After what was repeatedly referred to as a “whirlwind week” for the Cyclone football team, starting with the departure of former head coach Gene Chizik and ending in the hiring of coach Paul Rhoads, the players are finally getting the chance to find out who their coach is going to be.

“It’s been rough, you know; it kind of hit at a bad time with finals and everything but, you know – I stayed the course,” quarterback Austen Arnaud said. “This is the second time I’ve – the third time – I’ve been through a coaching change.”

Early feedback suggests that 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 today,” athletics director Jamie Pollard said.

Only Rashawn Parker, Allen Bell and Arnaud were present at the press conference introducing Rhoads on Saturday, as many players have gone home for winter break.

“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 players present at the press conference expressed a desire to get back on the field for the Cyclones.

“I’m excited to come back and work,” said Parker, a defensive end for the team. “I think he is going to be a great addition to our football program.”

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 comprehensive 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.”

The agenda

The first challenge for Rhoads will be fielding a team for next season. With rumors swirling about which players are going to leave the team, Rhoads said he has called a lot of the players and looks forward to talking with the rest.

Rhoads addressed all the players present or watching the press conference on TV.

“It’s time to role up our sleeves, put on our hard hats, and go to work together,” he said.

Rhoads is also looking past the current players, to incoming freshmen for next season. The Cyclones currently have 14 players that have committed to Iowa State, and Rhoads, although he will not be able to talk to recruits until after Jan. 1, is trying to keep them at Iowa State.

“I want them to certainly understand this: Their decision to become Cyclones just became all that much better,” Rhoads said.

The last step Rhoads has to take to field a team is to hire his staff. Although he has not had much of a chance to look for coordinators, he promised a staff that is “great” at recruiting and coaching.

Although he didn’t get into specifics, he promised to talk to the current staff that is still under contract abut didn’t make any promises about retaining them.

A physical team

Throughout the press conference, Rhoads didn’t get into specifics about what his team is going to do schematically, saying no more than the team will both run and throw the football, but 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 Cyclones Nation.”