Coach Mac Will Be Great For You Guys

cyrocksmypants · November 28, 2010

It seems most of you are down on him as a hire, but I think when it's all said and done, most of you will change your tune. Mac is one of the best motivaters out there and if you talk to anyone that played for him, they would tell you that they'd run through a wall for him.

I know his overall record isn't great (although it's quite a bit better than what was reported) but take it with a grain of salt. He took an Iowa State team that was arguably one of the worst in Division 1A football as his first gig. His first teams were flat out terrible because he didn't just inherit a team with a bare cupboard, but he inherited a team where the cupboard was completely ripped off the wall. It took him a few years to get some players on those teams, but he eventually brought us to respectable standards. He still has taken ISU to more bowl games then every other coach at ISU combined. The only reason he isn't still at ISU is because he failed to recruit a kicker and it cost us a spot in the Big XII championship game two years in a row. I'm going to assume he's learned from that lesson.

Just give him a chance, I think he'll surprise a lot of you.

If any of you have any reasonable questions about him, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer for you.

NT03 · November 28, 2010

Did he address the Iowa State faithful after his incident with his ex wife ?

And do you really believe it was a one time thing ?

eulessismore · November 28, 2010

It seems most of you are down on him as a hire, but I think when it's all said and done, most of you will change your tune. Mac is one of the best motivaters out there and if you talk to anyone that played for him, they would tell you that they'd run through a wall for him.

I know his overall record isn't great (although it's quite a bit better than what was reported) but take it with a grain of salt. He took an Iowa State team that was arguably one of the worst in Division 1A football as his first gig. His first teams were flat out terrible because he didn't just inherit a team with a bare cupboard, but he inherited a team where the cupboard was completely ripped off the wall. It took him a few years to get some players on those teams, but he eventually brought us to respectable standards. He still has taken ISU to more bowl games then every other coach at ISU combined. The only reason he isn't still at ISU is because he failed to recruit a kicker and it cost us a spot in the Big XII championship game two years in a row. I'm going to assume he's learned from that lesson.

Just give him a chance, I think he'll surprise a lot of you.

If any of you have any reasonable questions about him, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer for you.

I think the ISU guy saying Mac would get us to a bowl in 3 or 4 years told us all we never wanted to hear.

untgirl04 · November 28, 2010

How does he motivate the team and fans? Is he a "prove all your nay-sayers wrong" kind of guy, or a guy who motivates by positive reinforcement?

What kinds of things does he do to motivate the fan base and generate interest for the school?

When he started at ISU, what was the average number of season tickets sold? When he left, what was the average number of season tickets sold?

KingDL1 · November 28, 2010

Thanks cyrocksmypants I am interested to learn more about Coach Mac.

cyrocksmypants · November 28, 2010

Whatever occured with his ex happened while he was at Wisconsin, so there was never a need to address the ISU faithful about it. In his time in Ames, he was a model citizen and an excellent ambassedor for the school and the community.

He was definitely a positive re-enforcer. You'll probably never hear him publicly call people out. If something has to be taken care of, it'll be done behind closed doors, like it should be.

I don't know about ticket sales, but I'm pretty sure we broke our sales records a couple of times while he was our coach.

One of Mac's best traits is that he's an excellent fundraiser. He's great at selling what he's got and getting people to buy into what he's trying to sell them.

NT80 · November 28, 2010

Whatever occured with his ex happened while he was at Wisconsin, so there was never a need to address the ISU faithful about it. In his time in Ames, he was a model citizen and an excellent ambassedor for the school and the community.

He was definitely a positive re-enforcer. You'll probably never hear him publicly call people out. If something has to be taken care of, it'll be done behind closed doors, like it should be.

I don't know about ticket sales, but I'm pretty sure we broke our sales records a couple of times while he was our coach.

One of Mac's best traits is that he's an excellent fundraiser. He's great at selling what he's got and getting people to buy into what he's trying to sell them.

Thanks for the reports. It is a difficult time for the fanbase here with a popular interim coach and big name coaches available. We want to be part of the process but...

cyrocksmypants · November 28, 2010

NT80, I completely understand. We learned the hard way that sometimes the flashy pick isn't the best one when we hired Gene Chizik. He was terrible for the school, for the fanbase and for the team at Iowa State, as well being a terrible coach. It's scary to see how good Cam Newton is by overcoming Gene Chizik, and a lot of people will see next year how bad of a coach he actually is when he loses Newton and his offensive coordinator takes a HC job. But I digress...my point is, in a rebuilding mode, you need a guy who will be happy to get his hands dirty, not one who looks good on the sideline.

forevereagle · November 28, 2010

Does he prefer boxers or briefs?

eulessismore · November 28, 2010

NT80, I completely understand. We learned the hard way that sometimes the flashy pick isn't the best one when we hired Gene Chizik. He was terrible for the school, for the fanbase and for the team at Iowa State, as well being a terrible coach. It's scary to see how good Cam Newton is by overcoming Gene Chizik, and a lot of people will see next year how bad of a coach he actually is when he loses Newton and his offensive coordinator takes a HC job. But I digress...my point is, in a rebuilding mode, you need a guy who will be happy to get his hands dirty, not one who looks good on the sideline.

