BREAKING: McCarney out at ISU

Terry Allen is available. Maybe he can keep Iowa State in the basement like he did at Kansas for so long. [/disgruntled looserboy]

 

This is too bad. A friend of mine has a very close connection to the program, which was invisible before McCarney got there. Records don't lie, but the truth is that it will take a lot more resources to reach another level in football.

 

Remember the days when Iowa State had a pretty damn lengthy losing streak going on? They'd regularly get thumped by the Big 8 teams by 40-odd points and had trouble beating even 1-AA programs.

 

A clutch kicker and ISU wins the Big 12 North each of the last two seasons. Iowa fucking State, the poorest school in the Big 12 surrounded by Iowa and Nebraska.

Was 8 wins the best McCarney could offer? Yep. Can anyone do much better in Ames? Nope.

 

Back when Jim Criner was running Iowa State into the ground in the '80s Iowa reguarly ran up Sun Belt-level asswhippings on ISU. It was a glorified spring game with 60,000 people in attendance.

In '85, the year Iowa spent a good portion of the year at No. 1, the game was at Iowa State and was being televised. Iowa so thoroughly dominated the Cyclones that TV was using every single filler they could think of.

At that time Iowa State had a cannon they would fire everytime they scored. Iowa was up like 56-0 early in the fourth quarter and they threw it down to the sideline guy who was with the kid in charge of the cannon.

The TV guy said something like "Not much for you to do today, huh?"

"Yeah. I'm thinking about lighting this thing off if we can get a first down."

THAT was Iowa State football prior to Dan McCarney.

 

The first college football game I ever attended was Iowa-Iowa State in 1987. My dad got us two tickets, and we watched Iowa whip the 'Clones 49-3.
I agree with Armchair - THAT was Iowa State football. McCarney made ISU respectable, which is pretty impressive considering he was recruiting to a wind-tunnel stadium with below-average facilities in freaking Ames, Iowa, which is by no means a cultural hotbed.
McCarney actually scared Iowa - beat them like three, four years in a row at one point, I think. He has Hawk fans' respect, which is no easy matter considering he works at Iowa State. I know he has this Hawk fan's respect.
Jamie Pollard is a grim reaper of an AD. I understand he wants to use football as an engine for his facility improvements, but he seems pretty heartless.
And, reallly, who is Iowa State going to get that's better than McCarney?
This is going to wind up like Ole Miss firing David Cutcliffe after 1 down season. Look where that's gotten them.

 

You know exactly what it was like, BigRed and Armchair. Watching those ISU teams of Criner and Walden was the butt of every joke from Sioux City to Burlington. At times, I started to feel sorry for the late Pete Taylor and Eric Heft for sitting through one disaster after another at Jack Trice, while Johnny Orr was the king of Hilton Coliseum.

McCarney, after a few hard-knocks years, made them respectable enough that I started to appreciate them and root for them. BigRed, Mac beat Iowa 5 times, in a row.

 

Thanks for the correction, D-3, on the 'Clones' win streak. I guess like any unpleasant memory, I'd buried it deep in my mind.
But yes, ISU football was the biggest joke in the state of Iowa for many years. Now, it's respectable.
I think this is a mistake for Pollard and ISU.

 

They gave it their fullhearted shot against Iowa City this year, but it wasn't enough. After
that effort, they were through.

 

I try to bury those memories as a Hawkeye fan, but I can't live in denial for so long.

The 2002 (?) game at Kinnick is a classic example of today's ISU. Iowa up 24-7 at halftime, and Gary Dolphin and Ed Podolak are interviewing former alums. Podolak is caught saying "see you at the party" as the guest leaves the booth. State comes out in the second half and kicks Iowa's ass up and down the field to win 36-31. If that was Walden, that sumbitch would cheerfully wave the white flag after the first drive of the football game.

Pollard better hit a home run with this one, because McDermott and Sanderson has yet to coach a single game or match (sans exhibition) and the fans think those two hires were grand slams.

 

I think you have to have grown up in Iowa, or at least lived there, to truly appreciate what a recruiting disadvantage McCarney worked under when he went up against Iowa for in-state kids.

The state doesn't turn out a lot of I-A talent, though the numbers have grown over the years, but Iowa always got the lion's share of it, with Nebraska cherry-picking a few kids now and then.

The U of I is in Iowa City, which isn't a bad college town, but it won't make anybody forget places like Tuscaloosa, Tempe or any of other great college location.

Ames on the other hand is an absolute shithole located on the prairie in central Iowa. It makes Iowa City look like Chicago by comparison.

Add the fact that Iowa has far and away the better stadium, facilities and fan support and is closer to most of the good talent in the state and it's amazing McCarney got any in-state kids at all.

I think the other reason Iowa fans respected him was because he's one of them. He played there in the '70s and grew up in Iowa City. Plus he coached for Bob Commings and Hayden Fry.

It'd be a nice FU to the ISU AD for him to roll into Ames next year as Iowa's defensive coordinator if Norm Parker retires.

 

I remember that 2002 game (watched it on tape in horror after covering another game that night), but 1998 - the year the 'Clones broke the 15-game losing streak against Iowa - really sticks with me.
I was a junior at Iowa that year - stumbled home at 3:30-4 a.m. the night before drunk as hell. Had tickets, but woke up at 10 a.m. realizing there was no way I was making an 11 a.m. kickoff. Went and watched it at a friend's keg party hung over as hell.
By halftime, reality had set in and I chugged down a hair-of-the-dog beer that barely stayed down... but I knew I had to get drunk to deal with what turned out to be a 27-9 loss.
I got wasted that afternoon, went home, took a nap (passed out is more like it), woke up, found another party, and kept right on going. Horrible, horrible day.
And you're right... this better be a good hire for Pollard. He doesn't have much choice.