Most ISU football players went home for the holidays without a coach, but they got a brand-new one for Christmas.

Five days before Christmas, Paul Rhoads, of Ankeny, was announced as the replacement for Gene Chizik , who abruptly left the team.

After two seasons in Ames, Chizik became the head coach at Auburn, where Rhoads worked as a defensive coordinator for 11 months. Before that, Rhoads was a defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh for seven seasons and was an assistant coach at Iowa State from 1995 to 1999.

On Dec. 4, former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville resigned after 10 seasons, leaving Rhoads and his family with an uncertain future.

The 41-year-old said the Iowa State head coaching job is a gift, though he doesn’t think about it that way.

“This isn’t anything that I’ve dreamed about or hoped would just happen — I’ve worked for this day,” he said.

Now the Cyclones can worry about winning games. The football team ended the 2008 season with a 10-game losing streak, and Chizik’s departure added another challenge to rebuilding the program.

Rhoads has already hit the recruiting trail, searching for players for his first class. One of his selling points for incoming players will be his experience in football throughout the country.

“This professional journey of mine has seen me through four of the six BCS conferences. By the time I was 27 I had seen all four time zones,” Rhoads said. “But I can honestly tell you on a beautiful day in Ames, Iowa, it is great to be home.”

Athletic director Jamie Pollard said the fact Rhoads is a former Iowan “had no bearing” on the hire, but that it was a huge bonus.

The third-year athletic director said “roughly a dozen candidates were either met with or spoken to,” but Rhoads proved to be a clear fit.

Players look forward to getting back on the field

Early feedback suggests the team is pleased with the hire.

“The [players] I’ve spoken to, I’ve gotten really positive feedback, and I know that coach Rhoads has spoken with numerous players because I was listening to him do it from my house,” Pollard said.

Only Rashawn Parker, Allen Bell and Austen Arnaud were present at the press conference introducing Rhoads on Dec. 20.

“He looks like he’s got a lot of charisma as an individual, and he’s really a — like I said — he’s a passionate and a fiery guy,” Arnaud said.

The comprehensive plan

One of the main reasons Pollard said he hired Rhoads is the fact that he had a comprehensive plan for turning the program around.

Although this plan reportedly took Pollard and Rhoads seven hours to go over during the interviewing process, Rhoads summed it up in a few sentences.

“The first thing we have to do is understand what it takes to win … I talked about being a smart football team and not losing football games,” he said. “That starts with everybody’s own responsibility, with everybody’s own job, and that’s where the accountability will begin, and then it will broaden out to the group, and together we will achieve great things.”

Former player supports new coach

Former ISU offensive tackle Bill Marsau says he is ecstatic about the hiring of Paul Rhoads.

Marsau played for the Cyclones from 1995 to 1999, the same time period that Rhoads served as the inside linebacker, then secondary coach.

Although Marsau was an offensive lineman and never played under Rhoads, he said he had a lot of interaction with him.

“I would describe him as a young Dan McCarney,” Marsau said. “I think he is more of a ‘Rah! Rah!’ type of guy. A little more vocal than coach Gene was, and I think a lot of the players work very well with that type of coach.

“He is a very honest person. He is not going to sit there and sugar-coat things. If players aren’t getting it done, he’s going to let you know.”

A physical team

During the press conference Rhoads didn’t get into specifics about what his team is going to do schematically,. He did make some promises about how the team will play.

“We will be physical,” Rhoads said. “We will play the football game for 60 minutes. And we will give it all we have for 60 minutes. And we will hit you coming off the bus. And we will be passionate, we will be a passionate football team that will bring pride back to the Cyclone Nation.”