Hlas: Pollard had little choice but to fire Rhoads

You're either selling hope or recent success in college football. If you have neither, you have problems.

Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard did what he had to do Sunday morning when he fired Paul Rhoads as his football coach. Pollard has pulled off quite the sleight-of-hand in not only sustaining, but building attendance for Cyclone football the last few years, given how mediocre that program had become under the coach he hired seven years ago.

Without hope, even the most-patient fan base has limits when it comes to faith and charity. The Cyclones' self-destruction Saturday in their 38-35 loss at Kansas State was the last straw, the final piece of evidence Pollard needed to know he couldn't keep going to his Iowa State shareholders for more patience and time with Paul Rhoads as his football CEO.

The Cyclones didn't just blow a 35-14 halftime lead at K-State, they lost in a way that was almost inconceivable and totally unacceptable.

Rhoads seemed unaware of the concept of taking a knee to kill time. His team led 35-28 with 1:31 left and had the ball at the K-State 44 after stopping the Wildcats on downs. You take a knee three times and burn the clock to a nub. The Wildcats could only stop the clock once in that time.

Instead, ISU ran the ball on first-down and Mike Warren fumbled it away. Four plays later, the Wildcats tied the game at 35 with 40 seconds left.

Iowa State began its next drive at its 25. Quarterback Joel Lanning ran four yards on first-down. Rather than take a knee on the next play and take his chances in overtime, Rhoads chose to pass. Lanning was sacked and lost the ball. Three plays later, a 42-yard field goal gave K-State the win.

That was a week after ISU let a 24-7 lead slip away against Oklahoma State. Trailing 35-31, the Cyclones threw an incompletion on 3rd-and-1 from its 37 on its next-to-last possession. Rhoads admitted he thought his team had made a first down on the previous play. ISU got stopped on a fourth-down run.

That's a two-week meltdown to end a 7-year tenure. Iowa State is 3-8 on the way to 3-9 after finishing this season at West Virginia, on the way to 8-28 over the last three years, on the way to 16-45 in the Big 12 over seven seasons.

This season's Cyclones are clearly better than their last two editions. They should have beaten Toledo and Kansas State, certainly could have defeated Oklahoma State. They were tied with Iowa with under three minutes left.

Had they bolted the door in their last two games, they would be 5-6 today and hope could be peddled through the off-season.

Whether it would be false hope or not, it doesn't matter now. The fact is, the Cyclones' high-water mark under Rhoads was six seasons ago. His first ISU team went 7-6 after an Insight Bowl win over Minnesota.

There were 6-7 seasons in 2011 and 2012 that ended with 2-touchdown bowl losses to Rutgers and Tulsa. Then things went downhill.

Rhoads' program will be remembered for single-game magic. The Friday night win over No. 3 Oklahoma State in '11. Topping Texas twice. Winning at Nebraska in '09. Beating Iowa at Kinnick Stadium in '12 and '14.

The trouble is, teams play 12 games in a season. Actually, most play 13. Iowa State hasn't done that in three years.

So does Pollard grab one of the rising young coaches who seem to pop up every year in the Mid-American Conference?

Elsewhere, Western Kentucky's Jeff Brohm has his 9-2 team ranked fifth in the nation in scoring. Big 12 teams are first, second and third, by the way. Bowling Green is fourth.

Or does Pollard make national waves by going with a familiar name, like Brady Hoke?

Rhoads gave Iowa State a handful of great moments. But it's time to find someone capable of stringing together good moments that add up to good seasons.

Some say no one can win at ISU, it's a football graveyard. That also was once said about Kansas State, Northwestern and Baylor, the darkest cemeteries in the sport before the right coaches were hired.

Iowa State has the facilities and fan support. It needs what it's always needed, a coach who can do the job on and off the field.