That's a valid point.

by Bill, Murrieta, CA, Monday, May 14, 2012, 20:23 (5139 days ago) @ Jay

I agree that winning [and I'd add competing for] a national championship is the goal and everything else should be a prelude to winning [or competing for] one. From that perspective, a 10-3 season is not really any better than an 8-5 season as you're neither competing nor in the position to win the title. So we're in agreement there.

But I think the hole in that argument is in terms of establishing program reputation and credibility. 'Rebuilding' is perfectly acceptable on occasion, once your program has reached a peak. Therefore, it was fine for Lou to have rebuilding years post-1988 because we understood where the 'peak' was. We don't have that yet with Kelly, but once we do, I think he would/should be afforded the same rebuilding years that Lou was granted.

Losing games we should have won (USF, Michigan, Florida State) as we did last year, to me, is not 'rebuilding' and are not the type of games that a quality program should be losing. If Kelly can put an end to those types of losses, we'll be in good shape in building towards a national championship. But I don't think continuing with those types of losses can be part of a winning program.