Let me see if I’ve got this straight.
Iowa State University has hired former University of Texas defensive coordinator, Gene Chizik, as its new head football coach to replace my old friend Dan McCarney, who resigned under pressure a couple of weeks ago despite being the most successful coach in Cyclone football history.
Chizik is essentially the same age as McCarney was when ISU hired him in 1995. Moreover, Chizik’s background is basically the same as McCarney’s was at the time that ISU hired him, except that McCarney had far superior experience to Chizik in the Midwestern recruiting areas that are key to the ISU program.
Chizikís deal is worth a guaranteed $6.75 million over six years ó with incentives that could increase that to as much as $10 million over those years ó while McCarney’s contract was worth about $4.4 million, but only $780,000 guaranteed, through 2010.
More notably, however, is that ISU is guaranteeing Chizik $1.5 million annual budget for compensating his assistant coaches, which is one of the highest of such budgets among Big 12 Conference members. On the other hand, McCarney constantly requested ISU throughout his 12-year tenure for a budget sufficient to pay for the best assistants available on the market, but he was continually rebuffed by ISU’s athletic administration. As a result, McCarney’s budget for paying his assistants was in the lower tier of such budgets among Big 12 Conference members.
My question is this ó why didn’t ISU simply increase McCarney’s assistant coach compensation budget, and then avoid the extra money and risk involved in hiring Chizik? Maybe this all works out, but it sure looks to me as if ISU has taken a huge risk where a much smaller one would have been more likely to continue the most successful era in ISU football history.
By the way, UT’s defense gave its two most uninspired defensive performances of Chizik’s two seasons in Austin during losses to Kansas State and the Texas Aggies in its final two games of this season. Did Chizik’s distraction with negotiating a deal with ISU have anything to do with that? Mark Wangrin of the San Antonio Express-News observes:

Chizik has been more careful in his choice of destinations. Now, though, with the shine off his reputation, he may not have much of a choice. He must decide whether to jump toward a more mediocre program or stay at least another year and try to rehabilitate his reputation as a defensive mind. He must prove this season hasn’t exposed his thinking as only working when he has exceptional talent at safety. He must show he can adjust.