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Pinellas Roots
By BobbY La Gesse
Date Posted: 2008-09-04
If Iowa State wants to be a big time football program, it has to think big. And it doesn’t get much bigger than a billboard.
That’s right, ISU has a billboard. Just it’s not in Iowa, it’s in Clearwater, Fla. I’ve swapped e-mails with Iowa State alumni association Tampa Bay club president Jeffrey Abbott about it. The billboard was purchased by donor Ed Droste, who was a co-founder of Hooters. The athletic department did not contribute any money to this project.
The billboard features a picture of coach Gene Chizik with the catch phrase “Pinellas Rootsâ€. Pinellas is is the county Chizik is from. Abbott hopes the billboards can draw attention to the Cyclones and remind potential recruits of ISU’s roots in Florida.
This may seem a little weird for a football team to do, but I say why not. What do the Cyclones have to lose from this?
At best the billboard helps them land a few more high-profile Florida recruits and gives ISU a better national profile. At worst, no one notices it and the Cyclones move on with their season.
ISU isn’t the first team to have a billboard placed somewhere outside of its home state. A few years ago Rutgers did the same thing in Florida. And the Cyclones could do worse than following the Scarlet Knight’s model for rebuilding a program.
Thanks to the coaching of Randy Schiano, and his recruiting connections in Florida, Rutgers has become a football school. In Schiano’s first seven years, Rutgers has gone from a Big East cellar dweller to a program looking to make its fourth straight bowl game.
Chizik can only hope a Florida billboard leads to the same things in Ames.
Pinellas Roots
By BobbY La Gesse
Date Posted: 2008-09-04
Bobby La Gesse covers Iowa State football and women's basketball for The Tribune and gocyclones.com.
If Iowa State wants to be a big time football program, it has to think big. And it doesn’t get much bigger than a billboard.
That’s right, ISU has a billboard. Just it’s not in Iowa, it’s in Clearwater, Fla. I’ve swapped e-mails with Iowa State alumni association Tampa Bay club president Jeffrey Abbott about it. The billboard was purchased by donor Ed Droste, who was a co-founder of Hooters. The athletic department did not contribute any money to this project.
The billboard features a picture of coach Gene Chizik with the catch phrase “Pinellas Rootsâ€. Pinellas is is the county Chizik is from. Abbott hopes the billboards can draw attention to the Cyclones and remind potential recruits of ISU’s roots in Florida.
This may seem a little weird for a football team to do, but I say why not. What do the Cyclones have to lose from this?
At best the billboard helps them land a few more high-profile Florida recruits and gives ISU a better national profile. At worst, no one notices it and the Cyclones move on with their season.
ISU isn’t the first team to have a billboard placed somewhere outside of its home state. A few years ago Rutgers did the same thing in Florida. And the Cyclones could do worse than following the Scarlet Knight’s model for rebuilding a program.
Thanks to the coaching of Randy Schiano, and his recruiting connections in Florida, Rutgers has become a football school. In Schiano’s first seven years, Rutgers has gone from a Big East cellar dweller to a program looking to make its fourth straight bowl game.
Chizik can only hope a Florida billboard leads to the same things in Ames.
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