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Journal Article

B

biobengal

Active member
Has anyone seen the new Journal article on Zamberlin? Hopefully you've skipped lunch. Find it if you want, but I'll be skipping the Journal for a while.

Heater's article is one of the worst piece of sports "journalism" I've ever read, I know, high standard. In fact, this reads more like an ode to a lost friend. Cub, you predicted this on the Bengal message board. What can we expect from Heater? He also wrote "ISU coach John Zamberlin talks about his dismissal" and "Will ISU set new coach up to fail?" Where was Heater all along when everyone knew Zamberlin was bringing the heat from the NCAA. IMO, failing at the Academic Progress Report should be the primary job of any head coach. If you can't keep kids due to grades or other attrition you don't belong in COLLEGE football. The real question is has John Zamberlin and his cronies set up ISU to fail? Instead, Heater and the Journal staff failed to report on a news story because of what is obvious now... his budding bromance.
 
I have to say this. Heater didn't lie. I am not advocating for or against letting Coach Z go. All I am saying is that the university is apparently making promises to Coach K that they did not keep with Coach Z or any other coach, for that matter. Support the program administratively or get rid of it. Stop embarrasing this university.
 
Not implying that he is lying either. However, Heater is letting some very obvious things slide under his nose without asking questions.

I concur that the administration should have helped out more. But, the fact still remains, Zamberlin could not keep the players that he recruited here. Poor retention translates into APR penalties and lack of depth and talent in the program. These are a few of the things that the casual fan will never see from Heater.
 
Heater may not have lied, but he is also only telling one side of the story. Where have the investigative stories been about ISU's horrible attrition rate? Where have the stories been questioning why ISU has recruited guys from 8 man squads, who have had exactly zero offers from anywhere else, or why they recruit guys whose only other offers are from Division II squads? Where were the stories that questioned why the assistant coaching turnover was so high? Where was the story which questioned why Zamberlin hired Joe Cullen at a higher wage than other established assistant coaches? Where were the columns which should have suggested Zamberlin and his staff need to stay off of fan message boards or blogs and concentrate on their jobs? Where were the stories which questioned why all of the QB's bailed the program, why Galloway didn't arrive, or why his staff never had ONE QB who started every game during even one regular season? I do remember Jerry asking John a question early in the season about the "new" ISJ writer, and he replied that he seems like a "great" guy. When Jerry mocked the previous beat writer about his columns which assigned grades to the teams' performance (A's, B's, C's, D's, F's), Zamberlin said something like "yeah, he's not going to do that kind of crap."

Look, we get that the administrative support has been poor. There does need to be pressure to make sure it stays at an acceptable level. It needs to be a focus. But did the ISU administration require John and any of the other coaches to literally wear blindfolds on their campus visits for interviews? Gary Anderson knew the situation, and he made the demands up front. ISU couldn't match them, so he didn't take the job. What makes this so emotionally hard is that everybody likes John as a person. He is a damn fine man of character.

Boise State fired Greg Graham last year with one year left on his contract, and it was for well over $300,000. Graham "only" took them to the NCAA tournament, their most regular season wins ever, and to the NIT. The problem is the program was stagnant, there was no community support, and donations were dropping off. The AD over there said, after firing Graham, that they would now make more of a committment to basketball. Hell, they just broke ground on a new multi-million dollar basketball facility. Why didn't they make that same committment to Greg Graham? It certainly isn't fair. The fact is, there comes a time when you have to start fresh. You have to get people excited again. I just hope that this is the time that ISU is indeed serious about it.
 
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