who we thought they were before the season started; a very young grass-green group. Anyone with a lick of sense knows you don’t lose NFL quality players to the NFL and not feel it. And we lost a bunch. Then when this season started, unfortunately, we got off to the worst possible start.

How did we get off to a bad start? We beat an FSU team expected to be an ACC contender. They weren’t……….but we thought they were, and our expectations rose to the ceiling. Now we are seeing the result of a changing of the guard – ANY changing of the guard. Coach B replaces coach A and what’s his first order of business? Because no coach can afford an entirely recruit-less year, you take A’s recruits and hope like hell they can fit the scheme you plan to introduce. Not saying some don’t, but most won’t. Still, when a player goes down, you can’t just leave his spot vacant, so you hold on to the recruits that committed to A. Bottom line: that first class is never the class you really wanted.

What happens next? You get to year three and now it really shows up. The guys that are juniors and who should be making s significant contribution are placeholders for the guys to follow and who really are who you wanted. Maybe there are times and places where that formula isn’t followed, but I don‘t recall it. Jeeze, even Alabama went through hard times after the Bear.

My point is that I personally am not going to go on this board and start trashing this team or this staff for achieving what I expected all along. And for quite a few of you, I am so glad to hear that you won every game you ever played, made 100 on every test you ever took and hope you can find it in your heart to forgive the rest of us for not living up to your expectations.