Silence Is the Word. You Won't Catch Me Getting Into This Mess

I've decided to not write anything about the latest football problems at Iowa State.

Silence is golden and all that kind of stuff

I mean, I like dogs -- as long as they're small dogs -- and I'd never kick a Shih-Tzu.

I had two of 'em -- Shih-Tzus, I mean -- and didn't kick either one.

So I'm sure as hell not going to kick an Iowa State football coach with a 2-8 record.

Besides, I never criticize anyone on Veterans Day.

Those talk-shows in Texas can have all the fun they want at Gene Chizik's expense.

They can put words into his mouth that say he wishes he was still Mack Brown's defensive coordinator with the Longhorns instead of the guy running the program at a coaching graveyard like Iowa State.

Massacre the poor guy. He's certainly vulnerable these days.

After all, some things never change.

Nearly a half-century ago, when Clay Stapleton was in charge of the Iowa State football program, it was one of the toughest coaching jobs in America.

I say that even though Stapleton's 1959 team was called the Dirty Thirty and had a 7-3 record.

Today, with Chizik [pictured at the top] struggling in his second season, Iowa State is still a very difficult place to win.

Indeed, some would say it's an impossible place to win.

Not me, of course.

All I know is, I don't care who the next coach is -- Pop Warner again or the defensive or defensive coordinator at Texas or Ohio State -- winning at Jack Trice Stadium, or certainly away from Jack Trice Stadium, will be a challenge.

Maybe you've forgotten that the legendary Glenn S. "Pop" Warner was Iowa State's coach in 1895, 1896, part of 1897, 1898 and part of 1899.

Never had a losing season, either.

He became so famous at Iowa State that a kids' football organization was formed in this country, and was named after him. It's still going strong today.

Evidently, things went downhill in Ames after Pop's days there.

Johnny Majors [pictured at the left] told me a long time ago what a hard job it was to coach at Iowa State.

"I've always heard that this is a place you win, then get out," he told me in a candid moment during the time he was the Cyclones' coach from 1968 through 1972.

And Majors followed his own advice.

He got out.

After being rumored for more coaching jobs than Bobby Stoops has been in recent years, Majors went to Pittsburgh -- where he won a national championship -- then to Tennessee, where he was eventually fired.

Another round of "Coach Watch" has begun at Ames.

But, like I said, I'm staying out of all this.

Chizik, who walked through artificially-produced smoke at Hilton Coliseum when he was announced as Iowa State's new coach less than two years ago, now is the target of some heat for what he has -- or hasn't -- done on the football field.

Chizik or his bosses can say all they want about how things are going, but if the guy doesn't get things turned around fairly soon, I'm thinking he'll be gone.

Don't forget, Kansas State coach Ron Prince was handed his walking papers the other day after just over 2 1/2 years on the job.

There is little patience anywhere. There's pressure on college presidents, who transfer that pressure to their athletic directors, who transfer it to their coaches.

The president wants to stay employed, and so does the athletic director.

So what do they do? Fire the coaches.

Chizik told people yesterday at his weekly press conference that he doesn't second-guess himself for taking the Iowa State job.

Hey, what did you expect him to say, something like, "I was happy as Mack's defensive coordinator, and the biggest mistake I ever made was to come to Ames, Iowa. This is the pits?"

Or do you expect Jamie Pollard, the athletic director, to say, "When I hired Chizik, I really screwed things up -- and, hopefully, it's not an error that will follow me around when I try to get out of Ames. I should have never hired Chizik?"

I've written plenty of times in the past that it was huge mistake for Pollard to fire Dan McCarney from the Iowa State coaching job.

But I'm getting off that horse right now.

I still believe it, but I refuse to write it again today.

Remember, I'm being quiet about all of this.