I was thinking of CMC, TJ, and Dresser. The state of each program was a complete dumpster fire when each coach took over. Which of the 3 inherited the biggest mess? Enough can't be said about these 3 men. The turnaround has been remarkable.
Biggest Dumpster Fire
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I haven't looked into the stats/specifics but on the surface to me it's football. Yes, hoops was 2-22 with zero optimism but you can bring in two studs and turn a team around quick. In football it's a complete program overhaul that can take years. Wrestling was pretty far down, but feels like we are (or once was) a blueblood in the sport and the tradition/history to me gives you a little bit of a lift in rebuilding.
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ISU football has the history of being bad that made CMCs job the hardest. TJ had a bad roster but you can turn a BB team around quickly and we have a name still. Dresser had the biggest mess, he found his first 125 at the Gilbert Casey’s. He had very little to work with; but ISU did have a storied past and there are not very many D1 programs.
I don’t know if it’s the winner but I don’t think it’s openly understood how big of a cluster things were before Dresser got here. Jackson burnt that thing to the absolute ground.
But in the other hand, fan expectations were much higher in basketball. Our fan base can handle mediocre football without much complaints. But we will not tolerate mediocre basketball. TJ may have had the easiest turnaround, but he absolutely had the most pressure to do so as well.
That's something I could never understand. ISU's history and passion for the sport in Iowa. How could wrestling get that bad. Jackson has to be one of the worst coaches in all sports at ISU. I could see Prohm losing the program for a year, but ISU basketball is what it is and a good coach has lots to work with there. Think TJ had the easiest, but also think he's gonna get us into a final 4 before it's all said and done. CMC historically had nothing to work with and doesn't have near the funding other programs he's competing against do. I'm torn between Dresser and CMC. Leaning toward Matt because I think he has the toughest hill to climb each year.
I'd say football then wrestling, then basketball. Football just takes longer and our lack of historical success doesn't help. Wrestling next because while we had some great wrestlers under Jackson our overall team was hard to watch. Basketball is the easiest to turn around quickly. That said I think TJ has had the easiest turnaround, but has exceeded expectations the most.
I'm not a big wrestling guy, but that was an absolute disaster for what it should be. It also has the most historical success.
The football program wasn't in THAT bad of shape. Campbell inherited Lazard, Lanning, Butler, Willie Harvey, Mike Warren, Trever Ryen, Kamari Cotton-Moya, Brian Peavy, you get the gist. Rhoads, for all his misses, had a few talented guys in Ames, and that 2015 team was inches away from a bowl game. The stadium had been expanded, and the fanbase was ride or die.
TJ took over after the worst season in school history, but we were only 2 years removed from a Big 12 tournament title, and basketball is the easiest sport to quickly rebuild in.
I'm gonna say Dresser had the biggest de-con job.
The football program wasn't in THAT bad of shape. Campbell inherited Lazard, Lanning, Butler, Willie Harvey, Mike Warren, Trever Ryen, Kamari Cotton-Moya, Brian Peavy, you get the gist. Rhoads, for all his misses, had a few talented guys in Ames, and that 2015 team was inches away from a bowl game. The stadium had been expanded, and the fanbase was ride or die.
TJ took over after the worst season in school history, but we were only 2 years removed from a Big 12 tournament title, and basketball is the easiest sport to quickly rebuild in.
I'm gonna say Dresser had the biggest de-con job.
I don’t understand why Jackson did that. Was he just a terrible coach and manager or what? Or he didn’t care?
From what I understand, yes. And he had no clue how to develop kids.
Did you just say we were inches away from a bowl game in 2015? We went 3-9 that year with the disaster that was the kstate game…
To be fair to Jackson a bit. Conference realignment hit wrestling the hardest of any of the sports. Tough to recruit when the conference is falling apart and the Big10 had a new piggy bank to pull from for whatever wrestling facilities they wanted.
Basketball's the easiest/quickest to turn around especially now but the last two years prior to TJ was the worst two seasons in 40+ years. And that 18/19 team was pretty good but dysfunction on display; there's only so much a coach can do but it wasn't the first time you had to wonder if players really had a strong message or foundation to work within.
Football was bad when CMC got there but there was at least a few players to work with like Lazard, etc. and still solid fan support for being so bad.
Football was bad when CMC got there but there was at least a few players to work with like Lazard, etc. and still solid fan support for being so bad.
He could develop kids (top end kids like Kyven) but couldn’t coach and develop the kids who are non place winners. His management was a mess also. He is an extremely nice guy but he is not a college head coach. Michigan as an assistant is probably perfect for him. Put him in with your top end guys and he would take them higher, but keep him away from the slightly above kid because it’s like he doesn’t understand how they can’t just be good.
We lost the Toledo game by a short missed FG and blew significant 4th quarter leads against OK State and KSU. We should have won all of those games and gone to a bowl.
Tied with Iowa late too.
You are who you are which is why they won 3 games but it wasn't like they were getting 50'd every time out.
While all 3 are impressive to me, TJ wins this simply due to the speed in which he rebuilt the program. In 20-21 season we won 2 games all year and no conference wins. Now we are redshirting 4 star players and have a MacDonalds AA coming of the bench.
