The Victors

1. We have won a game we should have lost and we have lost a game we should have won.

2. I went into this season expecting significant ups and downs, both in the span of a single games and also across the season from game to game.

3. My largest concern (Bryce = bust) just had its most significant piece of counter-evidence. He looked good against a very good Iowa defense.

4. Whitt isn't a perfect coach but the flaws so far don't seem fully consistent with his coaching history. Undisciplined play? Not something his teams were known for. Conservative strategy? Eh, that one might stick.

5. CFB just has more parity now. This weekend, the #4, #12, #13 #16, and #19 ranked teams lost to lower-ranked or unranked opponents. The #1 and #5 teams won by single score margins against lower-ranked or unranked opponents.

6. We're probably still underestimating how dysfunctional the program was under Sherrone, and it takes some time to undo that damage.

7. There are valid criticisms of Beck and Hill, certainly, but I also remember Harbaugh cycling through various coordinators that we weren't happy with.

8. Iowa's entire schtick is winning stupid games on special teams, solid defense, capitalizing on your stupid mistakes, and getting a handful of lucky bounces. The outcome was avoidable but also not surprising.

9. Angry emotional outbursts about Whitt's flat sideline demeanor, etc. don't move me. Nor do comments from sour-grape Utah fans with the typical "this is what you signed up for" stuff.

10. Having said all of the above, I want to see continued improvement and some dramatic course corrections in certain areas (dumb penalties being at the top of the list), but I'm not "out" on Whitt or anything like it. He's not the long-term solution but I still think he's a good custodian until the next hire.

11. I also recognize that while we kind of backed into the Whitt hire with the timing and short list of possible candidates, I'm also eyeing the results of the other names that were bandied about and I'm honestly not feeling too bad about it. Maybe that's an indictment of which names were considered in the first place, but that's a different debate.