(12-19-2016 04:36 PM)Lou_C Wrote: (12-19-2016 03:48 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote: [quote='Lou_C' pid='13923270' dateline='1482178478']
Man, look how shortly removed the ACC is from being horrible. Not just not great, or mediocre...but horrible in 2011-12.
And a very solid #5 (or #6) for the six years before that.
I know we're feeling pretty good now, but we need eternal football diligence. We need about six more years of this at least...put a decade of credible football together and I'll be less worried about falling back to the standard of the previous four decades.
No doubt. 2012 was the worst... ACC football... EVER!
On the plus side...four years of strength is still four years of strength. Seems like a blink of the eye, but a decent season next year and we're halfway to a decade. That will put a whole lot of distance between the embarrassment of the BCS era.
The good thing is...I don't see a whole lot of reason to expect a sharp dropoff. Clemson is making incredible strides in facilities and recruiting that are going to force the issue on everyone else.
Last year's coaching hires were strong, even if they haven't produced major upgrades yet (and some won't...that's not really the point...the point is the teams got best available which is a philosophy that will eventually pay off).
I don't see any scenarios where you've got a coach who's kicking butt in what is clearly just a stepping stone (Mack Brown era at UNC).
I usually don't have much trouble finding the negative, but it's hard to find a lot to say "Yeah, but as soon as __________ happens, it will be right back to the usual."
After all, when Saban leaves, Alabama can't hire Jimbo AND Dabo. Or can they?
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UNC did not have to be a stepping stone for Brown. Basketball at UNC drove his move. He couldn't get a full house in Kenan in competition with an early season basketball game, and he was there during UNC-Ch's last Chancellor with independent power - Micheal Hooker. The Business School and the Ed Foundation were not running the school at that time, had it been just 5 years later, the B-School and EF would have paid to keep him at UNC, plus the accommodations that go with so many ball players that should be the local community college instead of UNC. Brown didn't want to play second fiddle to basketball.