First-year Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads is definitely trying to drum up support for his program anyway he can.Rhoads has joined a recent trend of football coaches across the country, jumping aboard a tour bus and coming face-to-face with the Cyclones faithful in Iowa. In scenes reminiscent of our nation's latest presidential campaign, Rhoads is shaking hands, kissing babies and making big promises during his city-to-city Tailgate Tour.
It's probably necessary considering the mis-steps of the Cyclones program in recent years. Little has gone right since the school sent longtime head coach Dan McCarney packing a couple years ago. Iowa State's second mistake, and biggest to date, was bringing aboard Gene Chizik, who after two disastrous season left the Cyclones holding a bucket full of broken promises as he left for Auburn.
So Iowa State returned to the McCarney days, sort of, by bringing back one of his former assistants and a Iowa native in Rhoads. So far Rhoads hasn't disappointed, managing to say all the right things to help ease the hangover from Chizik fiasco and last season's 2-10, 0-8 Big 12 campaign.
But as one fan said, Rhoads popularity remains high because he hasn't played a game yet. It will be interesting to see how long Rhoads can keep the honeymoon going taking over a program stocked with seasoned young talent.
