Tipping Point?

Longtime ISU viewers can't help but wonder if the loss to TCU may come be a turning point in the McCarney administration.

The last 5 seasons have been building to the '05 season. Talent has been building. The schedule was favorable. Ticket sales were at an all-time high. But all 5 losses had common themes: second half leads that were blown, opportunities to win late, a lack of kicking game becoming an fatal liability. And those issues are nothing new.

But ISU's inability to win the tight games the last two seasons, and the games that really matter, may be rapidly burning the good will that McCarney has earned with his constant enthusiasm, wins over Iowa and Nebraska, and bowl trips to sometimes desirable destinations. Once that capital is used, it will be extremely hard to win back with the casual fan ISU needs to push the ticket average from 35K to 50K+.

Clearly, Dan and staff must evaluate how they manage close game situations. Some are tagging Dan as a choker, and we can't argue that point with the results of late. Unless football fortunes shift, and that label is shed, Cyclone Nation may drift into the same kind of program killing indifference that afflicts the basketball program in Iowa City. And that is quickly followed by pink slips.

Peterclone