State of the Union: Iowa State
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January 24, 2007 by
The third in a 12-part series on the state of the Big 12.
Iowa State did the right thing in firing Dan McCarney. After some success (by ISU standards), the Cyclones began backsliding to the bottom of the conference. The recruiting was bad and the performance on the field no better.
Coach Chizik arrived late to the recruiting party, but has yet to land a major standout recruit. Early recruiting rankings for 2007 have ISU dead last in the Big 12. That has to change in 2007-2008 or else Chizik will find his ISU program stuck in second gear, just as McCarney did.
ISU has a long way to go before it can become a program that attracts big name recruits. But considering how modest recruiting has been in the Big 12 North, there's no reason it has to be dead last. Chizik had better be a guy that can get kids to overachieve because the underachieving in recruiting to date will mean it's years before the Cyclones take the field with the kind of athletes that can win the Big 12.
Many see Chizik's hiring as a turning point. That it will rally ISU fans and boosters to invest in building a competitive program. But he hasn't been quick out of the gate at this very early point in time. Plenty of time to make things better, but so far he's done nothing to disprove my assertions that he is not the recruiter that ISU needs.
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gregory Jan 24 07
Of Big XII North teams that have beaten us (complete with goal posts going down) since '01, Iowa st. was the team that climbed the highest, relative to the valley below. There is absolutely one reason why. Dan McCarney. Their stadium should be named: "Dan McCarney Stadium". Or Dan McCarney field, or pressbox- something.
Other than that, they will become an easy victory again, home or away and draw a few players from Omaha (that we don't want}.