[CardinalSagehen]

How do you define importance?

Importance to the program in the short-term? Long-term?

To me personally as a fan?

In the eyes of potential recruits?

In the eyes of the media?

Are “important” things “must happen,” “nice to happen”, “could well happen?”

Leaving probability aside, I would probably rank beating the Irish at the top of almost every category. IMHO it’s the biggest opportunity left to salvage some respect this year.

I meant it as a completely subjective exercise, mostly leaving probability aside.  You define what is important to you as a fan and make trade-offs between the short and long term, assuming everything on the list has at least some chance of occurring.  You can extend the horizon to next spring if you'd like, allowing for spring practices and the spring game, when some more light could be shed on QB/OL/general team health.

I've edited the OP just a bit to clarify.

[CardinalSagehen]

How do you define importance?

Importance to the program in the short-term? Long-term?

To me personally as a fan?

In the eyes of potential recruits?

In the eyes of the media?

Are “important” things “must happen,” “nice to happen”, “could well happen?”

Leaving probability aside, I would probably rank beating the Irish at the top of almost every category. IMHO it’s the biggest opportunity left to salvage some respect this year.

I meant it as a completely subjective exercise, mostly leaving probability aside.  You define what is important to you as a fan and make trade-offs between the short and long term, assuming everything on the list has at least some chance of occurring.  You can extend the horizon to next spring if you'd like, allowing for spring practices and the spring game, when some more light could be shed on QB/OL/general team health.

I've edited the OP just a bit to clarify.