Cyclones feeling confident with Chizik on board

Iowa State decided to raid the coaching staff of Big-12 power Texas for its' next boss.

In defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, they grab one hot name, a man who was the leader of dominating units on powerful teams in Austin and before that, Auburn.

On paper, it looks like an excellent hire for the Cyclones

Time, however, will tell.

Just ask Colorado fans about Dan Hawkins, a winning machine before jumping into the mess that was Buff football.

The Black and Gold Breakdown thought it important to know your enemy so it walked the streets to find someone close to the situation and bumped into Paul Clark of the CycloneReport, found at http://iowastate.rivals.com/.

Our discussion traveled the river of thought of how Iowa State got such a hot coaching commodity in Chizik, the initial reaction, the job ahead, and more. I think if you read closely, some parallels will appear between Boulder and Ames, between the football and basketball programs.

BGB: With jobs known to be opening up at Miami and then, Alabama and Arizona State, how did Iowa State get Chizik over those higher-profile schools?

Clark: Jamie Pollard, the athletic director, joked with Chizik he was sure glad he got him signed when he saw all the jobs that opened up over the last 24-48 hours.

Something you could see from talking to Gene just a little bit and hearing his public comments is he's a man of faith and he believes everything is a part of a bigger plan and it all came together this way for a reason. He and his wife prayed together on this decision.

BGB: Do you know if there were other candidates and who they were, Paul?

Clark: Jamie Pollard said there were six individuals who were interviewed.

Chizik was one of them, Jay Norvell, the offensive coordinator at Nebraska, Jim Harbaugh, the head coach at the University of San Diego also interviewed and Brian Kelly, the head coach at Central Michigan was also interviewed.

So those are four we know. The other two (names) would be speculation.

BGB: What is the early reaction in Ames, around Iowa and for you, personally, Paul?

Clark: I think the initial reaction has been great and it continues to get better as people begin to grasp this hire.

For myself, personally, I obviously think this is a great hire. Gene Chizik's name and reputation and the panache his name carries in college football, all that obviously makes this a great hire for ISU.

BGB: What sold Chizik on this job?

Clark: The university's growing commitment to not just have a football team but to be successful in football. He sensed that. He could see, whether it was something tangible, like
$ 100 in capital improvements planned for the next five years or whether it's a change in the culture at Iowa State.

In a tangible way, Iowa State showed Gene Chizik its' commitment. They're giving him $ 1.5 million per year to put together his football staff. That puts Iowa State in the top third of the Big 12 in terms of money they have to spend on assistant coaches.

When (former coach) Dan McCarney took the job, Iowa State was dead last by a mile in terms of what they paid assistant coaches.

BGB: What obstacles come to mind that Chizik is going to have to overcome that McCarney, no matter how hard he tried, simply couldn't?

Clark: He mentioned the relationship with high school coaches in Iowa. That was a tremendous strength of Dan McCarney. The next thing, he's going to have to adjust his perspective, his approach, adjust to not having Texas and Auburn-like athletes. He's going to have to become a better coach to be effective.

When I look at Gene Chizik's resume, I'm most impressed with, not by Texas or Auburn, but most impressed by the fact he was at Central Florida and he had a pretty good defense. That shows me he can do the same at Iowa State.

BGB: What happened to McCarney? He seemingly had that program on the cusp of really getting over the hump then the bottom dropped out, especially this season. What brought that on?

Clark: A couple of factors. The margin for error is pretty slim at Iowa State. When you're at any program in the middle range or lower range of college football, there is just very little room for error and when things go bad, they tend to go real bad.

Plus, I think it's missed opportunities. Iowa State had the opportunity the last two years to be the champion of the Big 12 North division. For Iowa State, the window of opportunity was only going to stay open for so long. Nebraska and Kansas State were only going to be in a down cycle for a few years. We knew that. Those are good programs. They're going to come back.

All the stars were lined up for Iowa State and they still didn't get the job done and once that window of opportunity closed again, the energy, the momentum, all the positive mojo the program had, you could feel it draining out.

BGB: What did you hear from Chizik at his press conference that hit you hard, most impressed you?

Clark: He didn't talk a whole lot about football. He just talked about what he was impressed about Iowa State was, yes, the commitment to winning football, but just how Iowa State is going to go about doing things and he was impressed about how Iowa State conducted the job search and how respectful Iowa State was of Texas and its' players.

I think that was pretty powerful.

And when he and his wife really had to make a decision, they didn't sit down and look at the paycheck they were going to get or things like that. They prayed, they prayed together and they felt led by God this was going to be the right place for them.

BGB: What can Chizik expect to accomplish in a conference with heavyweights like Texas and Oklahoma, and, as you mentioned, Nebraska and Kansas State rising again? Those teams and the rest of the difficult draws in the conference?

Clark: Iowa State is not an easy place to win. The record book bears that out.

I can tell you from knowing my school, knowing the history of Iowa State, it hasn't cared very much through the decades about winning.

Look at Kansas State, yeah, Bill Snyder was a great coach but that started with their president.
Look at Rutgers, Greg Schiano is a great coach, that started with their president. Once the university decides we're going to be good in football, that has to happen before the coach has any chance at all to be successful.

BGB: Thanks to Paul Clark spending some quality time with us and sharing the good news for Cyclones' fans, getting a coach and apparently, quality person in Chizik.

Here's what grabbed my attention from Clark's comments above. Humor me, if you will, as my mind rarely shuts down.

Chizik is really gambling on Iowa State when he may have been able to land jobs at other schools with his lights-out resume. SEC, Big East and Pac-10 jobs were available and known to be opening up. Iowa State jumping hard and fast to get him was astute, reminding me of another school's approach, Oklahoma, when they landed a fantastic defensive coordinator from the University of Florida, some cat named Bob, ah, what's his last name again, oh yes, Stoops.

Chizik doesn't have Oklahoma's tradition to build recruiting off of but he can be a serious name dropper in parents living rooms.

Did you see the money allocated for Chizik to hire assistants? That is something that will draw quality to Ames, especially working for a coach who is greatly respected. That is an area where CU can't compete thanks to a foolish law, at least for college athletics.

As Clark said, when you are a middle school in college football the margin for error is so small and well, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that is what Colorado has become and why, in some part, they got pancaked this season in the won-loss column. The Buffs didn't get wiped out on the field often and the reason they couldn't pull off games was, as maddening as it was to continually hear it from players and coaches alike, was the details. The talent Texas has, USC or Ohio State has allows them to erase mistakes. CU is playing without an eraser these days. So was Iowa State.

Does this ring a bell for you? A defensive coach for a traditional powerhouse takes a job at a lowly school, is a devout Christian, big character guy, driven to succeed but not given much chance for success.

No?

Hey, only saying it sounds familiar to me. Not saying the result will be anything remotely similar, but interesting nonetheless, don't you think?

And what about Clark's comments on winning? If the university doesn't want it first, commit to the action necessary to achieve it, then baby, it ain't happenin'?

First thing that came to mind when I heard that from him was Scott Wilke, the former Buff center, who shared here at the Black and Gold Breakdown that he feels CU doesn't care if the school has a basketball program.

Hey, maybe Clark was only talking about Iowa State but a lot more than Gene Chizik came out of that conversation.

Food for thought.