I've said all along, three years is my decision point.

At 3 years, I would have fired Bailiff. Yes, he had a good year in 2008, but two horrible ones in 2007 (with many of the same players who won 7 in 2006 and 10 in 2008, plus Thor) and 2009 (with mostly "his" players). And one step forward, two steps back, is not what Rice needs. If not 3, I would have fired him at 4 or 5. Bailiff had the reputation that his teams played hard, but were sloppy and made lots of unforced mental errors. That certainly seemed to be the case at Rice, and I don't believe that can work here.

That puts me 2 years away from a decision point with Bloomgren. I hope he does well enough to silence his critics, but I don't know. He won 2 games his first year. So did Fred Goldsmith, and that turned out okay. But I had more confidence in Fred's strategic approach than I do in Bloomgren's. I'm still doubtful that Rice can recruit the people to make "pound the rock" work. But if he can make it work, more power to him.

I think the cupboard is barer than what Fred inherited, and I realize that there was an extreme need for a culture change, and those seldom work right away. But it's still going to take wins.