How did Iowa State football no huddle offense overcome?
Give first-year Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads some credit for recognizing a reclamation project when he sees it. With a Cyclones program that has won nine games the past three seasons, Rhoads knows he’s facing an extreme makeover. “There’s a lot of work to be done,” Rhoads said. “Players and coaches certainly recognize that.” Iowa State won four games in 2006, three in ’07 and two last year, so the rebuilding process will take some time. “I think my vision is developing a championship program and developing a team of winning football and winning players and quality young men,” Rhoads said. “I think that vision takes place one day at a time and one season at a time, and certainly has no win-loss expectations that are placed upon it from Day One.” Rhoads, Auburn’s defensive coordinator last season, grew up in Iowa and is a former defensive coordinator and assistant coach for Iowa State. The tall order Rhoads faces has some major challenges. The Cyclones dropped their final 10 games last s
History isn’t on Paul Rhoads’ side. The new Iowa State football coach knows the Cyclones haven’t been to a bowl game since 2005. He knows the Cyclones have only shared one Big 12 North division title since the conferences’ inception. He knows the Cyclones haven’t won a conference championship since 1912. But Rhoads, a former ISU assistant and defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh and Auburn, has his sights set on making the Cyclones a championship-caliber program. And how far Rhoads takes the Cyclones in first year will likely depend on how much improvement a defense that finished at or near the bottom in nearly every Big 12 category can make. The first hurdles for Rhoads to overcome are the Cyclones’ 10-game losing streak and 17-game road losing streak, the longest in the nation. ISU struggled last year under Gene Chizik, who left this offseason for Auburn, to stop teams from finding the end zone; eight opponents scored 34 or more points. Rhoads and defensive coordinator Wally Burnham,
