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ISU Coaches on Hot Seat?

snake

snake

Active member
What a football season and thanks to all the die hard fans who are still around. Is the coaching staff on the hot seat or do we stick with them for another season or two to see if their system begins to "gel" or dump them for a new staff. What do you have to say for yourself.
 
I will save my comments to present to the staff in person, as per prior posts, we are encouraged or always have the right to do.

But I will say this yet again: DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND EXPCECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS IS THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY!!!!!
 
I'm not sure if there will be any kind of shakeup in the staff or not, because I don't know how loyal Coach Z is to his assistants. And most of them are probably doing a pretty good job. But realistically, I think that Jeff Tingey will give him five years total to get the job done. If we can't at least have .500 teams at that time, then it may be time to look for someone else. I don't think that Coach Z has a multi-year contract, does he? Also, because of various factors, I think that it's just a little tougher to get the job done here than other schools, and if we do finish the season winless, then that certainly doesn't help recruiting any. Like many others that post on the board, I really do think that Coach Z is the right hire for this program -- especially when you look at what he did for Central Washington, which has much less to work with than ISU does.
 
I want to see Zamberlin succeed.

I don't think starting from ground zero is the answer. But, would think that some shakeups on the defensive side of the ball may be coming. I think it is less about X's and O's and more about the ability to recruit.

What concerns me is how bare the cupboard seems on the defensive line and at the LB position. I do not believe that they have enough young players to make a big time improvement next season. So, I anticipate ISU will go JC heavy in the off-season and that it really concerning.

Idaho State has committed or brought in 10-15 JC kids over the last two seasons with Michael Wright and Ryan Henry being the only two that have made and major contribution that I can see. At lest six of those guys were not eligible, left the team or were asked to leave.

So, as much as I dig Coach Z--he has a major project in front of him. ISU will probably stick this squad on the road for six games next season and the defense will most likely not do a 180 in one off season. As much as I don't want to see it--a 2-9 or 3-8 campaign will still leave Zamberlin with less that 7 or 8 wins in three seasons. I'm not sure that he survives without major improvement next season.

It really bums me out, because I am a Zamberlin fan and I don't think a revolving door is the answer. I hope Coach Z puts something special together next year and pulls off 5-6 wins to keep the execution squad at bay. I will give him the 4-5 years that I think are needed, but I don't think many share my viewpoint.
 
I don't know a whole lot about coaching or what to expect but I don't think the team got to where it is overnight and I don't feel the problem is going to be corrected overnight. Coach Z has alot of players with the attitude that it is okay to lose and I think that until those players have either graduated or been weeded out things will be slow in changing. I don't always understand why the players that play are kept on the field but then I am not paid to. Everyone would be great to jump on the band wagon if the team was winning but not patient enough to give the coaches time to do what has to be done. Everyone wants their team to be a winning team. If they were to bench all the bad attitude players they probably wouldn't even have enough to play a game. I know I will get alot of bashing myself but I am for holding out and having faith that it is going to take some time to change things around. Nobody likes a losing team but I think we have alot of good coming up in the next couple of years.
 
I think Coach Z shold be given time to turn the ISU football program around. Patience is the key word and it all depends on who (in charge) has the patience and what their expectations or demands are.
We've been hurt by injuries on both sides of the ball but there are alot of repeat "screw ups" by players in game after game after game. Penalties and poor choices. Last night - first series, were there not two motion penalties that forced us into a punt situation? Mental errors?
I attend each game and listen to the road games in their entirety and In my opinion, strictly as a fan, there doesn't ever seem to be enough use of the bench players to at least give them game experience and perhaps provide some motivation to both themselves and the starters.
Last night's Cal Poly game was the same old story: we're down by a TD and have the chance to tie it or bring it close and BAM - the other guys go up by 2 TD's and we never ever get close again. That swing from a chance to tie to going 14 down has occurred over and over this year and happened last season, too. It happens early or even in the 3rd quarter and it's lights out Bengals.
 
