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Outsider's Perspective (Long)

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HoosierinIowa

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Oct 18, 2006
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I am an Indiana grad who was raised in Iowa and returned to live here. Being a big football fan I have always followed ISU with some interest. One thing IU football and ISU football share is some of the fan base has a "woe is me" attitude regarding who would want to coach at each university. While I think IU is a coaching graveyard, I believe ISU is a very good job for the following reasons:

ISU consistently draws large crowds for non BCS opponents so scheduling some wins is not a big deal. This helps to build your program while not killing your bottom line.

The fan base is strong considering the lack of return on their investment. IU would kill for type of following ISU football has.

The salaries for coaches are excellent. You can recruit and retain a good staff.

The fans are patient and realistic. At times I thought this years team looked like an 8th grade team in terms of game organization, yet the overwhelming number of fans were very positive until the end of the GC reign.

The media is pretty tame. Some of them are almost boosters for ISU and/or Iowa.

No competition from the pros. It is very hard for IU football to get significant coverage when competing against the Colts in the same media market.

Don't sell this job short. It is obviously challenging but there are many advantages to coaching at ISU. Just my two cents.
 
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Thank you for your insight. Its appreciated by me.
 
HoosierinIowa said:
I am an Indiana grad who was raised in Iowa and returned to live here. Being a big football fan I have always followed ISU with some interest. One thing IU football and ISU football share is some of the fan base has a "woe is me" attitude regarding who would want to coach at each university. While I think IU is a coaching graveyard, I believe ISU is a very good job for the following reasons:

ISU consistently draws large crowds for non BCS opponents so scheduling some wins is not a big deal. This helps to build your program while not killing your bottom line.

The fan base is strong considering the lack of return on their investment. IU would kill for type of following ISU football has.

The salaries for coaches are excellent. You can recruit and retain a good staff.

The fans are patient and realistic. At times I thought this years team looked like an 8th grade team in terms of game organization, yet the overwhelming number of fans were very positive until the end of the GC reign.

The media is pretty tame. Some of them are almost boosters for ISU and/or Iowa.

No competition from the pros. It is very hard for IU football to get significant coverage when competing against the Colts in the same media market.

Don't sell this job short. It is obviously challenging but there are many advantages to coaching at ISU. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...


thanks!

you should hang out here more.
 
I agree, your points are well made. However, your post was not as long as you promised. Seriously, have you seen some of the posts on this board? :wink:
 
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Welcome home!

As others said, great post; new vantage points are always appreciated around here, but even more so right now. Also as others said, you're more than welcome to hang around our little community here. We love having new folks join us, especially those who also follow other teams (that aren't Iowa). Regardless of who else you cheer for, you follow the Cyclones, and that's good enough for me!
 
As a native Hoosier, now living in Iowa I think IU is a fair comparison, though I think Purdue is probably a bit more what the actual ISU job could be compared to in terms of plusses and minuses as well as fanbase, though with much better tradition.

West Lafayette is not exactly the middle of somewhere (though you're closeish to Indy and closeish to Chicago). Weather isn't far removed from Iowa. Both have similar schools in terms of programs (though ISU is slightly more "ag"-centric).
Purdue has had a lot more success on the field than ISU, but generally is a mid-to-lower-tier Big XI program which can jump up every 5-10 years and compete for a conference title, which is where I contend ISU should aspire to be (for now).

Take IU's on the field history, and everything but that at Purdue and I think you have pretty much what ISU is as a job, and that's not too bad. While some would say that the ND job is better (It certainly is in salary, no doubt), I'd MUCH rather coach at Purdue than ND.
 
HoosierinIowa said:
I am an Indiana grad who was raised in Iowa and returned to live here. Being a big football fan I have always followed ISU with some interest. One thing IU football and ISU football share is some of the fan base has a "woe is me" attitude regarding who would want to coach at each university. While I think IU is a coaching graveyard, I believe ISU is a very good job for the following reasons:

ISU consistently draws large crowds for non BCS opponents so scheduling some wins is not a big deal. This helps to build your program while not killing your bottom line.

The fan base is strong considering the lack of return on their investment. IU would kill for type of following ISU football has.

The salaries for coaches are excellent. You can recruit and retain a good staff.

The fans are patient and realistic. At times I thought this years team looked like an 8th grade team in terms of game organization, yet the overwhelming number of fans were very positive until the end of the GC reign.

