The Fake Lonnie Finch

I love those helmets. They're still my favorite. Love that shade of green, the wide stripes on the pants. I miss those uniforms.

If we get a good TE/FB/UB-type JUCO signed, I'll bet he moves back. Although, Canales likes him, and the offense did well while he was in there, so...I bet Coach Chico fights for him. What I like is the fact that he has the speed to play on offense, but could go back to defense. TCU and Oklahoma have each turned running backs into linebackers who have been very successful for them. I like that Prior appears to be that kind of talent... ...we'll need those speedy linebacker type for when McCarney gets us into the Big 12 Hey...don't laugh...old Big 8/12 dog Donnie Duncan was in the room at McCarney's intro presser. Neinas has deep Big 12 ties as well. Maybe the three of them end all of our Sun Belt/CUSA/WAC/MWC discussions and we move right to the front of the line within the next decade!

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/AMA/recruiting_calendars/2010/DI/Color/Football%20Color.pdf http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/AMA/recruiting_calendars/2010/DI/Guides/Football%20Guide.pdf "Charts is fun." -Weatherman

I think December 15th is the JUCO signing date. Interested to see who, if anyone, is signed by that date. It would be nice to have a lineman or two on both sides of the ball go through spring practice.

Leach gets what he deserves for lawyering up to the hilt instead of settling the matters behind closed doors. I believe Texas Tech did not deal with him squarely at the time he signed the contract. But, when the Adam James thing blew up - and, Leach helped it blow up - he should have cut a deal with the university and gone on his way. The problem with these situations is that you can win legally and still end up losing. Jim Leavitt and Mike Leach have let attorneys talk them into fighting when the better course, over time, would have been to settle out and move on. The question to ask is - do you want to be legally right, or do you want to be employable? Schools don't want any hint of NCAA scrutiny. They also don't want to tie up their funds in lawsuits. There are better uses for the money. The end results is, schools are not going to stick their necks out for coaches whose actions may invite NCAA scrutiny, lawsuits, or both. There are too many other coaches in the available coaching pools who will not bring those kinds of troubles and time wastes. Jim Leavitt and Mike Leach need to really step back away from the trees and look at the forest. That will include the need to fire their attorneys, make apologies, and show that they are willing to pay the price in humility to get back in the game. As long as they are listening to their attorneys, it will never happen.

It's just a bowl game. It holds nowhere near the importance of a high school championship game.

Yes! Anyone who played at Nebraska in the 80s is going to be quality.

I think those who didn't think McCarney was a big hire/splash hire only view a small portion of the total college football picture. Unless you really knew how down Iowa, Wisconsin, and Iowa State were before McCarney helped rebuild them, you wouldn't know. I think people in this region tend to look only to schools like Oklahoma, Texas, LSU, etc. What McCarney did in Ames with Iowa State did not go unnoticed to the rest of the college football world, even if few here peeked outside of their little football corners to see what was happening outside the state or region. Is it ironic or coincidental that McCarney is replacing Todd Dodge, the quarterback his Iowa defensive line helped demolish during the Hawkeyes' 55-17 Freedom Bowl win over the Longhorns in 1984? That evening's line for the Texas QBs: Todd Dodge, 11 rushes for -23 yards, 16 or 32 passing for 180 yards, 2 tds, 2 ints; Danny Akers 1 for 2 passing for 5 yards.

Iowa and Wisconsin changed their unis when McCarney was there. It was Hayden Fry who changed the Iowa logo to help change the culture of the program. Alvarez then did the same at Wisconsin. Bill Synder did it at K-State. And, McCarney did it at Iowa State. I think we're going to see change in the uniforms for sure. Iowa and K-State got PowerHawkeye and PowerCat logo. Wisconsin got the big, flying W. Iowa State got a Cyclone with their bird mascot in it. Eager to see what we get. http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/

Can't wait for the recruiting, man! I think McCarney and Canales start getting some recruiting wins versus border state non-AQs like Tulsa, La. Tech, and ULM. Actually, I think they'll nip the toes of guys who are being strung along by SEC and Big 12 schools. You know, the ones they tell to wait until Signing Day, then leave behind.

"Your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance, well, they're...no friends of mine!"

They should be more miffed about wasting $2 million dollars on the windmills that will take 60 to 120 years to pay for themselves. Any mention of that in the article?

It's not just Iowa State. He was part of Hayden's Fry rebuilding of Iowa that resulted in Big Ten titles and Rose Bowl berths. Ditto with Wisconsin. Really, the Florida gig he just left is the only job he's ever had where the school was already winning regularly. The bottom line is, he's been on the inside of steep building jobs before. And, he's done it in the Big Ten and Big 12. I can't fathom a scenario where the Sun Belt is going to pose much of a problem for him. Darrell Dickey pulled some guys from out of state that excelled here. I believe McCarney will do it as well. Decades and decades ago, schools with recruiting disadvantages such as Oklahoma and Nebraska went nationwide. They had they had a disadvantage from a population standpoint. We've had the disadvantage of being low man on the totem pole for decades in our own state with top flight high school talent. I think McCarney ends that by going outside the borders and tapping into the contacts he established here long ago. The thing I recall about McCarney's time in Iowa is when Merton Hanks from our RISD rival Lake Highlands signed with the Hawkeyes back in 1987. Hayden Fry created the pipline from Texas to Iowa, and McCarney was there in the teeth of it. This is a really solid hire. The guy is legitimate. I'm eager to see who he hires as assistants. I'm also eager to see what he can do in the early JUCO signing period.

