I guess the question I would ask, is - do you think this coaching staff has gotten the most out of the talent on this team the past 2 years?
My question would be, how do you quantify getting the most out of your players?
Putting the players into position to win when their talent level is above the opposition.
Example, I don't think that happened in 2004. The defensive coaching staff insisted on running coverage schemes that weren't in line with the talent and athletes they had in the secondary. Two of those players go on to play in the NFL and I believe they both started last year. Was it talent or scheme in that case?
This year, they employ more mixed coverage schemes and don't rely on man-to-man pressure from the CB's and they are much more successful.
More than just about any sport, a football team is truly a team, not a collection of talented individuals. The key is to maximize the contribution from that collection of individuals so that their abilities are eventually reflected in the final score.
So the question becomes one of how much talent did our opposition have and did we beat them... Do you think we got the most out of our players in the Pitt game? The KState game? Missouri, Kansas??
We seemed to have done that in Colorado and against Michigan - both games where the staff had over 2 weeks to prepare - so I'm starting to think that there might be a correlation there - although Colorado was truly in disarray by the time the season ended.
So, in my view, the jury is still out as to whether or not this staff can consistently get the most out of their players. If this team loses more games than some people on this board predict for next year, but shows consistent effort and comes into every game prepared and puts themselves into a position to win, that will be a big step forward to showing that they can get the most out of these players (something that is judged separately from the W/L record at the end of the season)
P.S. A good example of a staff that definitively did NOT get the most out of their talent was Michigan this past season. They weren't really national title contenders, but a 7-5 record is very disappointing for them considering the talent they have on that team