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arganbright2

Well-Known Member
Aug 6, 2006
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I don't know why people think that Iowa State is going to get the best recruits. Iowa State is probably the toughest sell in major college football. We have absolutely no tradition, it is currently -1 degrees outside, and we have a new coaching staff. Also, Iowa State is an engineering school and usually that isn't the preferred major of most recruits. When I lived in Arizona and told people I went to Iowa State, most of them had never even heard of Ames. I'll take my 2 star recruits and be plenty happy to have them.

If anybody can think of a tougher sell than Iowa State in a BCS conference, please let me know because I cannot think of one right now.
 
Some people thought we would get more three or four stars than previous history shows from Florida and Texas and Alabama.
 
arganbright2 said:
I don't know why people think that Iowa State is going to get the best recruits. Iowa State is probably the toughest sell in major college football. We have absolutely no tradition, it is currently -1 degrees outside, and we have a new coaching staff. Also, Iowa State is an engineering school and usually that isn't the preferred major of most recruits. When I lived in Arizona and told people I went to Iowa State, most of them had never even heard of Ames. I'll take my 2 star recruits and be plenty happy to have them.

If anybody can think of a tougher sell than Iowa State in a BCS conference, please let me know because I cannot think of one right now.
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Do not forget that our fan base has a pessimistic attitude :wink:
 
First off, yes, ISU is a tough tough sell. But, it's not impossible. If GC can recruit kids that have speed and are coachable, then it doesn't really matter if they have 2 or 3 stars. They need to fit into the system, learn it, and develop physically each year.

As for tradition, again, you're mostly right, but Northwestern didn't have much before Barnett took them to Pasadena and the same goes for those different Wildcats in Manhattan, KS. But, the coaches can sell the fact that the University is committed to the football program (facilities improvements, new coaching staff, academic learning center, etc..) and building a tradition.

In terms of academics, doesn't ISU have something like 100 majors? Most major universities have large engineering programs (look at the top engineering schools in US News and World Report College Guide, most have good football programs as well in the Pac 10, Big12 and Big11). I would think ISU's top 50 pub university status would actually ATTRACT a player not deter him from coming to Ames.

As far as BCS schools being less desirable... about 2 hrs up the road from here in Laramie is the U. of Wyoming. It's in the MWC so I'm not sure of their BCS chances (although Utah played in the fiesta bowl in 04). That's a school that is lucky to even be D-I, and recruiting kids from the south to play there is every bit as hard as Ames.
 
Jbone4State10' said:
Manhattan Kansas has to be up there.
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I would agree that manhattan is very close to Ames in terms of difficulty. They have a couple of slight advantages over Ames, IMO though.

1. Kansas Juco system. Plenty of talented Juco players to recruit in state can be a help and was a major factor in their turn around. I would prefer not to build a program on Jucos, but if you can use it effectively, you might as well.

2. Closer proximity to KC (major city). Not loaded with talent like a Texas city, but there are some talented players there.

3. Slightly closer to Texas.

Overall, these are not huge advantages, IMO.

K-state, until recently was the clear cut football school in the state which does help. That is something that Snyder forged because it wasn't always like that.

It would help if we could do that in Iowa.
 
Also take a look at the state of Kansas before this year and the good years that K-State had in the late 90's and early 00's. There is a reason why K-State was known as Futility U and the annual game between Kansas and K-State was called the Toilet Bowl. Our years will come. It's just taking longer. Furthermore i realize there has'nt exactly been a tradition of great football here at Iowa State, but atleast be happy that ISU isnt known as Futility U.
 
Look at the University of Eastern Iowa prior to 1981, they had a solid period from 1955 to 1960 and then went into the stool for a couple decades. K-State is a better example. Our best period for the most part was prior to 1920 and from 1971 into the early 80s (4 should have been 6 bowls). Once you get the right coach in place, good things will happen.

I would love to have about five Tim Dobbins/Ace Bowen types on this team at once (extremely athletic but very smart players). Those players were rated 2/3 stars respectively if you look at the CN archives, they were not deterred by the weather or ISU's mediocrity and poor play in the 1980s/90s. The weather is bad right now but it is impacting all the schools in this part of the country and it has no impact on playing the game -they don't play football in mid January and football players that want to play for a team in a major conference don't live in the past!
 
arganbright2 said:
I don't know why people think that Iowa State is going to get the best recruits. Iowa State is probably the toughest sell in major college football. We have absolutely no tradition, it is currently -1 degrees outside, and we have a new coaching staff. Also, Iowa State is an engineering school and usually that isn't the preferred major of most recruits. When I lived in Arizona and told people I went to Iowa State, most of them had never even heard of Ames. I'll take my 2 star recruits and be plenty happy to have them.

If anybody can think of a tougher sell than Iowa State in a BCS conference, please let me know because I cannot think of one right now.
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We could recruit this kind of class with the last staff. That's one of the reasons we made the change. To get better athletes to get better teams. If we can't recruit any better than the last staff, how are we going to get better?

