The desire to coach has always burned a bright red inside Dan McCarney.

Oh sure, like many other collegiate football players, McCarney first tried to make his trade in professional football.

But after testing free agency (the Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos), McCarney returned to the familiar sod of Kinnick Stadium, where he made his home for four years, to find work and quench his thirst to coach.

In 1979, McCarney was offered a job for a mere $18,000 a year under his former head coach, Hayden Fry. He ruled up the opportunity to being “lucky.”

After a few years, his status was bumped from part-time grad-student to defensive line coach for the Hawkeyes.

He served under Fry for 11 years alongside other current head coaches such as Barry Alvarez, now at Wisconsin; Bill Snyder who is at Kansas State; and Kirk Ferentz, who inherited Fry’s head set.

Iowa had been bad at football for nearly two decades when McCarney and others set foot in town.

Under this coaching staff, the `80s brought two Rose Bowl appearances and eight overall bowl games.

So after coaching his various defensive linemen through many December and some January nights, McCarney joined Barry Alvarez, and set out to do the same about-face at Wisconsin .

McCarney’s five years as defensive coordinator with his “life-long friend” was capped off in 1993, when the Badgers won the Rose Bowl, defeating UCLA.

The “worst-to-first” accomplishment is something McCarney is proud of. “I was a part of two of the biggest turnarounds [in Division I football],” he said.

In 1995 he left again and faced perhaps his most daunting task, improving a winless ISU team as head coach.

The success of this season’s squad “doesn’t surprise me,” McCarney said.

He knew this team would be different from season’s past when he saw the attitude, commitment and senior leadership that the current crop of players provide.

Case in point for McCarney: The newly-born star – Sage Rosenfels.

“Sage just wants to win,” McCarney remarked. “He doesn’t care if he throws five times or 40.”

McCarney stresses a deep hatred for losing to his players.

But sometimes it takes a while for the athletes to learn this.

When McCarney came to Iowa State in 1995 he first had to get students and faculty to believe that wins would come.

Next, he set out to equip himself with assistant coaches who were intelligent enough to know great talent from good.

Then he had to find a way to bring that talent to a community whose only attribute was the lack of a professional team, and the intensified media exposure that comes with the void of pro teams to cover.

In addition, he had to deal with the Big 8 becoming the Big 12.

The expansion “made my job tougher when it became the Big 12.” But the difficulty has been alleviated by “support [which] has been excellent.”

McCarney is well on his way to reversing the fortunes of a third school.

Perhaps the determination to overcome didn’t come from a football field and a former coach, but a childhood living room and supporting parents.

His mother June McCarney, “always went to all of Dan’s wrestling meets,” while in high school at Iowa City. She said that Dan was always “very dedicated” to what he set his mind to, whether that be sports or academics (where he graduated from Iowa slightly above a 3.0 GPA).

June and Pat McCarney always stressed to their children to “spread their wings” and discover who they wanted to be.

ISU Head Coach Dan McCarney knew what he wanted to be. But flying the coop and leaving Ames and Iowa is not in McCarney’s future. “I love [this] place,” he said.