Dan McCarney could turn us into a monster. You have to consider that at Iowa State he had several factors working against him: -Smallest budget in the Big 12 -Took over a team going into the Big 12 North which included four teams that had just finished with 10 wins seasons and Top 10 finishes (1995: Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, and Kansas State all won 10 or more and games and all finished in the AP Top 10). -Inherited a team that had gone 0-10-1 the season before he arrived. -Ames, Iowa is in the middle of nowhere and the best players from the state usually went to Iowa or Nebraska. McCarney did what I've long argued we should do - he went out of state to recruit. The guy pounded Texas and Florida. He pulled Seneca Wallace out of California. He basically took Iowa State from an afterthought to a legitimate player for talent in many regions of the country. He's a hard worker. To pull Iowa State from where they were to the point where they went to five bowl games and beat Iowa five seasons in a row, is really, just a notch below what Bill Snyder did at K-State and Gary Barnett did at Northwestern. He took a perennial loser with very little football history and made them legitimately competitive. Having McCarney in the DFW area with the new stadium, with his nationwide recruiting reputation, this thing could take off really quickly. I think we had the best coaching staff in the Sun Belt this year. It will be unarguably the best next year. This really is an exciting hire!

I think it's Lance Dunbar and Abner Haynes. They played in completely different eras, so it's hard to compare them. Haynes was really good. Pegram was the man my first year at UNT, and he eaked out a pretty good pro career.

I hope Canales and Conroy Hines are kept. Hines was calling the plays the last five games. Kudos to Canales and Hines for reformulating the offense on the fly. They played to our roster's strengths and - surprise, surprise - it worked.

Positive about McCarney...points out the obvious: first time in a long time we've hired a football coach who has been a college head football coach before. Also, mentioned two of the prior four hires being high school coaches. We're finally going in the right direction.

Yeah. Sounds like a few people at the station haven't been there in a while - they didn't know The Flying Tomato was completely gone.

Junior doesn't mention Riprocks or Ricks. Odd.

Well...Boise State has finally hit the big time - the fan base has become ungrateful. Happens to all big time programs. Next thing you know, Boise will lose a second game and they'll be calling for Coach Petersen's head.

Okay. But...is it okay if Mike Canales doesn't get a head coaching this year? I mean, I wanted him hired here, but there reality was that Rick and Rawlins had probably had discussions prior to the season about the possibility of Dodge failure and firing. So, they likely already had a list of potentials that they contacted when they canned Dodge. Again, I was for keeping Canales, but my guess is wheels were already in motion when he surprisingly won two of his first three. There would be nothing wrong with him staying here or going somewhere else next year as a coordinator. His credentials won't be any worse for it, and probably will be better if his offenses continue to do well. Let's also not forget that when Canales became head coach, he gave the play calling to Conroy Hines. Canales did a good job pulling the team together from a motivational stand point. But, we need to give credit all the way around on a surprisingly good finish. Best of luck always to Coach Canales and Coach Hines, whether they are kept here or go elsewhere. Both did a great job here.

I'm not normally one for hyperbole, but I voted yes as well.

Obsess much? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afViRNSr5wg Anyway, what transpired in the discussion is what has transpired in reality - Dodge, Ford, and the amateurs were shown the door, and Rick (or Rawlins and Rick, it doesn't really matter) hired a real college coach with decades of experience in rebuilding jobs.

This isn't unusual. He called me two years ago after ferreting my cell phone number off a guy who had pm'ed me for it under false pretenses. He gave me sort of a lecture about Todd Dodge; but, I mean, Lord...I told him that as a former coach, he surely should have known better than to (1) hire him in the first place, and (2) then, let him bring on so many inexperienced assistants. The thing is, you have to be careful about who you communicate with on this board. Rick does have his moles. At one point after Darrell DIckey waas fired, one of them followed my posts obsessively and accused me of being linebacker coach Kenny Evans. Say what you will, Rick Villareal can't be accused of not keeping it real with the peeps. But, truth be told, he really doesn't need to employ moles. I'm sure any of us would be happy to talk to him without the whole Spy Vs Spy set up. For the record, RV Moles, I'm 164% on board with the McCarney hire. You can tell him. He's also still welcome to come by for lunch when he's in Dallas. Just give me a half hour to an hour heads up.

Two big JUCO DLs, and two big JUCO OLs, and one or two JUCO QBs. Remember, Seneca Wallace was a JUCO QB get for McCarney back in 2001...and out of California, no less! Two or three high school DLs and OLs...and one or two JUCO QBs. I also like that McCarney gave a kid from Granbury a shot back in the day: http://www.cyclones.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10700&ATCLID=325050