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When Legends Die

C

CYlent Bob

Well-Known Member
Aug 7, 2006
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The Winterset Metroplex
It's amazing to me to watch a coach or program lose their luster and slide downhill. They start out with fans wearing "In generic coach we trust" tee shirts and expressing undying loyalty to their gridiron or basketball leader, but as adversity mounts it starts to crumble.

Well-meaning parodies of their coaches annoying habits (i.e. gum-chomping, or lack of halftime adjustments) start to seep into the fanbase and the media, and the subordinates of the great man start to feel the heat first. Obviously, The Great Man cannot be responsible for the rot, so scapegoats are identified and "scaped". Sometimes repeatedly. Whether it's assistant coaches who couldn't coach the NY Giants to a win over the Ames Little Cyclones, or players who don't have the "character or emotional maturity" to honor their commitment to the program, the scapegoats are all there to take the fire, and take the fire they do.

When a portion of the fanbase starts to turn, it usually starts slowly but spreads until the fans choose sides and start to battle it out amongst themselves. Derogatory nicknames (like "Eddie Munster" or "Chewbacca") stick to the coach, and every move on their part gets picked apart. Even when the coach does something smart or even brilliant, they often don't get the appropriate credit because most of the fans figure it's "same tune, different verse". Even the coach's legitimate triumphs are diminished due to the "what have you done for me lately" attitude, and historical revisionism runs rampant. Heck, you might even see the feeble-minded former voice of a program get on the radio and reminisce about two phantom national championships from back in the days before television and polio vaccines. And the refs? Don't get me started on those booger-eating troglodytes.

Fans of the program start casting covetous eyes towards the next "Young Turk" moving his way through a lesser league, or latch onto a retread like Bobby Knight or Lou Holtz. They tell themselves (and anyone who will listen, especially sports talk radio listeners) that "everything would be okey dokey if they would just replace generic coach #1 with the new & improved generic coach #2.

If the coach has a long or large contract, buyouts get penciled out by nervous fans on bar napkins, the margins of gameday programs, or with chalk on the asphalt in the tailgating lots. Brainstorms whirl up with regards to "how will we get the buyout money?", and call-in show hosts don their "I'm not a lawyer, but I've seen a few episodes of Law & Order" hats and pontificate on the pitfalls or advantages of every idea.

Even if you're not a fan of the fanbase in turmoil, sometimes it can be painful to watch......






Ahhhhhh, who am I kidding. IT'S PRETTY COOL! Pass the popcorn please.

"I am SO proud to be your adequately compensated coach without ego issues who squeezes the most out of the players who sign with his program and reignites the fanbase with pride for the program"

I don't know if that will fit on a hat, but it might go on a t-shirt if you print it small enough.
 
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or sometimes an assistant coach tells you about a child being molested in your showers and you don't go to the police. Then the legend dies much quicker...


regardless, good write up.
 
Mr Janny said:
or sometimes an assistant coach tells you about a child being molested in your showers and you don't go to the police. Then the legend downs a handfull of vicodin chased with a big ol' swig of Southern Comfort, puts on a blindfold, and hops into a decrepit semi hauling a load of dynamite & rusty nails for a quick spin on the LA freeway much quicker...


regardless, good write up.
Click to expand...

FIFY
 
Seriously, I wouldn't put the Pedo State thing in the same category as a regular fanbase meltdown. At Pedo State, we had a grand jury suddenly pull back the curtain & reveal character flaws in the coach & administration that had been there for years. Sort of like suddenly finding out that your wife of 15 years was born a man.

I'm talking about a SLOW slide that divides the fanbase and entertains their enemies. Sort of like a fiberglass playground slide with a worn surface coat. The exposed fiberglass abrades your skin, but it also slows you down so that the pain lasts longer.

Also, it's inappropriate to drop a "pass the popcorn" reference when you're talking about what happened in the Penn State showers. Not even Clones21 would go there.
 
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Very true, Russ. It's the football equivalent of the Kubler-Ross model for the 7 stages of grief.
 
They have young talent. They'll get hungry again and they'll be back.
 
Doc said:
They have young talent. They'll get hungry again and they'll be back.
Click to expand...

I assume you're talking about the hawkeye cheerleading squad and their relationship with the Kinnick stadium corndog vendors.
 
Doc said:
They have young talent. They'll get hungry again and they'll be back.
Click to expand...

They HAD young talent a few years ago. Then their "young talent" flunked out, got multiple girlfriends pregnant simultaneously, got into trouble with Johnny Law, and otherwise decided "frak this noise, I'm outta here".

And OF COURSE they will get hungry again. Hello? Greg Davis? They've probably already eaten 25 gallons of hagen-daaz this morning, and the early NFL games are't even on yet.
 
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I think it all rides on what is reality? Can your fanbase accept "Rebuilding" or not? All preseason long Iowa fans have been told by those who were on the inside of the program that they needed to damper their expectations of this team. That the team was young. That there was alot of coaching transitions that were being made. That they lost alot of players due to the NFL and the court systems. Then came the news of endless strings of running backs being carted off the field, 1st string, 2nd string, 3rd string............

