Pollard Now On The Hot Seat » Brats & Beer

November 9, 2006
posted under: Dan McCarney, Iowa State football, Jamie Pollard

I suppose there are some people out there in Cyclone Nation shedding a tear for Dan McCarney, who officially resigned yesterday as head football coach at Iowa State, but I can’t say that I’m one of them. The writing has been on the wall for a few weeks now, and the 41-10 loss to Kansas just provided the right circumstances to finally go ahead and do it. So now that it’s done, let’s move on.

I know that might sound kind of cold, but I feel like I’ve eulogized the guy enough already. He was a good coach who took a bad program and made it look halfway respectable, but in the end the Cyclones still lost a lot of games they could have — and should have — won, and they never won the big games they needed to. The change needed to be made.

Few ADs ever have to hire a new men’s basketball coach and a new football coach in the same year during their tenure, let alone during the first 18 months of their career, so this will really be a defining moment for the energetic Jamie Pollard. He came into the job last year full of big ideas for improving Iowa State athletics and now he has a chance to make the program in his own image. Of course that means responsibility for success or failure now truly rests on his shoulders.

As for possible candidates, Pollard needs to find a coach with experience at the Division I-A level who can recruit in the places that ISU needs to recruit. His short list also needs to include people who can do a lot with a little since the Cyclones don’t stand much chance of poaching top-notch talent away from the football factory universities, at least to start with anyway. It is nice to know, though, that Pollard has a relationship with Barry Alvarez from his days as deputy AD at Wisconsin. I hope he uses that powerful resource over the next few months fielding resumes for the job.