Iowa State head football coach Dan McCarney was granted a two-year contract extension Thursday by the Athletic Department.

With a 8-32 record during his already three-plus years with the Cyclones, there were many rumors that McCarney would not receive an extension.

Who would want to give two more years to a coach who has taken a bad football team and made it worse?

McCarney may not have racked up the wins for Iowa State on the playing field, but one thing is for sure — he has made great strides in the program off the field.

Athletics Director Gene Smith said McCarney’s attention in areas off the field was “the single most-important thing” in the extension.

In many college athletics, winning becomes the only standard by which a coach’s success is measured. By working internally to improve the program, McCarney is making it more attractive to recruits’ parents.

A parent doesn’t want to send his or her son to a college with a winning record if it is almost guaranteed that he won’t graduate.

With time, McCarney can turn Iowa State’s football program around. Like they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Rebuilding a football program sometimes takes longer than five years.

So far, it’s been like a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey when deciding who should take the blame for the team’s loses — McCarney or the players.

However, one must remember that McCarney didn’t inherit a winning team when he arrived at Iowa State.

He took on a coach’s dream and nightmare task of trying to transform a losing team into a winning team.

McCarney has tried many new techniques in an effort to improve the program, including the recruitment of more junior college players. But the Cyclones still always seem to come up short.

But before something gets better, it must first get worse.

All one can hope for is that McCarney finds the magic key that opens the door to winning.

And what if he doesn’t?

Then he will lose the game in the fourth quarter, and it will be time for him to be on his way.