Paul Rhoads, praised on these very pages a month or so ago, has been hired to lead the Cyclones.  He’s an Iowa native, which I assume the Cyclones hope means he won’t leap at the first opportunity that comes his way to get the hell out of Ames.  He worked for Dan McCarney which means he knows the area and was part of the last staff that built a respectable football program.  Maybe not a bad hire.  He’s only 41.  He’s, again, from the area – although, ask K State how important it is to hire someone with no head coaching experience from the area.  Didn’t work so well in Manhattan.

I have to wonder if this is a “settle” pick.  Did the Cyclones flirt with current head coaches, like Mike Stoops or Turner Gill, or former successful head coaches, like Gary Barnett?  I’m not saying Stoops would have been better than Rhoads (likely not), but he would have been splashier.  Instead, Jamie Pollard hired a former Auburn defensive coordinator.  Again.  Big whoop.  Splash isn’t necessary for success, but after the heartache of being abandoned by Chizik, I expected Pollard to go out and get a name coach. 

 The most amazing thing, in my mind, has nothing to do with the actual hire, but the quickness that Wiki gets updated.  I saw on the ESPN crawl this morning that Rhoads was hired so I hopped on line to do a little research.  Rhoads’ Wiki page already had him as the Cyclone head coach.   The masses are fast.