12-22-2022, 10:09 AM
I think another factor is how many games are we competitive in.
Let's be honest, 2007 is defined pretty much by the USC win. We look at that in retrospect as the turnaround point for the program. But what if Sherman was a yard short of the first down or Bradford didn't get the foot down and we lose that game. Would a 3-9 season where we lost convincingly in half of our games be viewed the anywhere near same as it is now?
2008, to me, was more the sign something was coming. Yes, the 5-7 that year is overshadowed by the 8-4 the next year, yes there is the question of redshirting Luck, but looking back there were a couple blowout wins, a couple big losses, and then a whole heap of games we were competitive in. A few things change and we maybe get 6 or 7 wins that year (of course, a couple things change and we maybe only get 3 wins too).
2009 then did a great job of building on 2008 with using Toby more and bringing Luck in and the rest is history. But 2007 always gets credit for the USC win and 2009 always gets credit for Toby and everything else, but 2008 is often overlooked as the important stepping stone.
This year we had one blowout wins, two razor-sharp wins, two close losses (OSU and Cal), and then 7 games where you pretty much knew we were done by halftime. You have to look back pretty far to find that. If we can look like we have life in, say, 7 games next year I'll consider that initial progress, even if not all 7 mean wins.
Let's be honest, 2007 is defined pretty much by the USC win. We look at that in retrospect as the turnaround point for the program. But what if Sherman was a yard short of the first down or Bradford didn't get the foot down and we lose that game. Would a 3-9 season where we lost convincingly in half of our games be viewed the anywhere near same as it is now?
2008, to me, was more the sign something was coming. Yes, the 5-7 that year is overshadowed by the 8-4 the next year, yes there is the question of redshirting Luck, but looking back there were a couple blowout wins, a couple big losses, and then a whole heap of games we were competitive in. A few things change and we maybe get 6 or 7 wins that year (of course, a couple things change and we maybe only get 3 wins too).
2009 then did a great job of building on 2008 with using Toby more and bringing Luck in and the rest is history. But 2007 always gets credit for the USC win and 2009 always gets credit for Toby and everything else, but 2008 is often overlooked as the important stepping stone.
This year we had one blowout wins, two razor-sharp wins, two close losses (OSU and Cal), and then 7 games where you pretty much knew we were done by halftime. You have to look back pretty far to find that. If we can look like we have life in, say, 7 games next year I'll consider that initial progress, even if not all 7 mean wins.