Elite Coaches of the BCS Era (1998-2014) and Year 2

I think year 3 might be optimistic. We should be pretty good by then, but the program has a long way to go. We will get a better sense after the season.

I think when the QB, OL, and DL are upperclassmen is when it should happen.

The key next year will be less about the record and more about the eye test.

There will be a lot of question marks and who really knows what to think of what we'll see. I'm not necessarily thinking that we can't be better next year despite some of the losses as there are also a number of areas where we are losing guys where I just have a hard time believing that an offseason of getting coached up won't give comparable (or even better) performance.

The one thing that you have with all of those programs that have been put on that list (with Oregon being somewhat debatable of where you put them on this list), is that each of those programs are definitive blue blood programs. Washington has never been a blue blood program. They are a program that has the ability to perform at a blue blood level by taking comparable talent and using superior development and coaching to beat the blue bloods. Even though people like KJV and the LPT would lead you to believe that we've had great recruiting under Seven, the reality is that there are a boatload of holes in the recruiting (notably at the QB position). I really think that you're really looking at Years 3-4 for when the program under Petersen will take off.

That being said, those that claim that we didn't see progress this year are sorely mistaken. Oregon was Oregon ... and that was what it was. UCLA turned a bit with Kikaha's injury and being the week of Peters getting kicked off the team. It was a game where we got 2 scores down and never really were able to get back on track. If you look at the other games, everything was a 1 score game. Stanford was even in the 4th quarter with the game turning on the failed fake punt. ASU was a tie game in the 4th quarter and the 2-score margin came with the pick 6 with 2 minutes to go in the game. Arizona was a game we controlled and should have won. And even with the Okie Lite bowl game, we lost by 1 score. This was all in a season where you were transitioning with culture and hard arguably one of the worst starting QBs in the history of Husky Football.

The above paragraph is what we need to be looking into again next year. The ability to compete. The ability to put ourselves in position to win games. Narrowing the gap against us and the top teams in the conference. Whether that turns out to be 4, 5, 6, or 7 conference wins whatever. As TCU showed this year, if you have the right pieces in place, you can go from 4 wins to Top 3 in the nation.