Two years ago when Pollard hired Chizik, I loved the hire. I knew and understood Chizik's motivation for taking the position as a steppingstone. If I would have known Chizik would be coaching at Auburn two years after being at Iowa State, I probably still would have accepted the hire. Why? No one certainly could have believed Chizik would be here forever, and for Chizik to be the head guy at a perennial SEC power, surely would have meant he proved something at ISU. He did not however prove much, although I am still confident he could have turned it around. I am somewhat upset at the outrage from some of the ISU fans. There is not a single fan that can tell me they would not take over a one million dollar pay raise and a promotion to your dream job after performing sub-par at their current position. I feel for the recruits, most of which, would not even have considered ISU, let alone sign a letter of intent to play four years here. This recruiting class had to think Chizik would be there at least for their time at ISU. I think Chizik can be successful at Auburn, and I hope for his family's sake he is not a complete bust. Afterall, Chizik did do this for his family. I don't believe that for one second. With Chizik gone, and the verdict still out on him, Pollard is given a mulligan. The pressure is entirely on him now, for this hire to be a success. With that being said, I think he should listen to coaches who actively want to be at ISU.
Two years ago Brian Kelly and Jim Harbaugh threw their names in the hat for the ISU job. Pollard did not like the fact that these coaches made themselves candidates. I guess I can agree with him, I mean who wants a coach that feels they are qualified and can turn around a program that most people consider "career suicide". People Pollard needs to at least interview:
Steve Loney- considers ISU his "dream job" -not often you hear that
Bob Elliot- also considers ISU a dream job, although used differnt words
Turner Gill-give him an interview, if he even wants one
There are other candidates out there as well. Don't bring in another coordinator, minus Charlie Strong.
Longshots that Pollard needs to at least survey for interest.
Tuberville...Great coach, has recruits with a chip on their shoulder toward Auburn....He's not coming here though.
Gary Patterson...Another good coach, just beat ISU in the Houston Bowl in 2005 and is probably looking for a better job than State.
Brian Kelly...could easily be here right now, already has said he is staying at Cincinatti and took his name out of the Tennessee running. He is on to something with that Big East automatic BCS bid.
Chris Peterson...Couldn't think of a better coach available right now. He might like the chance to rival with his predecessor Dan Hawkins.
One thing I am thankful for after all of this is that Chizik left. When the rumors started, it would have been mighty tough to reunit that locker room.
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I'd agree with you about being okay with the Chizik hire. With McCarney the program was stagnant. You're right with the goal of hiring Chizik. You'd hope that he'd stay for about 4 years, bring in some recruits, find a couple decent coordinators and leave the program better than he found it. He knew, like Iowa State fans, that even if he had a couple reasonably decent years (.500 and one bowl) that still probably wouldn't be enough for everyone to turn on him. That's a perfect situation to leave. If everything is going to crap around you, and you get offered a job that's at least twice as good, you've got to take it.
I wouldn't underestimate the money part. Even if he only lasts two years at Auburn, that's still 2.5 Mil more than he would have made at ISU. He can always go back to being a coordinator or something after that.
After demoting his coordinators, and firing position coaches, there isn't much to keep players at ISU. That's the worst part. Young players probably look at ISU, and don't see much more than being able to play at college. Which is too bad. Iowa State might not have a ton of players in the NFL, but there's a precedent. Sage has started games at QB the last 4 years and will likely be wanted as a backup as long as he wants to play. Seneca started and won a game last weekend. Ellis Hobbs was a starter on a championship Patriots team. If you're good, you'll play a lot at ISU, in the best conference in NCAA football. The same can't be said about places like Texas or USC.
Pollard messed up the football and basketball hirings when he first started. Don't fire someone before you have a replacement. Now he's in a tough spot. ISU wasn't able to succeed even though they didn't play the 3 best teams in the Big 12. The publicity around the Chizik hiring won't make it any easier.
Pollard should poll the coaches you mentioned, but not publicly. The best shot would be Loney. He has head coaching experience, coaching experience in the state, position and coordinator experience, NFL experience and wants to coach at ISU. He's older, which might not appeal to 18 year olds, but I could see him bringing in some talented, young coordinators and position coaches. Even if you lost position coaches every year, it would be a way to bring in recruits and keep them through stability in the head coach position.
An interesting side to this is Tuberville. This seems very similar to the Solich firing at Nebraska. I wouldn't be surprised to see Tuberville suffer the same fate. Just like Solich, that would be unfortunate. In a conference full of arrogant coaches and outrageous fan bases, Tuberville was always a class act.
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