When football coach Dan McCarney gets to the office in the morning, he still picks up the paper.

Even though his team is 3-6 in the season and remains the only Big 12 team without a conference win, McCarney hasn’t started looking over his shoulder, watching and waiting for an ax that may or may not fall.

Even with his team’s chances for a bowl failing, and fans and media alike beginning to point fingers, McCarney isn’t shying away from the challenges that remain.

“I don’t read every paper that’s out there, and I don’t have time for Internet and TV, but I don’t avoid it. I don’t turn my back to it,” McCarney said. “I like to know what’s going on around the world, whether it’s good or bad, and right now there’s more bad than good with us.

“You read it and you hear about it, but I don’t avoid it.”

The opinions expressed by fans, reporters and columnists are not the ones that matter to McCarney and the rest of his team. They worry about themselves and not what others are saying.

“There isn’t anything we can do about it,” McCarney said. “The most important thing is each other, improving our football team and trying to finish strong here. That’s the most important thing.”

The last time Iowa State was 0-5 in the Big 12 was 2003. That season, the Cyclones lost all eight of their conference games and ended the season with a dismal 2-10 record.

Even though they are on pace to do only slightly better this season, there isn’t the same feeling among the players this year. The 2003 Cyclones quit on themselves halfway though the season – something this team isn’t about to do.

“It’s a different locker room this year,” said senior wide receiver Austin Flynn.

He would know. A freshman on that 2003 team, Flynn was a part of a quarterback guessing game that saw him split time under center with Waye Terry and Cris Love.

“We have a lot more chemistry; we have more talent on this team actually,” Flynn said. “The locker room is a whole lot different.

“Everyone is playing hard; it’s just not enough. Every player, every coach cares, and we’re all working our butts off.”

McCarney rebuilt a program that won just 45 games in the 12 seasons before he got to Ames, bringing the team to five bowl games since 2000.

To put that number into perspective, Iowa State had been to only four bowl games in its entire history before McCarney took over.

The fact that people are calling for their coach’s head doesn’t sit well with many of the ISU players.

“There might be a little anger,” Flynn said. “Just what he’s done for this university and this state really, to bring Iowa State back to the country really, and people can actually notice the symbol on our helmet and know that’s ISU.

“It makes a lot of guys on the team mad, some of the rumors that are going on. There’s a little anger on our part.”

McCarney has felt the support of his players as the season has gone on.

“Everyone around here really respects and cares about one another. There’s no cancer in this program. Sometimes when you’re struggling like we are now, those things are pretty evident,” he said.

“I’m not a robot and neither are the coaches or the players. We’re sensitive to things that are said and written and talked about. It goes with losing and having some tough setbacks. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into building a special family here, and when you go through tough times, you’re always there for one another. That illustrates the type of family we have here.”

McCarney sees the players as an extension of his own family. Wide receiver Todd Blythe missed Saturday’s game against Kansas State with a virus, prompting McCarney to call him “one of the sickest young men I’ve ever been around.”

So what was done to help him get better?

“Margy [McCarney’s wife] made him some chicken noodle soup last night, so hopefully that will be the magic potion to get him ready,” McCarney said.