Emotion, toughness the hallmark of Iowa State Coach Paul Rhoads

AMES - Paul Rhoads nearly gave up his arm to coach college football.

As a defensive back at Missouri Western, Rhoads twice suffered broken arms, including one in the last padded practice before his senior season in 1988. Rhoads weighed his options, but he decided to play, a move that has paid dividends for both Rhoads and the Iowa State football program.

“I had to make a decision whether I was going to red-shirt or just play through,” Rhoads said. “My head coach at the time (Dennis Darnell) informed me that I had a graduate assistant job waiting for me at Utah State with Chuck Shelton. So I made a decision not to red-shirt based on getting my coaching career started.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Rhoads, 44, since has coached in four of the nation's six high-major conferences. Now as his third year concludes as Iowa State's head coach, Rhoads has security as well. Last week he received a 10-year, $20 million contract from Iowa State, keeping him in Ames and away from potential suitors.

“Most enthusiastic, passionate leader I've ever been around,” said Iowa State linebacker A.J. Klein, the Big 12's co-defensive player of the year. “His energy on the football field is electric. It's contagious. He really can get us fired up on game day, and I wouldn't have any other coach in the nation. He's a great coach, and you'll see great things from this program in the next coming years.”

Rhoads originally wanted to follow his father, Cecil, into high school coaching ranks. Rhoads graduated as the Ankeny High School valedictorian and looked at Indianola's Simpson College and Augustana (S.D.) to continue playing football. Rhoads instead accepted a $600 football scholarship to attend Missouri Western, then an NAIA school. His academics - he was honored as Missouri Western's top senior student-athlete - helped pay for the rest.

Once Rhoads got the feel of the college football atmosphere, he fell in love with it. He worked as an Iowa State assistant under Dan McCarney from 1995-99 then left to become Pittsburgh's defensive coordinator. In eight seasons Rhoads helped the Panthers reach the Fiesta Bowl and tutored NFL All-Pro Darrelle Revis. Rhoads then spent a season at Auburn before succeeding Gene Chizik, who ironically left Iowa State for Auburn.

In 2009, his first season as Iowa State's head coach, Rhoads displayed the passion and rhetoric that symbolizes his era. In the locker room following Iowa State's 9-7 upset at Nebraska - the Cyclones' first win in Lincoln since 1977 - Rhoads stood before he players in a raucous locker room and bellowed, “I am so proud to be your coach!” The scene was captured by Iowa State's video department and placed on YouTube, where it has received more than 363,000 hits.

In Rhoads' last two seasons the Cyclones notched the program's first win against Texas, upset No. 19-ranked Texas Tech 41-7 and ended a three-year skid against in-state rival Iowa in triple overtime. Last month Iowa State posted perhaps the greatest win in school history with a double-overtime upset of No. 2-ranked Oklahoma State 37-31. Rhoads' locker room scene after that win reminded many of his emotional address after the Nebraska victory, but it was different. They're all different, Iowa State Athletics Director Jamie Pollard said.

“I've been around a lot of great leaders that can turn it on and get people rallied behind them, but you know that they're doing that,” Pollard said. “They're flipping on a switch and turning it on. With Coach Rhoads, it's natural.

“I think back to when we beat Iowa and people asked him what was the locker room speech, and he said. ‘It wasn't very good because I was drained.' That game was draining. There wasn't this passionate speech because he just didn't have it in him. I think that's what is so special about when those moments happen with Coach Rhoads, they're not contrived. They're natural. When they happen, they're special.”

Rhoads' emotion carries over to the practice field more often than the locker room. He's tough on his assistants and his players, outgoing offensive coordinator Tom Herman confirms. But the respect is immeasurable, as are the results.

Iowa State had three consecutive losing seasons before his arrival and were coming off a 2-10 season in 2008. The Cyclones won seven games in 2009 and earned an Insight Bowl victory. In 2010, ISU was 5-7 and followed up with this year's 6-6 campaign and a trip to the Pinstripe Bowl.

“He is the best I've been around at walking that line between demanding intensity, demanding execution, demanding the little things being done right and being so demanding on his players but at the same time being likable,” said Herman, who will leave Iowa State for Ohio State. “The kids love him. They'd run through a brick wall for him.”

Rhoads' passion resonates with his players, including junior linebacker Jake Knott, a first-team all-Big 12 selection.

“You want to impress him,” Knott said. “You'll never get comfortable with him where, ‘Oh, you can take this one off.' He won't let it happen. That's why he's such a great coach and he coaches so hard and so well and he's passionate about everything he wants to do. It's always the right thing. Having a guy like him around is the best thing about this Iowa State Cyclone football team.”