Bates Transfer Thoughts
The Bates transfer has created headlines and mass reaction from Cyclone fans over the last day. Myself, I'm not necessarily angry or overly bothered by it. It's not as though the possibility of Bates transferring has never been broached by people following the team. I am mostly confused by it and bothered by two things.
The two things that bother me are:
- The timing - I don't feel like Bates necessarily owes ISU or the fans anything. But I do believe he owes his teammates the respect of finishing the year. He will obviously have friends on the team and he has actively been involving in hosting recruits. Obviously he didn't take that responsibility seriously.
- Not telling the coaching staff himself. I understand that it would be hard to approach somebody like Chizik and tell him you're quitting the team. However to have your dad call Pollard and have Pollard relay the message to the staff... I'm sorry there is no other way to describe that than gutless.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not intending to rip the kid. I think there is more at work here than just Bates making a decision as his father was heavily involved. Those two things irk me but don't necessarily impact Cyclone football other than emotionally and I hope the rest of the team is emotionally mature enough to handle him cutting out.
The thing I really don't understand is the reasoning behind leaving now. For one it does not reflect well on him at his future stop. He also cannot practice the rest of the season and even if he were a backup I would think time spent on the field would help him get better as opposed to time spent otherwise.
Something else bothering Cyclone fans is the rumors that he is looking at Nebraska. I don't doubt that he is, but let him go there if he wants to. I think he'll find that sitting to play one year would probably have been a tremendous waste of his talent and I highly doubt Nebraska doesn't have at least one other quality quarterback coming in or on the roster. Nothing is going to be given to him even if he's from Omaha.
Honestly best of luck to Phil. I don't think he's a bad kid, he helped ISU many ways off the field, and he conducted himself with class on and off the field until this moment. Do I think he made a mistake leaving in the middle of the year? Yes, but he's confident enough I doubt it will effect him. And since he was obviously beaten out by Arnaud on the field... I don't think it will effect Iowa State football as much as some believe either.
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Possible pickup
Initially when I first read the story I thought well that sucks for both groups. Sucks for Bates since he got beat out by a younger player and now feels a transfer is in order to save face and sucks for ISU since now they don’t really have a backup at QB. Then I remembered the guy was from Omaha and that we have two talented yet inexperienced QBs next year and Bates might help us out in that regard since…well, he actually played some Big 12 games before.
However, if he got beat out by Arnaud(sp?) what would his chances be beating out Patrick Witt or Zach Lee. Plus, Bates is a senior right? Not really sure we want another one year Senior QB running the offense when development will have to occur at some point down the line.
Shows what I know about ISU football
And eligibility rules of college football since I meant he WILL be a senior not a senior now…kinda hard to play for a new team when you already graduated. (insert N stands for Nowledge joke here)
And agreed on the sit two years deal since I read that today in the Omaha World Herald. Probably for his benefit, if he wants to play now that is, he should be to go to a school outside of the conference to play in a year rather than sit two then play one year at NU. Plus, we need to develop our QBs for the future.
I don't think he sits two
I think he sits one, loses that year of eligibility, and would be a senior in 2010.
Timing is weird
I really don’t understand the timing, either. This year already counts as a year of eligibility, right? Why not finish out the season and make full use of the eligibility?
The transfer itself doesn’t bother me. I changed my mind about a lot of things at this age, so I have difficulty holding this kids to a higher standard without being a hypocrite.











