Folsom, Crowder, Mallory, Neuheisel*, Barnett - those are the "typical" coaches in CU's history. I'm pretty sure they all had teams finish in the top 10, they all won conference championships (except the weasel), they all had players get Heisman votes (I'm not 100% sure on that, but I'm nearly positive), they all had consensus All Americans play for them. None of them won MNCs.
We can achieve, and sustain, that level again.
Now, winning another MNC is going to require a coach like one of those above "catching lightning in a bottle" in a very special season - or - CU hiring another McCartney.
MM /= McCartney. So the open question for him is if he's a .500 coach who in a special season can have a team finish in the top 20, or if he's a .700 coach who can have a team finish in the top 5 when things really come together.
I'm still not sure, but the fact that he kept Walters around as long as he did, that Bernardi is still getting a paycheck, and that we're still worried about OL and DL depth 5 season in makes me suspect that his ceiling is top 20, not top 5.
*I debated putting the weasel on this list, but in the end, the average performance over his tenure is right in line with CU's general football history: very, very good - but not necessarily great.
We can achieve, and sustain, that level again.
Now, winning another MNC is going to require a coach like one of those above "catching lightning in a bottle" in a very special season - or - CU hiring another McCartney.
MM /= McCartney. So the open question for him is if he's a .500 coach who in a special season can have a team finish in the top 20, or if he's a .700 coach who can have a team finish in the top 5 when things really come together.
I'm still not sure, but the fact that he kept Walters around as long as he did, that Bernardi is still getting a paycheck, and that we're still worried about OL and DL depth 5 season in makes me suspect that his ceiling is top 20, not top 5.
*I debated putting the weasel on this list, but in the end, the average performance over his tenure is right in line with CU's general football history: very, very good - but not necessarily great.