I’m a little late in my reaction to the ISU football coaching fiasco that has taken place over the past couple of weeks.  When I first read that Gene Chizik was interviewing for the head coaching job at Auburn, I honestly thought it was just a rumor.  I also thought it was a combination of hilarious and ridiculous. I mean, Gene Chizik was trotted out as Iowa State’s new football savior as he was replacing Dan Mac.  Since coming to Iowa State, he has compiled a record of 5-19 and lost ten straight.  There really hasn’t been any sign of progress since he took over at ISU.  In fact, if anything, the football program seemed to take steps backward this past year.  Still, I kept the faith and thought that he was a good coach who was just going through growing pains of starting to build his program the way he wanted.  Then, I read that he was not only offered the Auburn job but accepted it, as well.

As with most everything pertaining to loss, my first reaction was one of anger.  I knew Chizik was likely using ISU as a stepping stone to a bigger job, but I always envisioned it happening after helping put Iowa State back in a position of being a halfway decent Big XII football school.  Instead, he left ISU in arguably worse shape than when he took it over. After reading the thoughts of Auburn fans about the hiring, my frown was quickly turned upside down.  Auburn fans are not at all happy that they fired Tuberville for Chizik.  Knowing the my loss wasn’t anyone elses gain made me realize that the whole thing was probably a blessing in disguise for my alma mater.  Had Chizik not shown any signs of progress next year, there’s a real possibility that he would have been on the hot seat.  Instead, another school paid to take him off our hands, and we were able to start moving in the right direction earlier than planned.

Speculation was everywhere that ISU was going to hire Turner Gill, a former Nebraska coordinator and current coach of Buffalo.  There were also rumors that we’d go after Gary Pattersen of TCU and even Tuberville himself.  Naturally, when I heard Paul Rhoads was going to be the new head coach, I was a little disappointed.  With Chizik, I felt like we had pulled off a huge upset to land the guy.  Rhoads, not so much.  The more I’ve read about him and let it sink in, I think he could end up being a really great fit to the program, and I’m excited to see how things go with him.

The reason all of this is frustrating to me is because, when I was in college, Iowa State was a legitimate threat in both football and basketball.  In basketball, we won the Big XII Championship half of the years I was in college.  In football, we had a Heisman Trophy candidate in Seneca Wallace and were ranked #9 in the country at one point.  Other teams feared playing us.  And it was an awesome thing to be a part of at the time.  Now, however, Iowa State is viewed as a cakewalk on anyone’s schedule.  Everyone sees ISU as an automatic win whether it’s in football or basketball.  In fact, there are people I know who went to KU, MU, and K-State who forget that ISU is in their same conference.  When I say I went to Iowa State, they oftentimes confuse the Cyclones with the state-rival Hawkeyes.  It drives me nuts.  Hopefully this coaching change is a step in the right direction.

Now if only we could do something about our basketball program…