If I were an AD, my general rule of thumb would be to never fire a coach who is on an upward trajectory, even if that trajectory isn't moving quite as fast as some people would like. Our record has improved every year under Butch, and would be much better this year without all the injuries.
That said, if they begin to plateau, you don't want to let them linger there for too long, either (unless that plateau is at the very top). So next season will be a big one for Butch. So will the next couple recruiting classes. This program still has forward momentum, but you see recruiting coming back down to earth a bit, and it's not hard to imagine that momentum coming to an end in a couple years. I did see that our 3* QB commit that most thought was a reach decommitted today. Hopefully that's a good thing. There's still time to salvage a great class this year, but things need to get moving.
Agree BDV.....recruiting is the lifeblood and no more so than in the SEC. Last years class was around 8th in the SEC......If this 2017 class doesn't improve a lot by Feb. we will be around 7th, 8th or 9th in the SEC again. Just can't have back to back recruiting classes like that and compete for championships and it makes 2 years down the road even more difficult to compete.
