I entered college in 1971. Over the past more than 40 years I have followed the Big 8/12, the Big 10, and the PAC 10 when I lived for 10 years in Oregon. I have seen several teams move out of the bottom of their conference to the top. The teams have included Iowa, Kansas State, Baylor, Kansas, and Oregon among others. In all cases there had to be an upgrade in talent, but at the start of it all the teams had to develop a strong base. The base is the line of scrimage. Both the OL and DL had to improve their performance for teams to move up the ranks. When Hayden Fry took over Iowa, he went out and recruited a bunch of big ugglies and soon had a 1,000 yard rusher. Until teams have solid line play, they can not compete with the top half of their conference.
So after 5 years with Coach Rhoads, where does ISU stand. Starting with the offense, I think they have done an adequate job of recruiting and bringing some good players with talent to play offensive line. The problem with the OL has been with the coaching and development. Coach Rhoads was not happy with his original OL coach and brought in Klenakis from Arkansas. He left after a year for a job with his previous head coach and a new OL coach was hired last year. The result is that over the last three years we have had three different coaches who have taught different techniques and have different terminology. This is not good for the development of a good OL. Additionally, the last two years, we have had several OL players injured some of whom have missed significant time. The result is that ISU has not had an effective rushing game for several years. Our passing game works when Richardson has time and can throw in rythym, but the best teams in our league figured that if they put pressure on Richardson, his completion percentage goes way down and he becomes a very average quarterback. As for the DL. The DL is one of the hardest positions to recruit. There are not that many good defensive tackles, and the good ones do not come to ISU. Additionally once you get a DT in college, they can be hard to keep in school. For the last several years, ISU has not had effective defensive lines. Opposing teams are not afraid to go on fourth and 1 situations. The last couple of years I have seen the DL run stunts from time to time. Teams sometimes run stunts against an offense, because they can not match up physically with the OL. Also, this year, the DL was not able to keep the OL off the linebackers, which resulted in giving up a lot of big plays. The DL was rarely able to put pressure on the QB on passing plays. ISU has some juco recruits coming in for next fall, and hopefully they will improve the level of play.
For ISU to move up in the league, they need better line play on both sides of the ball. If a team was turning itself around, you would see slight improvements in play from year to year. I have not seen that trend over the past 5 years. I thought there was a slight improvement in the OL last year but I thought the DL play was weaker. As they say on TV, sometimes its not the X's and O's, but the Jim's and the Joe's, and lately ISU has not had the Jim's and the Joe's playing for them.
So after 5 years with Coach Rhoads, where does ISU stand. Starting with the offense, I think they have done an adequate job of recruiting and bringing some good players with talent to play offensive line. The problem with the OL has been with the coaching and development. Coach Rhoads was not happy with his original OL coach and brought in Klenakis from Arkansas. He left after a year for a job with his previous head coach and a new OL coach was hired last year. The result is that over the last three years we have had three different coaches who have taught different techniques and have different terminology. This is not good for the development of a good OL. Additionally, the last two years, we have had several OL players injured some of whom have missed significant time. The result is that ISU has not had an effective rushing game for several years. Our passing game works when Richardson has time and can throw in rythym, but the best teams in our league figured that if they put pressure on Richardson, his completion percentage goes way down and he becomes a very average quarterback. As for the DL. The DL is one of the hardest positions to recruit. There are not that many good defensive tackles, and the good ones do not come to ISU. Additionally once you get a DT in college, they can be hard to keep in school. For the last several years, ISU has not had effective defensive lines. Opposing teams are not afraid to go on fourth and 1 situations. The last couple of years I have seen the DL run stunts from time to time. Teams sometimes run stunts against an offense, because they can not match up physically with the OL. Also, this year, the DL was not able to keep the OL off the linebackers, which resulted in giving up a lot of big plays. The DL was rarely able to put pressure on the QB on passing plays. ISU has some juco recruits coming in for next fall, and hopefully they will improve the level of play.
For ISU to move up in the league, they need better line play on both sides of the ball. If a team was turning itself around, you would see slight improvements in play from year to year. I have not seen that trend over the past 5 years. I thought there was a slight improvement in the OL last year but I thought the DL play was weaker. As they say on TV, sometimes its not the X's and O's, but the Jim's and the Joe's, and lately ISU has not had the Jim's and the Joe's playing for them.
