Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard must be living a charmed life. Once again, he's been bailed out by another school after making a bad hire. In 2008, Auburn hired away Gene Chizek despite his 2-14 record in conference play. Today, Creighton will introduce Greg McDermott as the new Bluejays head basketball coach despite McDermott's 18-46 career losing record in Big XII conference play.  Two weeks ago, Clone Chronicle's Mark Kieffer labeled Iowa State's basketball program "A Bigger Mess Than I Thought Was Possible."  Pollard probably had plenty of reasons to dismiss McDermott, but couldn't afford to.  (See 2005 Nebraska basketball with Barry Collier.)

So Iowa State was looking at a struggling program when suddenly, Iowa State gets a second chance.  Already former Texas A&M and Kentucky coach Billy Gillespie is showing interest in the Cyclones.  Pollard has a track record of doing better on the second try.  Paul Rhoades took the Cyclone football team to a bowl game this past season, and his reaction after upsetting Nebraska in that eight turnover debacle became a YouTube sensation.

Will Pollard strike again after being bailed out once again?  Iowa State sure would hopes so.