The media is pretty tame. Some of them are almost boosters for ISU and/or Iowa.

No competition from the pros. It is very hard for IU football to get significant coverage when competing against the Colts in the same media market.

Don't sell this job short. It is obviously challenging but there are many advantages to coaching at ISU. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

As an outsider do you feel we are looking at coaches who may feel they should hold out for better jobs then Iowa State?
 
I would hope ISU could get a midwestern guy with some Iowa connection. This is job where you will have to be able to out "X and O" the other teams so I would want someone who doesn't come from a traditional power school, where you can rely on your talent being better than the other guys. Whether or not they have head coaching experience isn't that big a deal to me.

I don't think there is anyone ISU should scratch anyone off their list. Don't shortchange your program. Point out all of the great things you have going for you. As I said this is a great university to coach at. Where else will you combine the money and the understanding fan base?
 
HoosierinIowa said:
I am an Indiana grad who was raised in Iowa and returned to live here. Being a big football fan I have always followed ISU with some interest. One thing IU football and ISU football share is some of the fan base has a "woe is me" attitude regarding who would want to coach at each university. While I think IU is a coaching graveyard, I believe ISU is a very good job for the following reasons:

ISU consistently draws large crowds for non BCS opponents so scheduling some wins is not a big deal. This helps to build your program while not killing your bottom line.

The fan base is strong considering the lack of return on their investment. IU would kill for type of following ISU football has.

The salaries for coaches are excellent. You can recruit and retain a good staff.

The fans are patient and realistic. At times I thought this years team looked like an 8th grade team in terms of game organization, yet the overwhelming number of fans were very positive until the end of the GC reign.

The media is pretty tame. Some of them are almost boosters for ISU and/or Iowa.

No competition from the pros. It is very hard for IU football to get significant coverage when competing against the Colts in the same media market.

Don't sell this job short. It is obviously challenging but there are many advantages to coaching at ISU. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

Hear! Hear!

Well said; we aren't dead.
 
HoosierinIowa said:
I am an Indiana grad who was raised in Iowa and returned to live here. Being a big football fan I have always followed ISU with some interest. One thing IU football and ISU football share is some of the fan base has a "woe is me" attitude regarding who would want to coach at each university. While I think IU is a coaching graveyard, I believe ISU is a very good job for the following reasons:

ISU consistently draws large crowds for non BCS opponents so scheduling some wins is not a big deal. This helps to build your program while not killing your bottom line.

The fan base is strong considering the lack of return on their investment. IU would kill for type of following ISU football has.

The salaries for coaches are excellent. You can recruit and retain a good staff.

The fans are patient and realistic. At times I thought this years team looked like an 8th grade team in terms of game organization, yet the overwhelming number of fans were very positive until the end of the GC reign.

The media is pretty tame. Some of them are almost boosters for ISU and/or Iowa.

No competition from the pros. It is very hard for IU football to get significant coverage when competing against the Colts in the same media market.

Don't sell this job short. It is obviously challenging but there are many advantages to coaching at ISU. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

That's way too generous of you. The fact that Gene was hired at Auburn should tell you that our coaches enjoyed coaching here. Ok, maybe not enjoyed but looked into a coaching job here and actually did some work. 2 years is a LONG time for a traitor to start showing his true colors.

Indiana is a traditional basketball power. Its hard for basketball schools to hire good coaches in football. It will happen though. All it needs is a GOOD athletic director.

Thanks for the post. This is probably the single happiest post I have seen in a week.
 
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I would agree with the eighth grade assessment as I thought similar. We looked like we were one step behind the opponent on blitzes, numerous penalties, getting plays sent in, changing out players, playcalling. it just snowballed into making us look we did not practice much. By the end of the season, we looked slightly better than the second game of the season.
 
Great Post, thankyou for the insight. I thought ISU had a tough time, but Indiana would be 10 times harder.

Another Advantage:

a) It should be easier to get good Texas and Oklahoma kids who pass under the Texas/TAM/TT radar.
b) 50% of ISU's schedule the last 100 years and the next 100 years consist of these teams: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas State. Not too bad of a schedule, Not Incedible Hard, but not Very Easy.


Bottomline - you need a coach who can win on Saturday. I hate hearing how you can't win at ISU. If Mac would have had a good kicker in '04 and '05 we would have won 2 North Titles. The Big 12 is much better now, but I believe we are a few players away from being good.
 
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