??? I'll say one thing about Chizik; y'all managed to get him out of town. Honestly, though, if McCarney gets us to winning starting next year, we'll all like him.

cyrocksmypants · November 28, 2010

As for his philosophies, on offense he likes to run the ball. There was a little guy at Iowa State named Troy Davis. In 96 he was second runner up (I believe) in the Heisman race and is still the only running back in NCAA history to get over 2,000 yards twice in a career. That being said, Mac usually will try to play to the strength of the team. When we had Sage Rosenfels and Seneca Wallace at quarterback, we tended to throw the ball more.

On defense, he always ran a 4-3 defense that tended to be designed to stop the run. He's had some defensive players have decent careers in the pros, more recently being Ellis Hobbs and Tim Dobbins.

As for special teams, is there really a special teams philosophy? He didn't really do a lot of fakes, and he's recruited some pretty good punters, but kickers were his weakness here, as stated before. If we'd have had a decent scholarship kicker on the team, we likely would have gone to the Big XII championship in both 2004 and 2005. That being said, he's a smart man and I can't see him making that mistake again.

Boxers or briefs, he's not young, and he's hard-nosed, so I'd guess he's a tighty whitey type of guy.

Zeke · November 28, 2010

Did he have some nifty binders and notebooks to show RV he means business?

NT03 · November 28, 2010

As for his philosophies, on offense he likes to run the ball. There was a little guy at Iowa State named Troy Davis. In 96 he was second runner up (I believe) in the Heisman race and is still the only running back in NCAA history to get over 2,000 yards twice in a career. That being said, Mac usually will try to play to the strength of the team. When we had Sage Rosenfels and Seneca Wallace at quarterback, we tended to throw the ball more.

On defense, he always ran a 4-3 defense that tended to be designed to stop the run. He's had some defensive players have decent careers in the pros, more recently being Ellis Hobbs and Tim Dobbins.

As for special teams, is there really a special teams philosophy? He didn't really do a lot of fakes, and he's recruited some pretty good punters, but kickers were his weakness here, as stated before. If we'd have had a decent scholarship kicker on the team, we likely would have gone to the Big XII championship in both 2004 and 2005. That being said, he's a smart man and I can't see him making that mistake again.

Boxers or briefs, he's not young, and he's hard-nosed, so I'd guess he's a tighty whitey type of guy.

Troy Davis was one of my favorite players growing up , a real stud

eulessismore · November 28, 2010

As for his philosophies, on offense he likes to run the ball. There was a little guy at Iowa State named Troy Davis. In 96 he was second runner up (I believe) in the Heisman race and is still the only running back in NCAA history to get over 2,000 yards twice in a career. That being said, Mac usually will try to play to the strength of the team. When we had Sage Rosenfels and Seneca Wallace at quarterback, we tended to throw the ball more.

On defense, he always ran a 4-3 defense that tended to be designed to stop the run. He's had some defensive players have decent careers in the pros, more recently being Ellis Hobbs and Tim Dobbins.

As for special teams, is there really a special teams philosophy? He didn't really do a lot of fakes, and he's recruited some pretty good punters, but kickers were his weakness here, as stated before. If we'd have had a decent scholarship kicker on the team, we likely would have gone to the Big XII championship in both 2004 and 2005. That being said, he's a smart man and I can't see him making that mistake again.

Boxers or briefs, he's not young, and he's hard-nosed, so I'd guess he's a tighty whitey type of guy.

Do you think he'll keep Mike Nelson as D-line coach?

cyrocksmypants · November 28, 2010

If it's the same Mike Nelson that used to coach for him, it's possible. I don't think Mac will fire everybody just to get "his own people" in there. Each coach will be reviewed and determined if they'll work for his philosophy or if they'll buy in to it.

A lot of ISU fans are hoping he brings in Austin Flynn as a position coach. He's a former ISU player with a high football IQ (and also a fan favorite) who is from Texas and is currently coaching in Texas at a high school.

VideoEagle · November 28, 2010

If it's the same Mike Nelson that used to coach for him, it's possible. I don't think Mac will fire everybody just to get "his own people" in there. Each coach will be reviewed and determined if they'll work for his philosophy or if they'll buy in to it.

A lot of ISU fans are hoping he brings in Austin Flynn as a position coach. He's a former ISU player with a high football IQ (and also a fan favorite) who is from Texas and is currently coaching in Texas at a high school.

That is probably the wrong phrase to use with us right now. Although a HD coach moving to a POSITION coach with experienced coaches around him often works out well.

cyrocksmypants · November 28, 2010

Oh, I agree, and I think he's a coordinator right now. Logically, it would be an appropriate transition to a smaller school position coach. I'm not saying it would happen, I just feel that his football knowledge is so great that he could be successful at it, and he couldn't get much more of a better opportunity, with his old coach getting a head coaching gig in his home state.

eulessismore · November 28, 2010

If it's the same Mike Nelson that used to coach for him, it's possible. I don't think Mac will fire everybody just to get "his own people" in there. Each coach will be reviewed and determined if they'll work for his philosophy or if they'll buy in to it.

A lot of ISU fans are hoping he brings in Austin Flynn as a position coach. He's a former ISU player with a high football IQ (and also a fan favorite) who is from Texas and is currently coaching in Texas at a high school.

Many of us have no use for him, and yes, he's "that" Mike Nelson.

cyrocksmypants · November 30, 2010

It looks like a lot of you have kind of changed your tune to Mac. I had a sneaking suspicion that if he wasn't crucified by the NT faithful before his press conference that he'd win the majority of you over. I'm glad to see you're giving him a shot, and as I've said before, I think he'll be a great fit for all of you.