL with only limited time as a D1 QB. He was the only weapon we had in 2002. I wish we could have the team around him that we have in 2011. Seneca in this offense would be awesome. He had next level elusiveness, speed and a great arm. Combine that with a much more solid O-Line a stable of capably running backs and a defense that can hold their own with most teams and you have something really special.
Put it this way, if Seneca had ended up at a top school like Cam Newton did, and they used him correctly, he could have won the heisman and a national championship. Until the epic meltdown in the second half of 2002 he was getting heisman talk playing for Iowa State, mostly because he was willing the team to wins.
Find a video of "The Play" from the Texas Tech game in 2002. It is still the most impressive singular effort I have ever seen from one player (combined with Mike Wagners disgusting block at the end).