Yet the fan base REFUSED to listen. The fan base REFUSED to damper what was realistic. They went back into the annals of their minds to the seasons when Iowa started out slow and then went on to be in the top 10 convincing themselves that this was just a "Slow start", and KF will get it turned around. Then they started to see that perhaps it was a down season, again having to face reality they chose to BLAME rather then ACCEPT.

I would say sometimes coaching changes can be a good thing. (SEE ISU)
And sometimes they can be a bad thing (SEE Kansas)

I think that Iowa fans should take a good long hard look at KSTATE and see what happens when a program gets rid of it's coach that gave them success and then realizes it was the coach that brought it and run to hire him back.
 
GoClones123 said:
I think it all rides on what is reality? Can your fanbase accept "Rebuilding" or not? All preseason long Iowa fans have been told by those who were on the inside of the program that they needed to damper their expectations of this team. That the team was young. That there was alot of coaching transitions that were being made. That they lost alot of players due to the NFL and the court systems. Then came the news of endless strings of running backs being carted off the field, 1st string, 2nd string, 3rd string............

Yet the fan base REFUSED to listen. The fan base REFUSED to damper what was realistic. They went back into the annals of their minds to the seasons when Iowa started out slow and then went on to be in the top 10 convincing themselves that this was just a "Slow start", and KF will get it turned around. Then they started to see that perhaps it was a down season, again having to face reality they chose to BLAME rather then ACCEPT.

I would say sometimes coaching changes can be a good thing. (SEE ISU)
And sometimes they can be a bad thing (SEE Kansas)

I think that Iowa fans should take a good long hard look at KSTATE and see what happens when a program gets rid of it's coach that gave them success and then realizes it was the coach that brought it and run to hire him back.
Click to expand...

Are you kidding? Haven't you heard - Iowa's a Big 10 power, and Big 10 powers don't rebuild, they reload...
 
I think we need to cool our enthusiasm for their struggles right now. Yes, we won our interaction with them this year, which was the key thing. Thank goodness. But, in the end, it is just another W in the goal of a bowl game and national respectability, and things are never quite as good as they seem in the good times or as bad as they seem in the bad times when it comes to volatile human endeavors like college football.

I also want to point out to people, too: Iowa State had a relationship of hope and promise with a coach like this not too long ago. His name was Gene Chizik. Highly-regarded national name, one of the best assistant coaches in the country, part of "big time ball" at Auburn and Texas. The first year was rough, but people gave him a pass for a "lack of talent" from the end of the Danny Mac-era and for it being a transition year. He beat Iowa, after all, and won a few conference games and played Oklahoma tough. Sure, we lost to the likes of Northern Iowa and a MAC team that year, but it would all be better in the end.

Then 2009 happened.

Enjoy the Iowa struggles, yes, but they will be back. They've got too good of a base not to still be dangerous for awhile yet. "Permanent majorities" aren't a natural state of competitive systems--economic, political, or sport-related. Maybe it will not be in the next 2-3 years, or even under Coach Fz, but it can't last forever. We've been through the same things, and it isn't fun, even when it is truncated by outside circumstances (Chizik), and it is particularly "un-fun" when it becomes drawn out (see McD, Greg). Have this fun now, but, do remember, all glory is fleeting, and we might be feeling the same about Rhoads or Hoiberg at some point in the future, sadly.
 
Sigmapolis said:
I think we need to cool our enthusiasm for their struggles right now. Yes, we won our interaction with them this year, which was the key thing. Thank goodness. But, in the end, it is just another W in the goal of a bowl game and national respectability, and things are never quite as good as they seem in the good times or as bad as they seem in the bad times when it comes to volatile human endeavors like college football.

I also want to point out to people, too: Iowa State had a relationship of hope and promise with a coach like this not too long ago. His name was Gene Chizik. Highly-regarded national name, one of the best assistant coaches in the country, part of "big time ball" at Auburn and Texas. The first year was rough, but people gave him a pass for a "lack of talent" from the end of the Danny Mac-era and for it being a transition year. He beat Iowa, after all, and won a few conference games and played Oklahoma tough. Sure, we lost to the likes of Northern Iowa and a MAC team that year, but it would all be better in the end.

Then 2009 happened.

Enjoy the Iowa struggles, yes, but they will be back. They've got too good of a base not to still be dangerous for awhile yet. "Permanent majorities" aren't a natural state of competitive systems--economic, political, or sport-related. Maybe it will not be in the next 2-3 years, or even under Coach Fz, but it can't last forever. We've been through the same things, and it isn't fun, even when it is truncated by outside circumstances (Chizik), and it is particularly "un-fun" when it becomes drawn out (see McD, Greg). Have this fun now, but, do remember, all glory is fleeting, and we might be feeling the same about Rhoads or Hoiberg at some point in the future, sadly.
Click to expand...

I hope they won't be back but they will be: playing in a weak big 10 with January bowls will be enough for them to attract recruits and bandwagon fans as a program that consistently plays in New Year Bowls.
 
