Iowa State has been decimated

smhawk said:
I’m not sure why this is news. This is the current status of things in the new era. It would happen if Kirk left too. They’ll have no issue getting a roster filled, just obviously the quality is going to suffer first year. Maybe a tough ask to get kids from Washington state area to follow their head coach. I just don’t expect too many non blue blood teams to avoid a rough first year after coaching change, with how the NIL is.
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Agreed. However, if Jimmy Rogers flames out it will set the program back at least a decade.
 


smhawk said:
I’m not sure why this is news. This is the current status of things in the new era. It would happen if Kirk left too. They’ll have no issue getting a roster filled, just obviously the quality is going to suffer first year. Maybe a tough ask to get kids from Washington state area to follow their head coach. I just don’t expect too many non blue blood teams to avoid a rough first year after coaching change, with how the NIL is.
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You are right, we see this every time there is a coaching change but this one is eye opening. When Kirk does retire I don't expect there to be this type of roster turnover, there will be some. It should be gentler just for the simple fact that when Kirk does leave he will be retiring and not taking over another school where players would follow him.
 


longtimer said:
Really. I guess I thought Pollard was highly regarded. Why angry with him. Choice of new coach???
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Yeah, I thought Pollard was beloved by the entire ISU fan base. I didn’t start hearing about the “ego” and “arrogance” stuff pertaining to Pollard until MC left.

Granted, I am not a ISU fan so I am not paying that much attention to the behind the scene happenings of the ISU athletic department.
 






trj said:
Yeah, I thought Pollard was beloved by the entire ISU fan base. I didn’t start hearing about the “ego” and “arrogance” stuff pertaining to Pollard until MC left.

Granted, I am not a ISU fan so I am not paying that much attention to the behind the scene happenings of the ISU athletic department.
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One of the timeless certainties of Clowndom is that they will flip talking points on a dime (much like their logo) and pretend the previous never happened.
 


Hawkboys said:
With the NIL is going, a bad coaching hire by either ACC or Big 12 might be a death sentence if they don't have a mega donor involved.
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Scrooge Mcduck Diving Into Money GIFs | Tenor
 


trj said:
Yeah, I thought Pollard was beloved by the entire ISU fan base. I didn’t start hearing about the “ego” and “arrogance” stuff pertaining to Pollard until MC left.

Granted, I am not a ISU fan so I am not paying that much attention to the behind the scene happenings of the ISU athletic department.
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Been a lot of complaining about pollard on certain issues (IE no beer in games) for a long time.

For the most part people are very happy with him and they should be.
 






We have a decent TE room, but there's not a ton of game experience there and history of injuries. Brahmer or Burkle would not be a bad addition.
 


trj said:
Yeah, I thought Pollard was beloved by the entire ISU fan base. I didn’t start hearing about the “ego” and “arrogance” stuff pertaining to Pollard until MC left.

Granted, I am not a ISU fan so I am not paying that much attention to the behind the scene happenings of the ISU athletic department.
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I think Campbell felt boxed in by Pollard's conservatism on a number of issues. Pollard hasn't exactly updated his methods with the times. When the Penn State job opened up Campell saw the resources and opportunity and jumped ship.

Iowa State had a lot of good years with Campell. Now is the hangover after the party.
 




AreWeThereYet said:
I'm worried about defensive line and linebacker more than anything. Lots of guys graduating.
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No doubt. My guess though is that better prospects at defensive line will be available in the portal. Those two TEs are pretty solid.

Ebel would be a nice addition, but we have some real talent waiting in the wings at LB. They just need reps.
 


You guys have pretty short memories. This same thing happened to Iowa in MBB last year. Seemed to turn out ok. I agree with others, this is just the way that it works these days. Washington State has a bunch of kids in the portal too. Not as many as ISU. The new coach will probably bring some kids with him. The portal will fill in the gaps. There is probably also some healthy attrition with guys who do not fit the new system or aren't good enough.

Odds are that Iowa State is not going to be very good next year, but there are the Indiana and ASUs of the world out there. Too many variables to say what will happen. Its a mess, but there are solutions to the mess for a good coaching staff.
 


Will this happen to Iowa when KF retires? Maybe, but not necessarily. I think we all hope and believe that the KF replacement will be more orderly and planned. He isn't going to get lured away by another program during bowl season and signing period. I actually hope there is an announcement a year in advance that he is retiring to get a really good plan in place. An internal promotion, while unlikely, would usher in an orderly transition and a lot less turn over. Even if it is an external hire, if it were done early and perhaps a couple coaches holding over, again, there may not be a mass exodus.

Iowa football is nothing if not stable. I would expect the coaching transition to also be relatively orderly.
 


NorthKCHawk said:
Will this happen to Iowa when KF retires? Maybe, but not necessarily. I think we all hope and believe that the KF replacement will be more orderly and planned. He isn't going to get lured away by another program during bowl season and signing period. I actually hope there is an announcement a year in advance that he is retiring to get a really good plan in place. An internal promotion, while unlikely, would usher in an orderly transition and a lot less turn over. Even if it is an external hire, if it were done early and perhaps a couple coaches holding over, again, there may not be a mass exodus.

Iowa football is nothing if not stable. I would expect the coaching transition to also be relatively orderly.
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Yeah, it's hard to imagine a dramatic player turnover when Kirk steps away. It's highly unlikely that it would be abrupt, and I would imagine that the staff will make every effort to get ahead of things through open conversations. I've personally known four players that were part of the team, and all of those families were very impressed with the communication and transparency.

That said, if they do go external - which is what I expect - and the new hire's plan is to completely gut the staff and start fresh, I could see 10-15 enter the portal.
 


While Rogers may bring some of his WSU players with him, I don't see him recruiting the state of Washington heavily.

Remember, he played at S Dakota St, coached at S Delta St. won an FCS natty there with Gronkowski as his QB before moving up to FBS and having two fairly successful years before coming to ISU. So, he knows the upper Midwest well and should recruit it hard, he'll likely be recruiting the state of Iowa.

And, since he grew up in Arizona and played HS ball at a football powerhouse, I'd guess he'll recruit there as well. Arizona has a good history of producing some good QBs.

Still, he'll have his challenges and could fail. However, he appears to be a good coach, and I expect him to be relatively successful.
 


Iowa's history with the transfer portal is 10 transfers before the 2025 season, 4 transfers before the 2024 season, 8 transfers before the 2023 season, 1 transfer before the 2022 season.

Also, the 2026 commit class is one of the higher ranking classes, so I don't know how much room they have on the roster for transfers.
 


I'm fully excepting the demise of ISU as my Christmas present. I'm willing to share it with all of Hawkeye Nation. You're welcome
 


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