Just saying.

PSU…we can take them, white-out and all. I think we beat them with the pass too.

I agree too that the OC for Iowa State might be special. But, I think he will need more time to get that thing going. In fact, this could finally be the year we wipe the field with the Cyclones and do it with defense.

I am concerned with Arizona but I don’t know why…athleticism maybe.

scoring, passing, and total offense.

ISU is thin, but not Rice-thin. Herman was only at Rice two years. In his first year, 2007, Rice set 40 offensive records. I wonder if ISU would like to set 40 offensive records this year. Their QB threw for 52 TDs in the regular season.

I don’t know if he, as the OC, calls a lot of time outs because he can’t get the plays into the huddle in time. But probably not. He goes no-huddle, and it’s a Tulsa Golden Hurricane-like up-tempo assault. This is the kind of offense that will cause ISU players to think they can beat anyone if they get hot.

Rice played Western Michigan last year in their bowl game. Rice beat Western Michigan, 38-14. Remember Western Michigan?

That sounds like a plastic dinner dish my parents fed me in the ’70s, but my interest is piqued.

Right now, I’m vaguely aware of the numbers and that it was successful enough to make Rice more than it usually is. Also, isn’t there a hybrid TE who was drafted fairly high this year from Rice?

There is one thing, the Cyclones will be exponentially better coached than they were last year. That second-half clock management at Kinnick exposed Chizik for the bobo that he is.

The impressive:

All the stuff Bellanca mentioned.

Two of Herman’s receivers at Rice registered more then 1,300 yards receiving in 2008. Quarterback Chase Clement and receiver Jarrett Dillard connected for an NCAA-record 51 touchdowns over their career, breaking the previous mark by 12. Tight end James Casey was the NCAA’s second-leading receiver with 111 catches in 2008.

2 seasons as OC at Texas State (the real one in FCS, not the Bakula-led Armadilloes) in 05 and 06.

Led Southland Conference in total offense both years. 2005 offense was 8th nationally (I’m assuming in FCS only) in scoring. They were the fourth seed in the 2005 playoffs, and in three home playoff games, they beat Georgia Southern (score of 50-35), beat Cal Poly (14 to 7), and lost to UNI (37-40).

4 seasons as assistant at Sam Houston St. (01 to 04, Not sure if he was OC). While there, they were twice Southland Conference champs and made the NCAA Division I-AA (FCS) playoffs. In 2004, they finished 11-3 and advanced to the Division I-AA championship’s semifinals. The Bearkats’ offense was ranked second nationally in passing offense, averaging 358.5 yards, while the Bearkats’ 471 yards of total offense ranked fifth among Division I-AA schools. In his first season at Sam Houston State, Herman coached Jonathon Cooper who was named the NCAA Division I-AA Wide Receiver of the Year. Herman produced all-conference receivers in each season and produced three All-American wideouts.

He served as a graduate assistant coach at Texas in 1999 and 2000 where he worked with the offensive line as well as the defensive and special teams scout units.

He is a member of Mensa (I’m not kidding, it was on his Rice profile ).

The head coach at Texas State and Rice (Bailiff) executed two turnarounds in two years each. Conventional wisdom is that it takes 5-7 years to take a corpse and breath life into it (which is what McCarney needed, and which is the measure of Fry’s genius in Iowa City because he didn’t need it), 3 years to restore a formerly effective program. (Iowa wasn’t a corpse in 1999, just damaged.) Herman was the OC in both turnarounds.

They play Herman’s version of Malzahn’s frenzy assault football, which uptempo football is designed to prevent defenses from substituting, among other things, and then watching them die of fatigue in the second half.

I just really like this choice by Rhoads, because it says a few things to me that are smart:

a) business as usual (conventional offensive schemes, conventional retread coaching choices, conventional pablum) will result in ISU trying to play BXII football inside the box, so to speak, with guys who would be third string at their opponents, and that there is no point in that. Have to get outside the box. (I’m not talking about the line of scrimmage here.)

b) Herman is a kind of coaching entrepreneur: he has made his career swimming upstream, from a DIII school to the Longhorns to his apprenticeships in the dust and short grass — and now he’s only 34 and game-planning against the best in the country. This is Josh McDaniels-type career development. Something is going on with the guy, even beyond the sick numbers they’re putting up. (I would be very pleased if Stanzi threw for 20 TDs this year; his QB last year: 52.) Markets are efficient, even coaching markets.

c) ISU will pursue a high-variance offense, which means they will get blown out from time-to-time. They will no matter what they do. But it also means they’re going to get the jump on somebody and get their confidence up and win some startling games. If you want a great example of a high-variance coaching philosophy, working, see Boise State v. Oklahoma. I also believe that Fry’s famous use of ‘gimmicks’ was really just recognition of the same fact: that Iowa didn’t have the talent to go toe-to-toe with Michigan and OSU, without stretching probabilities through high-variance game-planning. Obviously, Ferentz is more low-variance in his approach than Tressel — to wit, he is the lowest-variance coach in the Big Ten.

d) He’s 34, he’s never failed, his confidence must absolutely be impenetrable, the players are going to feed off that confidence.

By the way, even Chizik seems to have absorbed some of this lesson: he’s hired Malzahn as his OC at Auburn. I’m beginning to think Chizik is some sort of weirdo, to tell you the truth, making things up as he goes along.

I predict ISU will have a signature 49-45 type eyeball-popping win over someone they have no business beating, if this Herman guy is what I think he is. I hope it’s not Iowa.

Rhoads seems like a cool guy who will keep the clubhouse on his side. (Rides his Harley all summer, doesn’t shave off-season, hires mad scientist 34 year-olds and gives him the keys.)

All of that said, anyone who brags on his Mensa membership (really, bfd) needs to grow up.

But, against Iowa’s bend-do-break scheme I smell a ton of INTs. These fast break offenses work better when there are very few plays in the scoring drive. The more plays required, the more likely an implosion will occur.

I can see you are a fan and it may be that ISU’s new offensive scheme does cause havoc for Iowa…but I see nothing but potential problems out of the gate for them. Their defense last year, save the game against Iowa of course, was atrocious. Their personnel is actually worse this year. Add more time on the field for that unit and it could be a nightmare for them. Also, these sorts of offensive schemes tend to do very poorly in streetfight-type games—which this game very often ends up being. It is a soft offense and relies heavily on breakdowns by the opposition, unless there are gamebreakers in the arsenal to do some one-on-one work—which there do not appear to be at this time at ISU.

I always like outside the box intiatives in sports, so I will be a very interested observer in ISU’s efforts. Again, the non-conf. team that is of greatest concern to me is Arizona.

Our OT’s haven’t been able to execute on the screen side. They need to sell the misdirection first and THEN eat up a defender.