Sigmapolis said:
I think we need to cool our enthusiasm for their struggles right now. Yes, we won our interaction with them this year, which was the key thing. Thank goodness. But, in the end, it is just another W in the goal of a bowl game and national respectability, and things are never quite as good as they seem in the good times or as bad as they seem in the bad times when it comes to volatile human endeavors like college football.

I also want to point out to people, too: Iowa State had a relationship of hope and promise with a coach like this not too long ago. His name was Gene Chizik. Highly-regarded national name, one of the best assistant coaches in the country, part of "big time ball" at Auburn and Texas. The first year was rough, but people gave him a pass for a "lack of talent" from the end of the Danny Mac-era and for it being a transition year. He beat Iowa, after all, and won a few conference games and played Oklahoma tough. Sure, we lost to the likes of Northern Iowa and a MAC team that year, but it would all be better in the end.

Then 2009 happened.

Enjoy the Iowa struggles, yes, but they will be back. They've got too good of a base not to still be dangerous for awhile yet. "Permanent majorities" aren't a natural state of competitive systems--economic, political, or sport-related. Maybe it will not be in the next 2-3 years, or even under Coach Fz, but it can't last forever. We've been through the same things, and it isn't fun, even when it is truncated by outside circumstances (Chizik), and it is particularly "un-fun" when it becomes drawn out (see McD, Greg). Have this fun now, but, do remember, all glory is fleeting, and we might be feeling the same about Rhoads or Hoiberg at some point in the future, sadly.
Click to expand...

I get your point, but why? Iowa celebrates when ISU wallows in misery (no matter how much they downplay the importance of the rivalry). Why shouldn't we do the same? Raisin face didn't just kick ISU while we were down, he tried to make sure we would never recover. Once again - why shouldn't we do the same?
 
jdoggivjc said:
I get your point, but why? Iowa celebrates when ISU wallows in misery (no matter how much they downplay the importance of the rivalry). Why shouldn't we do the same? Raisin face didn't just kick ISU while we were down, he tried to make sure we would never recover. Once again - why shouldn't we do the same?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the people saying that we can't have fun with it are not being realistic. It's perfectly fine for one or the other to celebrate when the other falls on hard times (provided it's not death or disability or something).

But it's the one's that think the ISU fanbase is somehow different, that it doesn't/would never happen here that are complete idiots. (see McCarney, Dan; McDermott, Greg; Chizik, Gene).
 
Sigmapolis said:
I think we need to cool our enthusiasm for their struggles right now. Yes, we won our interaction with them this year, which was the key thing. Thank goodness. But, in the end, it is just another W in the goal of a bowl game and national respectability, and things are never quite as good as they seem in the good times or as bad as they seem in the bad times when it comes to volatile human endeavors like college football.

I also want to point out to people, too: Iowa State had a relationship of hope and promise with a coach like this not too long ago. His name was Gene Chizik. Highly-regarded national name, one of the best assistant coaches in the country, part of "big time ball" at Auburn and Texas. The first year was rough, but people gave him a pass for a "lack of talent" from the end of the Danny Mac-era and for it being a transition year. He beat Iowa, after all, and won a few conference games and played Oklahoma tough. Sure, we lost to the likes of Northern Iowa and a MAC team that year, but it would all be better in the end.

Then 2009 happened.

Enjoy the Iowa struggles, yes, but they will be back. They've got too good of a base not to still be dangerous for awhile yet. "Permanent majorities" aren't a natural state of competitive systems--economic, political, or sport-related. Maybe it will not be in the next 2-3 years, or even under Coach Fz, but it can't last forever. We've been through the same things, and it isn't fun, even when it is truncated by outside circumstances (Chizik), and it is particularly "un-fun" when it becomes drawn out (see McD, Greg). Have this fun now, but, do remember, all glory is fleeting, and we might be feeling the same about Rhoads or Hoiberg at some point in the future, sadly.
Click to expand...

Oh, grow a set.

You don't need to be logical and mature about the Hawks, just hate indiscriminately, talk trash, enjoy their failures, and pray the entire athletic program goes up in flames.
 
You have to take full advantage when the other guy gives you the opportunity. That's part of winning.

I've enjoyed the CMU victory from that perspective. It puts ISU in a better position for recruiting.

A lot of it has to do with momentum. The more they lose and have meltdowns, the less momentum their program retains. The opposite is also true.

Right now, our program has excitement and momentum while their program is on hard times. Its the best its ever been for Iowa State! Enjoy it! It means more fans, more ticket sales, more money, and better recruits.
 
I'm all for gloating at Iowa. That's fun. I've a non-alumnus set of cousins who are Iowa fans.

After the Iowa game, texting them: "Knott day!"

After the Iowa/CMU game, this morning, letting it marinate for awhile: "So how 'bout dem Hawks?"

But, stepping back a bit, regarding this hero worship and falls from grace within a fan base... we do it too. We exactly do it. Just trying to have some perspective here.
 
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