I think I feel comfortable with where I think we are right now:
1. Our program is no longer in the elite status
2. Memorial Stadium is not a difficult place to win
3. Our players are not better conditioned, stronger, more disciplined, or tougher
4. Our recruiting has not gotten better (recruiting rankings are a joke... see Notre Dame and Blaine Gabbert's stats)
5. We are no longer feared by anyone, anywhere, especially in our conference
This isn't a knee-jerk reaction to the loss. The game was simply a validation for what we all feared. Simply put, I'm no longer in a state of denial.
If I hear that debate centered around the West Coast offense and Callahan getting "his" players one more time, I going to lose it. We are getting dominated because we have not gotten o-line or defensive play like we expect. If you are going to build a team from the ground-up, you have to start with defense. The recruiting ranking are a joke as well, Mike Brown, Jared Tomich, Grant Wistrom, Ed Stewart, Baron Miles.. where they all Parade All-Americans? Both Carrol and Stoops are defensive guys who brought in fresh Offensive minds. Callahan is an offensive mind that brought in tired defensive guys from the Big Ten. Wisconsin no less... Not to mention Pederson and Callahan showing Bo Pellini to the door. Seriously, if we lost every game 3-0 I would feel 100x better than I do right now, because we would at least have something to build on.
I'd put our program at the level of Mizzou/KState... We win when we are heavily favored, we lose at least 1 game a year to a team we should definitely have beaten, and we constantly look for a signature win that never materializes. I live in Missouri, believe me, I recognize the pattern. Speaking of Mizzou, anyone see how they are lining up Macklin to run the end around/reverse type plays. Judging from the last two games, that should work.