I don’t understand the need to try and justify the bad results — we’ve seen a lot of underperforming football lately.
Losing to bottom 10 UMass and literally the worst defensive team ECU was completely avoidable. It may not have been a top 25 team, but no way was the team destined to be as bad as they ended up—they didn’t have the #112 recruiting class.
There was easily enough talent to make a bowl.
Also underperformed in 2016 with 16 returning starters and several NFL guys. We were losing games with getting 5-6 turnovers which is statistically a huge anomaly.
Last year’s 63 finish was the worst since 2003 and doesn’t mean the ship has been righted. We haven’t had less to cheer about in a long time and things need to improve.