Paul Rhoads Fired by Iowa State: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

After seven years with the school, Paul Rhoads is out as head coach of the Iowa State Cyclones. 

Fox Sports' Bruce Feldman and ESPN's Brett McMurphy both reported the news Sunday afternoon, though McMurphy added that he will still coach the Cyclones' final game against West Virginia on Saturday.

Iowa State went on to confirm the decision, via Brandon Chatmon of ESPN.

The news doesn't come as a major surprise after the Cyclones missed out on a bowl game for the third straight season. And more so than simply failing to qualify for a bowl game, ISU simply wasn't competitive toward the end of Rhoads' reign.

Iowa State won five games between 2013 and 2014 and showed little progress in 2015, picking up just three overall wins. The standards for the Cyclones aren't as high as for other Big 12 schools, but it became apparent the program wasn't headed in the right direction.

The school gambled when it signed Rhoads to a 10-year extension in December 2011, roughly a month after the Cyclones upset the then-No. 2 Oklahoma State Cowboys. Even if contracts are often ripped up and rarely fulfilled in college football, seeing a team commit to a head coach for 10 years is almost unheard of.

Given Iowa State's history—or lack thereof—on the football field, you can understand why it felt such a pressing need to secure what it thought was a promising head coach. Plus, a $1.6 million base salary wasn't altogether unreasonable for a Big 12 head coach.

What the extension did instead was tie Iowa State to a good but not great head coach and saddled the program with a hefty buyout in order to send Rhoads packing.

Whereas that win over Oklahoma State looked to be the start of something special in Ames, it was instead Rhoads' one moment in the spotlight.

The problem for Iowa State is that finding a replacement won't exactly be easy. As Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel noted in October, it feels as though an unusual number of schools have openings at the moment:

The Cyclones will have a lot of competition for many of the top candidates, which will make the hiring process even harder.

Also problematic for Iowa State is its place in the college football hierarchy. The renovations to the Bergstrom Football Complex in 2012 provide the program with great facilities, but that only goes so far toward luring top recruits.

The Cyclones haven't had a winning season since 2009, and they haven't cracked the Associated Press' Top 25 poll in a decade. Not to mention, the program hasn't won 10 games ever in its history.

Becoming a consistent contender in the Big 12 isn't impossible for Iowa State, but it's a years-long process. And when the school shows a modicum of success, holding on to the coaches who made it happen would prove difficult.

Even Baylor's rise under Art Briles started slowly, as the Bears went 4-8 in each of his first two seasons. He also had a talent like Robert Griffin III to help transform the team.

Meanwhile, Kansas' improbable 12-1 2007 campaign came six years into Mark Mangino's tenure.

Rhoads' replacement will likely be given plenty of time to try to work his magic, but he'll have an uphill road to climb to make the Cyclones nationally prominent again.