I find it very difficult to believe that one staff is so far ahead of another in terms of player development and coaching ability, that that alone will make up the difference.

Every school in the Big XII has good coaching staffs with people who know how to coach and develop players, but they're getting better raw material than us. We can't continue to get worse classes on paper and hope that our staff is that much better at the intangibles than the other staffs. It's a recipe for losing.

I had hoped with his ties to the South (Florida and Texas specifically), and with his staff's ties to the recruiting-rich southern states as well, that it might lead to some better recruits. I don't see why if Brewster can get the kind of class he's getting in Minnesota, we can't hope for something similar -- not as good, maybe, but just in the ballpark.

We have six three-stars in this class and the rest 2-stars. That's just not going to get it done.
 
I don't want to go thought the list but there would have to be at least 30-40 schools that do not hold a candle to the overall sell we have at Iowa State. Kids just want to win and when GC does, recruiting will change.

Temperature and 'culture' are not everything. Why would any free agent want to play on -5F temps in Green Bay? Other than money, that is?
 
CTTB78 said:
Temperature and 'culture' are not everything. Why would any free agent want to play on -5F temps in Green Bay? Other than money, that is?
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You sir, need to go to a playoff game at Lambeau. Most amazing thing, ever. Screw the temperature.

And people, let's be serious, how can we compare to Eastern Iowa? They're in the all-mighty Big 10, the best conference in the country! Any recruit would kill to play at a Big 10 school! :wink:
 
Looks like we better win 7 games this year and go to a bowl or suffer more recruting malaise.

I think I am hearing some people on this thread are suggesting we may not be that great at recruiting compared to a Tim Brester. What is your take?
 
Well, let's see. If I were a coach and trying to recruit good people to come to my college, I would totally like a whole bunch of folks who actually know very little to just be screaming negative comments about me and the status of the program and athletes because that will totally help me show recruits that both me and the program are being supported by the fans. Right?
 
Wesley said:
I think I am hearing some people on this thread are suggesting we may not be that great at recruiting compared to a Tim Brester. What is your take?
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Brewster is selling Fools Gold up in Minnesota. How much criticism did he take for being a poor coach this year? What, three players left the team because they weren't happy with what was going on? Yes, Brewster is a great recruiter. That's one of the big reasons he was considered a candidate for our job, I mean, seriously, he got Vince Young to Texas. Problem is, just because you can get great recruits doesn't mean you're going to win games, just ask Notre Dame.

(Also probably doesn't hurt that they have a brand-spanking new stadium on the way)
 
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arganbright2 said:
I don't know why people think that Iowa State is going to get the best recruits. Iowa State is probably the toughest sell in major college football. We have absolutely no tradition, it is currently -1 degrees outside, and we have a new coaching staff. Also, Iowa State is an engineering school and usually that isn't the preferred major of most recruits. When I lived in Arizona and told people I went to Iowa State, most of them had never even heard of Ames. I'll take my 2 star recruits and be plenty happy to have them.

If anybody can think of a tougher sell than Iowa State in a BCS conference, please let me know because I cannot think of one right now.
Click to expand...

Gee, I didn't realize all you could get from Iowa State is an engineering degree? What hole have you been in. There must be at least 150 different degree programs. And how do we manage to recruit a top ranked Wrestling program, a top 5 basketball recruit, a top womens hoops program, a strong Volleyball program, top computer students from across the country? And how did previous Iowa State Football coaches manage to get a top 20 football program? I guess if you want to focus on the negative, you can live your life that way. I chose to be optimistic.
 
The last staff didnt get horribel players, but they did take chances on a lot of players that ended up not coming or leaving early. We had a few good years the n we had a heavy drop off, then another good year,(2005) and another down year. We have the potential to be good, we just cant be losing half of our recruiting classes every year.
 
ketelmeister said:
Gee, I didn't realize all you could get from Iowa State is an engineering degree? What hole have you been in. There must be at least 150 different degree programs. And how do we manage to recruit a top ranked Wrestling program, a top 5 basketball recruit, a top womens hoops program, a strong Volleyball program, top computer students from across the country? And how did previous Iowa State Football coaches manage to get a top 20 football program? I guess if you want to focus on the negative, you can live your life that way. I chose to be optimistic.
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We have a top ranked wrestling program because Iowa Wrestling is like Texas Football, it is pretty much the life for a lot of kids. We have never had a top 5 b-ball recruit, our volleyball team was horrible until last year. The past 10 years, Fennelly has slowly built a good women's program. Also, we had a top 20 program for two weeks in football.

Of the big 10, big 12, big east, pac 10, sec, and acc the only schools I can think of that would be a tougher sell for football would be Northwestern and Connecticut. Somebody help me out here, any harder sells in BCS Conferences???
 
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