Dan McCarney and the rest of the Cyclone coaching staff have been under fire from the first day they undertook the gargantuan project of turning the Cyclone football program around.

Midway through the coach’s fourth year at the helm, there are once again cries that McCarney is not the right man for the job.

I have always been a McCarney supporter. His boundless enthusiasm and optimistic approach to the game of football was a refreshing change from former coach Jim Walden.

And his first year was a pretty good one. The team improved from 0 wins in 1994 to three in 1995. The team also put up good fights in games against nationally-ranked Oklahoma and Colorado before falling.

There was hope in the program.

The fact that the ‘Clones had been outscored 195-149 in the second half and had blown a couple of second half leads was largely overlooked. The one thing that people were looking at was the win column, which revealed a marked improvement.

The next year, people began to notice a trend.

The Cyclones were leading in eight of the 11 games they played that year in the second half. They were to lose all but two, one of the wins coming against a non-Division I school, the mighty Panthers of Northern Iowa.

To win that game, they had to give Troy Davis the ball 53 times.

The Cyclones were outscored 201-161 in the second half. The lapses were blamed mainly on youth and inexperience with the defense.

However, these were not valid excuses.

The offense was led by a man who rushed for over 2,000 yards two years in a row, and a guy who seemed to get only stronger as the game went on.

People were starting to see that maybe the adjustments that needed to be made during the game were not occurring.

Then came rock-bottom: the horrid year that was 1997.

Four times the Cyclones held leads in the second half. They came up with one win against a very poor Baylor team.

The Cyclones were outscored 211-99 in the second half. In one game, against Minnesota, the Cyclones were up 29-28 with 13 minutes left in the 4th quarter.

They lost the game 53-29.

It was after the 1997 season that there was widespread speculation that McCarney was going to be fired. He was kept on by Athletic Director Gene Smith, but changes were made.

McCarney finally realized the people he had were not getting the job done, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

So, he went out and signed the biggest junior college recruiting class of the country, 17 young men who were expected to improve the team immediately.

Results were now expected.

The season started out with a game against the TCU Horned Frogs, who were also coming off a season in which they took home only one victory.

The Cyclones were leading 21-14 at the start of the fourth quarter.

The option play then killed them, and TCU won going away, 31-21.

ISU then came up with, by far and away, the biggest win under McCarney, as they went in to Iowa City and killed the Hawkeyes, 27-9. It was a dominating performance all around, and there was newfound enthusiasm for the program.

Ball State was up next, and the Cyclones played a solid game and came up with a 38-0 victory, marking their first shutout since 1984.

Texas Tech then came into town for the biggest game the program had encountered in a number of years.

ISU took a 10-7 lead with 10 minutes to play in the third quarter.

Only two late touchdowns kept the ‘Clones from going down 31-10.

Texas was up next, and the ISU defense reverted to their old form in giving up 350 yards to Heisman candidate Ricky Williams and allowing 54 points. The offense wasn’t too bad but fell 21 points short of what they needed.

Then came Missouri, and the Cyclones’ third consecutive loss. Devin West and company carved the defense up to the tune of 290 yards on the ground.

The game was still in reach in the fourth quarter, but unimaginative play-calling combined with the inability to stop the same play over and over again did in the Cyclones.

So, to summarize, the Cyclones have lost to a team that had one win last year, beat a very mediocre team on the road, beat one of the 10 worst teams in Division I, came very close to getting blown out by a team after having a second half lead, lost because they gave up 400 yards rushing and lost because they gave up 300 yards rushing.

You call this improvement? I don’t.

The Cyclones have shown over and over again the inability to adjust to situations that occur in the game.

Whether it be an option play that keeps working, a receiver that cannot be covered (especially when the man on him is a linebacker) or the refusal to throw the ball downfield, these failures to adjust have cost the Cyclones many games, not only this year, but every year in McCarney’s term.

As I said before, I had always been a McCarney supporter. I realize that it is extremely difficult to turn around a Division I program. It clearly takes time.

However, McCarney has been given time, and there is no improvement in sight.

ISU now has the facilities to compete with just about anyone in the nation. The Jacobsen Building is very impressive. The Rec Center is great. We now have great practice facilities with the addition of two fields west of Jack Trice Stadium.

The excuses have to stop.

McCarney said earlier this year that this was the first time all year he has been able to field a Division I defense.

Does a Division I defense give up 600 yards rushing in two games?

The question of where to place the blame is a difficult one. The first couple of years, McCarney was coaching players who were not his. He has had to deal with negative recruiting and previously subpar facilities.

But now, with the exception of the fifth-year seniors, these are his guys. And unless something dramatic occurs, his teams will have gone from three to two to one and back to two.

It’s time that a change be made.

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Josh Flickinger is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Rockford, Ill.