Can Cyclone Fans Hope For Success?

Bigbobhoss

Member
Sep 14, 2013
100
22
18
San Francisco
Every time a coach has an ounce of success as a Cyclone, his or her name goes on watch lists and we are relegated to reality. Twice in my fandom the Bulls have stolen away a coach that helped us win the Big 12 (or at least the tournament) 2. If a football coach gets to 6 wins he is a miracle worker ready to jump up a peg and also goes on watch lists.

I am am an out of state grad, that wants to continue to support the clones, and to do so with more than my fandom. However, every time i get close to hitting the donate button, this thought crosses my mind or something like this brings reality back into focus.

Hopefully i just need to vent. Especially since I can't buy a cyclonefanatic nut cup yet. My boys are still exposed and hurting.
 
Things that make a good cyclone fan:

1. Relentless hope for the future (next year!) no matter what odds or trends tell you.

2. Deep seeded self hatred. The kind that allows you to secretly enjoy your own misery.

3. Alcoholism, which can contribute to the 2 above.

So if you are the '1' type, then yes there is hope! But in all actuality there is no hope for consistent success.
 
This is pretty much true for any successful coach at almost any school. If you are successful, you get job offers. Good news is Fred didn't jump for another college job. At least jumping to an NBA job isn't something we, or any other college program, can really compete with.
 
Better go root for a blue-blood program then. Cause this is true for all but a select few programs. We won before Fred. We will win again. Iowa State athletics is bigger than any one man. Support the school, not the coach.
 
When have we ever had a football coach on anyone's watch list???

I think you know that Majors and Bruce were. Majors went on to win a national championship and Bruce went to one of the biggest football schools of our time. And the Chiz won a national champion after Auburn inexplicably had him on their list. Rhoads had a couple of signature wins and some nation pub that could have been watch list buzzworthy but he never parlayed that into anything more.
 
I think you know that Majors and Bruce were. Majors went on to win a national championship and Bruce went to one of the biggest football schools of our time. And the Chiz won a national champion after Auburn inexplicably had him on their list. Rhoads had a couple of signature wins and some nation pub that could have been watch list buzzworthy but he never parlayed that into anything more.

Good response - I was generally aware of Majors and Bruce, but hadn't considered that far back. Even so, 37 years since the last time our coach left following success is a long time (not counting Chiz, since it wasn't success here that led to him leaving).
 
Bob,

Napoleon once said that the most important attribute of a good soldier is the ability to endure constant hardship, courage is only second.

If you can, hang in there. If you can't, we won't think worse of you. Being an ISU fan is the toughest job in college sports. We must endure.
 
this fall I'm 40 years as a Cyclone fan; I've taken so many nut-punches, I got callouses on my callouses...
 
Better go root for a blue-blood program then. Cause this is true for all but a select few programs. We won before Fred. We will win again. Iowa State athletics is bigger than any one man. Support the school, not the coach.

This. I was an ISU fan before Fred even played. And I'm still a fan once he leaves. :smile:
 
As a fanbase, we can always hope for success and stability in the future. We're actually really good at doing that by new, considering recent years past dating to McDermott and McCarney and Chizik... We also continue to show this excellent ability to continue moving our hopes further and further out. Dedication pays! ... Right?

Hopefully i just need to vent.

Join the club.
 
I am also far away from Ames these days but I kind the opposite. If they stopped trying hiring guys that blue blood programs or professional leagues would not come after be it football, basketball, that is when I stop donating

Nothing would make me happier than to have Rhoads in demand because that means we hired a guy that did something no other coach could do at ISU. Not to mention the fact iit shows if he can do it, there has to be somebody else who can too.
 
I am venting here, and I am sure I will be 'trolled' or 'flamed' or what ever it is called on this board....

If University cannot keep it's favorite son, who can the University keep around? No one. The school lost the school's 2 best wrestlers in Gable and Sanderson. It lost every football coach that had any success here, Bruce Earle and Jonny Majors. John Cooper played with the Dirty Dozen and never came back, not sure if he had a chance, or considered.

I read a quote Fred saying, 'I would never consider coaching another college team.' All I can think is, 'Gee thanks but you will consider every NBA job that will come open?'

I guess if I were in the same situation it would be hard for me to turn down a job that would pay twice as much and it did not include tasks that are a pain (like recruiting and babysitting). I used to think it was bad for athletes to leave college early, but now I understand they have to make money when the iron is hot, as that money may be off the table, but college is always around. They can always come back to college to earn their degree

We all used ISU as a stepping stone. We came to campus with nothing, we left with a degree and a job.

It is just sad....Sure next year will be a great b-ball season. Many wins and who knows how deep in March the team can make. If I had to guess, win reg. Big 12 crown, 3 peat Big 12 Tourney, but for some reason they will get a bad draw, and go up against some unbelievable hot team in the round of 32 or Sweet 16 and it will all be a memory, but Final Four Weekend.

The years after this coming year, the program will slowly go back into dormancy, and the whole cycle will begin again. Find a guy who can resurrect it and that guy will move on to a better position. It is not going to happen within 3 years, but have you seen this movie before?
 
I am venting here, and I am sure I will be 'trolled' or 'flamed' or what ever it is called on this board....

If University cannot keep it's favorite son, who can the University keep around? No one. The school lost the school's 2 best wrestlers in Gable and Sanderson. It lost every football coach that had any success here, Bruce Earle and Jonny Majors. John Cooper played with the Dirty Dozen and never came back, not sure if he had a chance, or considered.

I read a quote Fred saying, 'I would never consider coaching another college team.' All I can think is, 'Gee thanks but you will consider every NBA job that will come open?'

I guess if I were in the same situation it would be hard for me to turn down a job that would pay twice as much and it did not include tasks that are a pain (like recruiting and babysitting). I used to think it was bad for athletes to leave college early, but now I understand they have to make money when the iron is hot, as that money may be off the table, but college is always around. They can always come back to college to earn their degree

We all used ISU as a stepping stone. We came to campus with nothing, we left with a degree and a job.

It is just sad....Sure next year will be a great b-ball season. Many wins and who knows how deep in March the team can make. If I had to guess, win reg. Big 12 crown, 3 peat Big 12 Tourney, but for some reason they will get a bad draw, and go up against some unbelievable hot team in the round of 32 or Sweet 16 and it will all be a memory, but Final Four Weekend.

The years after this coming year, the program will slowly go back into dormancy, and the whole cycle will begin again. Find a guy who can resurrect it and that guy will move on to a better position. It is not going to happen within 3 years, but have you seen this movie before?

I generally agree with you and I think that a lot of people haven't considered the implications of what it means if ISU can't even keep Hoiberg around once he gets some success. It really does validate how people outside the fanbase view Iowa State. And that really stings, a lot. Hoiberg was supposed to be the guy that turned ISU from a stepping stone job into a destination job. But I don't know about "dormancy". The baseline level for ISU basketball is a hell of a lot higher than it is for ISU football. A decent hire isn't going to give us what we thought we were going to get out of Hoiberg, but they can keep us consistently in the top half of the conference, go to NCAAs most years, and occasionally make some deep runs. 2006-2010 were just as much an aberration for ISU basketball as 2011-2015 was.
 

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