While I agree with patience, I also believe there must be some change. The offensive side of the ball has a stronger coaching staff with stronger personalities to balance Orthmans inexperience. While injuries have slowed the offense down lately, overall they have not played that bad. What we need is a stronger DC with more experience. A more experienced DC would then have to determine who is qualified to coach and should stay out of the present staff. We need the head coach to get back to head coaching and leave the position coaching to position coaches so he can deal with controlling the sidelines and his coaches. In addition, we cannot keep passing on players in recruiting who we can get for players who at best are reaches. Get the best players you can and if one of the good ones falls in your lap find a way to get them into school. Nevertheless, you cannot keep putting all your eggs in one basket. If you do, you end up with walk-ons playing ahead of your scholarship players because you passed on kids you should have been all over. It is bad when you have kids who had to walk-on beating out kids you have money invested in. I will cut a coach slack on their first recruiting class, but from that point on, I had better see improvement. I have seen that in some positions but not the D-Line, particularly the JC transfers we have brought in. Amos the best plays hard about 60 percent of the time, Vaiomounga was not even good enough to keep his scholarship and now plays about 50 percent of the time because of injuries; Jones has been a waste from the beginning. Hell the best JC D-line player we had was a former walk-on from Snow that could not get on the field last year. Sean Rutton & Jablonsky lead all of our D-linemen in tackles and they are backups. Either the D-line coach is a bad judge of talent or he just does not get it. Simply stated; your defense is only as good as the D-line. Everything depends on D-line play. I look at the kids coming up on the defensive side of the ball and see potential, even on the D-line. While I do not see Milbourne as dominating, I do see a good player who plays hard and will improve with age. Durr is going to be very good as will Whimpey, but Whimpey will be gone for two years. Rouser is a tremendous athlete who might be better suited for Tight end, time will tell as to how good he will be. Tyler has allot to learn and no time to do it. What worries me most; I did not see any difference from our first team D-line play and our third team D-lines play. We still cannot stop the run, we put little or no pressure on the QB, and we are still making the same mistakes in scheme that we have all year. A former coach from Kansas State I know watched us at Portland. After the first quarter, he commented that our defense did some very unsound things. If he noticed this in one quarter, do you think any of the coaches around the league have failed to notice the flaws? Might be why we rank at the bottom of the conference in almost every category. Additionally, unless something changers we will be playing with a very young Defensive line next year. Remember you are only as good as your senior class, winning records rarely happen to teams playing a majority of underclassmen. Any team can survive one of two underclassmen, but not eight or nine. Just too many mistakes waiting to happen on the field. While I agree with recruiting youth and personally do not like recruiting JC kids, it all depends on how soon you want to turn the team around. Two strong JC classes might of had us turning the corner next year. Going with freshman you are looking at four to five years as you wait for the first and second class to become Seniors and Juniors. It all depends on how patient you are.
 
I am trying to stay positive but it gets harder each week! Blackfoot Bengal I have to disagree with you re: D vs O. Our O line has been the brightest spot I believe and I think Milbourn is on O line not D line. I said before if they weren't going to let the QB's they had on the team compete for the starting spot why did they not bring in a JC QB last year. We have big problems on offense and defense. Recruiting has been a problem and it will get worse. The one coach Zamberlin kept was Whitworth from the Lewis crew because he was recruiting coordinator and still is. Why do people think recruiting has not changed! We need more Idaho boys on that team!!! I know last year we did end up with more and it needs to continue because I feel they have more pride for the team and are not as self centered. I know I am going to get ripped but it is how I feel. Everyone is frustrated and trying to find answers. The men's basketball program passed up on in state players that were tremendous players two years ago and no one bashed them because they are winning. The football program was lucky and got both players. We just need more in state players and then use them don't let them ride the bench!!!!!
 
What local kids do you know of that will come in and contribute? The local players that have come in and actually contributed are few and far between. Mitchell,Fowler, Bells,Mennears, Winn contributed but that has been over a span of at least 10 years. It doesnt matter where the players come from, but it does matter if they win. LL could recruit like it or not.
 
Milbourne is a Defensive tackle, always has been. Amos was a Offensive lineman in JC, we moved him back to the defensive side. Which local player did we not go after that is playing somewhere else.
 
Respectfully, BigOrange--I think ISU football has done a helluva job recruiting local athletes. Look at the last two recruiting classes.
 
AJ Storms, Adam Chadwick, Braeden Claysen, Mitch Rudder (transfer) and Kelvin Krosch.

Who would you expect to be playing from Idaho in the last two classes? The majority would be RS FR. Would you like to see more TR FR from Idaho playing?

ISU has brought 19 kids from Idaho in the past two classes. Mike Davenport, Parker Jolley and Jordan Peterson are all on missions.
 
You are the one that keeps the jabs going. So, if you want to keep it going with me, by mocking my screen name and not letting things go--be prepared for me to make things somewhat difficult to swallow. I will show you some class, when you show some in return.

The choice is up to you, my Bengal friend.
 
This a topic that comes up every year. This is a response off of the high school board:

I have heard that same tired argument a dozen time. ISU has more Idaho kids on it's roster than both Boise and and Idaho. The starting QB is from Boise, starting OLB from Nampa, RB from Pocatello, starting OLinman from Nampa, starting Safety from Boise. Idaho State had three of five starters in basketball from Idaho a couple of years ago; 1 from Pocatello, 1 from Rigby, and 1 from Salman. It made no real difference in how many show up to the games. What would help is getting past thinking that winning comes first, then fans. It takes money to win games, not complaining about not winning. Boise sacraficed the educational side for a number of years to build a football program. It is paying off now. The one common denominator in all winning programs is money; those who have it win, those who don't struggle to win consistently. Idaho allows only so much money for athletics, the rest has to come from ticket sales and boosters. If you want ISU to win consistently the number of ticket sales have to increase, and booster donations have to increase. Your seeing the results this year in having the budget cut, played two Div. I programs for money to start the season and seven rode games instead of playing seven at home. The reason for playing on the rode, we don't sale enough tickets to make any money after paying a team to play here. Simply stated, ask yourself where your friends and kids are going to go play football if Idaho State decides to drop football. There are twenty-two Idaho kids on the roster. I estimate 2/3 are getting some assistance. Boise State has 18 Idaho kids on their roster, it is well documented that most Idaho kids do not get rides when they first go to Boise. Idaho has 12 Idaho kids in their roster, I'm guessing less than half are on rides. If you are going to come here and complain at least get your ducks in a row. Lets face it, schools around the nation are not knocking down the doors here in Idaho, you better hope one of the options does not go away. Especially the one that actually does recruit Idaho the heaviest.
 
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