Well ISU kinda prides itself on recruiting to develop.. we have to, to a certain degree. Pope hasn't brought in much your right, but I doubt Rhoads would allow a stand in coach on his staff.
and pope is gone because...
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Well ISU kinda prides itself on recruiting to develop.. we have to, to a certain degree. Pope hasn't brought in much your right, but I doubt Rhoads would allow a stand in coach on his staff.
Actually I'd say White might have cost Pope his job. Or rather his management of White. How does a guy go from being a proven Big XII back for multiple seasons, and a team captain, to suddenly not being able to run and being buried on the depth chart? And if it was because those other RBs were better why did Pope not see that in practice and elevate them earlier?
We also had lots of fumbles in key situations from multiple RBs.
I think it also could just be that CPR wants to change the organization of his staff. Is there a typical way D1 staffs are organized or do they differ based on the talents of the staff. For instance, do other staffs have a QB coach and a RB coach or are they sometimes combined? Does the OC typically coach the QBs or do they ever coach another position?
Maybe. Pope recruited Mister who, since Pope's firing, is allowing Indiana to have a home visit with his family. I don't care how good of a stable of running backs you have. If the O-line sucks, none of them will look good.
That in-home visit was set up before Pope was fired, jeez. Oh and Brian Kelly is in DSM today to visit Lazard, oh no!!!
Maybe he just didn't like the guy. Maybe it was performance related and maybe it wasn't. You never know.
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Maybe, CPR has his sites set on an OC/RB coach guy, and will hire a WR coach who specializes/coaches only the WR position?
For the last time, every year since Robinson left we've gone running back by committee because we had more depth at that position. Robinson may have been a better back, but the running backs have not been greatly under producing like some people seem to think.
The Athlon pre-season Big 12 Iowa Edition even featured James White on the cover!
P.S. This is a really good publication. I was re-reading the article about us and it was quite on-target. The writer really knew us.
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I wonder if Rhoads had to push to get Wimberly in the lineup rather than guys Pope had been working with for a few years.
That's possible, but even then I don't think that's worthy of firing the guy. And while the rotation of the running backs (under utilization of Woody) has been confusing, that stuff would be something decided before the game. I understand Pope decided who played when, but if Mess wanted Woody in more than Woody would have been in more.
IMO, Pope did not utilize our RB's very well. Jeff Woody said that mistakes were made in reference to Kennith Pope. So perhaps the wrong personnel were on the field at the wrong times. Rhoads obviously felt the production from our RB's should have been better and Pope could have done his job better.
Development takes time, and Johnson, Nealy, Wimberly, were all better than White this year. I was astonished how little James played though. I don't think Pope failed JW, I just think the other guys surpassed him. Tommy Mister seems concerned but Indiana?? I hope that doesn't happen.. watch out for MSU perhaps though??
I think you mean QB and not WR, since Sturdy is still on the staff.
It would make a lot of sense to get a coach dedicated to developing the QB's technique and have an OC/RB focus on developing the game plan and coaching the most instinctive position to play on the field.
That could be a great way to bring in Rosenfels as an assistant and a proven coordinator like Mangino, Christensen, [insert your favorite candidate here] at the same time.
I would like to know some top teams that have "running backs by committee" to the extreme we have had? 1-2 running backs see the field for most teams, at ISU we have 6 guys touching the ball. I think we took this concept to an extreme. Most of the time, when you have "running by committee" you still have a feature back. Who was ours? Wimberly in the second half of the year but who before?
It pretty clear that the RB spot was mismanaged this year. The ball security and blitz pickup/blocking have been spotty. I know it's hard to make 5-6 guys happy these days, but the player rotation looked like middle school stuff and couldn't have been great for our production or morale. I think it's smart in this age of injuries to have a couple guys splitting the snaps, but trying to spread it around to five guys was and is absurd.
I haven't counted but probably half of our Texas recruits, many recruited from Pope's area, have washed out or been busts. How much of that falls on Pope directly I can't say. However, our Texas recruiting is not what it should be given we are in the Big12. Maybe the re-alignment turmoil hurt that more than we know. Who knows?
I honestly think that Wimberly was recruited with a redshirt in mind, but he turned out to be too good even at his small size to redshirt. It puts the staff in a quandry. Do you play him or redshirt him for a big run at 2014 and beyond? It made the logjam tighter at the spot, and our seniors got limited reps because of that.
I don't wish anyone to get fired but Pope had a bad year I think.
I haven't counted but probably half of our Texas recruits, many recruited from Pope's area, have washed out or been busts. How much of that falls on Pope directly I can't say. However, our Texas recruiting is not what it should be given we are in the Big12. Maybe the re-alignment turmoil hurt that more than we know. Who knows?
I honestly think that Wimberly was recruited with a redshirt in mind, but he turned out to be too good even at his small size to redshirt. It puts the staff in a quandry. Do you play him or redshirt him for a big run at 2014 and beyond? It made the logjam tighter at the spot, and our seniors got limited reps because of that.
I don't wish anyone to get fired but Pope had a bad year I think.
CPR already knows who his new OC is, and the new OC is bringing in his QB's coach and RB's coach w/ him when he comes.