Chizik’s Honeymoon Over
Time of death, Thursday night August 30th. Mark it. That's the official time that the Gene Chizik honeymoon at Iowa State ended, right after they lost by nine points at home to a Kent State team that hadn't beaten a BCS conference team in twenty years. Already Cyclone fans are saying, “McCarney would not have lost that game�.
Sometimes you have to take a step backward in order to take two steps forward. That was the case for Nebraska in 2004 and now ISU fans and Colorado fans alike are hoping that's the case for their schools.
How does a team like ISU, with all of the excitement of landing a prominent assistant from a team that just won a national championship two years ago lose to a team like Kent State?
You start by giving up 202 yards rushing and allowing Kent state to complete 65% of their passes. Wasn't Chizik supposed to be some kind of defensive guru? You could also blame Meyer for throwing two picks or the kicker for missing two field goals, but Kent State also had two picks and missed an extra point.
The talent at ISU is so bad now that they can get abused by a team like Kent State. I'm sure just like CU fans last year, the Cyclone fans are now realizing what a long year they're in for. They'll be lucky to win 3 games at this point.
There was one positive for ISU though. Newcomer Jamicah Bass rushed for 133 yards on 22 carries and scored a touchdown. His 6 yards per carry were substantially better than the 2.5 the rest of the Cyclones managed. Of course, as a juco transfer, Bass will exhaust his eligibility after the 2008 season, meaning by the time the help around him arrives, he'll be gone. But if you're ISU, you take what you can get.
And now, I've just got to say it to those ISU fans who were saying I was unfair when comparing ISU to Ball State – apology accepted.
8/31/2007
Steve;
Wow, guns ablazing!!! I’m not even certain if “ablazing” is a word, but it sounded good at the moment.
I don’t completely disagree with you. However, you have to admit that Blythe and Meyer are pretty talented football players. I’ve seen Blythe scorch the Huskers a time or two.
9/1/2007
Hey Josh,
Way to put a positive spin on something negative. Blythe and Meyer and pretty good players, I’ll give you that. But let’s not forget they “scorched” us when we were down. I’m not going to stoop to that level and talk about the scorchings that the Huskers have put on the cyclones.
I seem to remember that there was a lot of optimism about this year’s cyclones but I’m not seeing too many ‘Clone fans coming to back their team up at this point. As proud as you are of Iowa State scorching the Huskers in years past, they seem to be doing a good job of playing at the level of the competition, which in this case really worked out well for Kent St.
Good luck to the Cyclones the rest of the year as NU needs them to do well to help their cause. Week 1 to Week 2 should be a good indicator of how improved Iowa St. can be.
9/1/2007
It’s game one for Chizik, and I don’t think Kent is that bad. They’ll get better.
At least they didn’t lose to a 1-AA team. (Cough cough Colorado cough cough cough Michigoon cough cough cough)
9/2/2007
Psych-clones: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….!
9/2/2007
Kent State has 8 returning starters both on offense and defense. They had a strong defense last year, especially against the pass and they’ve returned quite a few starters.
ISU thought they were going to roll over a little MAC school and found out otherwise. They’ve got some work to do ...
9/2/2007
Scott,
Actually, I’m a Husker fan. Honestly. Ask Darren or Steve. I despise Iowa St. I work with some Iowa St. alums. And, when they beat the worst two NU teams in the last 50 years, you would have sworn they’d won the national title.