According to the Des Moines Register this am... and our friendly Hawkeye Forum... Iowa State has three coaches on their short list: Texas defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, Texas-El Paso coach Mike Price or LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini. Pellini's upside is he was an Hayden Fry disciple as a grad assistant at Iowa, has recruited and coached for Nebraska and Oklahoma in the Big 12, was interim head coach at Nebraska... and has built himself an impressive resume as a premier DC. From an Iowa State standpoint, what's not to like? The downside is Pellini has been to the ISU campus, which looks like a perfect place to practice moon landings. He probably knows first hand what it's like to be wedged between Iowa and Nebraska campuses and try to recruit against them. Iowa State has the second lowest athletic budget in the Big 12, just ahead of Baylor... their stadium holds around 50,000 and is need of repair (which was recently funded). Pellini will be getting his share of press up here shortly, and well-deserved. Personally, I think it would be a bad move. Coaching at ISU is like trying to put up lights in a graveyard. I'd go with Mike Price. If he's sneaky enough to find kids to play at Washington State or Texas-El Paso, he could probably find a few to come to Ames.
I'm good friends with an ISU alum, who still works on campus. He seems to think it will be hard to get anyone to come coach at Ames/Council Bluffs, which he considers the "armpit" of the country. I like the Mike Price idea (if only just for a couple of years). It doesn't get much worse than El Paso.
Mike Price would love it there....well next year anyway....they have a good qb who i forget his name and a great wide out named blythe I think.
It was only a matter of time before the offers or at least opportunities for him started rolling in. I doubt it will be ISU for the reasons Hawker mentioned, but no doubt there will be others. I hope we can retain him for at least one more year.
My brother received an update on his cell phone (per Tigerbait), that Bo Pellini interviewed for the coaching vacancy at Michigan State.
