As ISU Athletic Director Jamie Pollard said on Monday, there is never a good time to let a coach go. And that rang true for the ISU coach Paul Rhoads, who was told on Sunday he would be coaching his final game with Iowa State against West Virginia this Saturday. 

Pollard chose this week, among other reasons, for the players. The players didn’t have school and could be together through practice and preparation in their last week of football. 

That didn’t make it any easier, though. 

The players who did comment when walking out Sunday’s meeting, where they were informed that Rhoads would be dismissed, were extremely emotional and talked about how tough it was to see Rhoads go. 

“It’s a sad day,” said running back Clifford Kwaw-Mensah on Sunday. “At the end of the day, that’s your head coach.”

But Rhoads meant so much more to many of the players, being a player’s coach, and that’s what mark he will leave on them. 

On Monday, some of the players shared their favorite Rhoads memories. 

Levi Peters

ISU linebacker Levi Peters has never been known to do things conventionally. When he enters the locker room coming off the team bus, he sports an American flag suit. But his unconventional style of play is what Rhoads noticed when watching film. 

Rhoads was explaining to Peters how to use his peripherals to pick up players to the side of him. Then Rhoads went on a tangent.

“He said this, ‘I’ve been coaching for a long time,'” Peters recalled. ‘There’s guys who are smart and know the playbook, they just don’t make plays. They do the right thing, they just don’t make the plays.'”

As he continued, Rhoads got more passionate. 

“He told me, ‘Then there’s guys like you, that just go the complete ass-wrong way and still make a play,'” Peters recalled. “‘We find a way to get those guys on the field.’”

As a redshirt senior and a captain, Rhoads’ dismissal wasn’t easy for Peters, and memories just like this have been resurfacing lately. He said it feels like he’s losing a member of his family. 

“People don’t understand what coaches mean to the players, and what they mean to the program,” Peters said. “They’re your family. It’s really hard for me right now to know that I’m going to come in here in a week or two and Wally and Shane [Burnham] are going to be gone, and coach Rhoads is going to be gone. It’s tough.”

Allen Lazard

Sophomore receiver Allen Lazard is one of the best recruits Rhoads ever snagged in his seven years as the head coach. Lazard started as a true freshman. 

In his first game, he caught a 48-yard pass for his first reception. When Lazard walked to the sidelines, Rhoads came up to him and gave him a hug, almost picking him off the ground. 

“It was just unbelievable,” Lazard said. “My emotions were running so high that day, being able to play as a true freshman, following in my dad’s footsteps. It was a lot just because it has been a dream come true.”

Brock Dagel

Redshirt senior offensive lienman Brock Dagel has never been immune to the injury bug. He has been bit several times, but no time worse than when he underwent knee surgery last season. 

His decision bypass the rest of his junior season was made in order to make sure his senior season could be as fruitful as possible. Rhoads understood that. 

So, on senior day against Oklahoma State a couple of weeks ago, when Rhoads greeted all of the seniors walking out of the tunnel, he told Dagel one thing. 

“He told me that you wanted the surgery so you could have a great senior day, so go have a great senior game,” Dagel said. “That just kind of brought back all of the memories of my surgery and made me realize that he’s been there through all of it.”

Dagel struggled to get Rhoads’ words off his mind during the first series of the game. It had that much impact. 

“I didn’t think it was going to hit me as much as it did,” Dagel said.

Dagel remembers the leadership quality of Rhoads. Especially all of the pregame and post-game speeches that inspired so many other players on the team.

“How he’s helped me and this team move forward no matter how bad it gets; that’s something I’ll never forget,” Dagel said. “How good of a leader he was.”

Joel Lanning

Quarterback Joel Lanning and Rhoads haven’t just shared a locker room, a stadium and a university. They also share a hometown: Ankeny, Iowa. 

After Lanning’s first home game as the starting quarterback, Rhoads said he was “Ankeny tough.”

Although Lanning was emotional about the decision, he couldn’t point to a specific instance with Rhoads. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t have many fond ones, though. 

“There’s just so many because it’s been three years,” Lanning said. “You just try to think of everything you can, and you can’t thank him enough. He gave me an opportunity and a scholarship, and I can’t thank him enough for what he did for me. I was close to him, and it’s heartbreaking.”

Rhoads will share a Thanksgiving meal with his players on Wednesday before taking his curtain call as the ISU head football coach this Saturday in Morgantown, W.V.