It's been slow, but you can't deny that there has been progress.
Progress from 2017, no question. We were better in 2018 than 2017 and we've been better in 2019 than 2018.
But then why were we so unfathomably awful in 2017? Worse by some margin than the two previous reference points for advanced stats-era Illini ineptitude (Zook's first year and Beckman's first year).
Well, we were executing a plan. The plan was to intentionally undergo a youth movement, get our kids a ton of experience playing together and in the same system, and to build up from there. How's the plan gone? Well, we've kicked a number of the most talented and promising kids in that group off the team (Williams, Dorsey, Boyd), fired both coordinators, installed an entirely different offense and covered up a bunch of those guys with grad transfers, who make up most of the best guys we have.
The whole thing was a waste, in the end.
And how much progress have we made? Remains to be seen I guess, but on the evidence so far, progress though we've made, we're still nowhere near as good as the Cubit interim year, despite the fact that we've got an old and experienced roster that represents the culmination of a roster-building process. We're at the summit, and we're still nowhere near what the summit was for Tim Freakin' Beckman.
Also, if they were to cut the check, what guarantees do you have that the 4th coach in 10 years is going to win? At first, it will set the program back another three years after you account for all the transfers, him wanting to hire HIS staff, which will directly effect recruiting(especially St. Louis)....then it will take time to install his system with the type of players that fit his system.
And the fact that year 4 of Lovie looks so much worse than quasi-year 4 for Beckman under Cubit really drives home the folly of this point. Set the program back from what? We've taken a couple of baby steps from the absolute bottom of a well that Lovie threw us down on purpose, to no particular gain.
The bigger reality is that the school is not going to eat his buyout and hire another coach this year. In my opinion, we just have to accept that. He's going to be here, whether it be 3, 4, 5 or 6 wins this year.
And ultimately, this piece and the other piece are intimately related. This is just an attitude toward what Illinois football is, and what firing a coach is, not really an analysis of the particular situation. And that's not really something you can argue against with facts.