When Jaime Pollard came to ISU, our head football coach was Dan McCarney. Mac brought a TON of enthusiasm to the job, which was important because we were underdogs. Unfortunately, the underdog mentality can hurt you in the long run, like when you're a favorite to win the Big 12 North and you blow it for the second straight year.
Pollard's replacement of Mac with Gene Chizik after the 2006 debacle brought a huge change in the attitude of the program. Chizik had a winner's pedigree and didn't have any kind of underdog mentality at all. He made it clear early on that he wasn't going to "come down to (our) level", and we all knew ISU was a stepping stone job for him. His arrogance kept his attitude from really being a winning approach, which we saw both here and at Auburn after Gus Malzhan left.
When Auburn and Chizik got together and decided no one can win in Ames (even after two whole years of trying!), Pollard brought the attitude or culture of the program back in the direction of Coach Mac with Paul Rhoads. Like Mac, Coach Rhoads brought a lot of energy. Maybe everything wasn't always "tremendous", but we knew Rhoads was "proud" to be here. Also like Mac, Rhoads knew that ISU was a tough job, and he approached it as an underdog.
This time around with Matt Campbell, I think Pollard went a bit more in the Chizik direction while also trying to find someone who doesn't look down on the ISU job. Campbell has a winner's pedigree just like Chizik did, and "culture" is a big deal to him. Rather than talking about how we we need to change the culture however, Campbell talks about how great what we already have is. He has a young, fresh, positive outlook that seems to retain some of the positive energy of Mac and Rhoads while trying to drop the underdog mentality. I think we may already be seeing a little of that in his decision to recruit where he wants to recruit regardless of the perceived challenges. Whether Campbell's approach will pay off remains to be seen, but my initial reaction is positive.
Pollard's replacement of Mac with Gene Chizik after the 2006 debacle brought a huge change in the attitude of the program. Chizik had a winner's pedigree and didn't have any kind of underdog mentality at all. He made it clear early on that he wasn't going to "come down to (our) level", and we all knew ISU was a stepping stone job for him. His arrogance kept his attitude from really being a winning approach, which we saw both here and at Auburn after Gus Malzhan left.
When Auburn and Chizik got together and decided no one can win in Ames (even after two whole years of trying!), Pollard brought the attitude or culture of the program back in the direction of Coach Mac with Paul Rhoads. Like Mac, Coach Rhoads brought a lot of energy. Maybe everything wasn't always "tremendous", but we knew Rhoads was "proud" to be here. Also like Mac, Rhoads knew that ISU was a tough job, and he approached it as an underdog.
This time around with Matt Campbell, I think Pollard went a bit more in the Chizik direction while also trying to find someone who doesn't look down on the ISU job. Campbell has a winner's pedigree just like Chizik did, and "culture" is a big deal to him. Rather than talking about how we we need to change the culture however, Campbell talks about how great what we already have is. He has a young, fresh, positive outlook that seems to retain some of the positive energy of Mac and Rhoads while trying to drop the underdog mentality. I think we may already be seeing a little of that in his decision to recruit where he wants to recruit regardless of the perceived challenges. Whether Campbell's approach will pay off remains to be seen, but my initial reaction is positive.
