Simply put, you don't fire college coaches after three seasons on the job when you go to two bowl games in those three seasons. You HAVE to give the man a reasonable shot at really trying to turn this thing around, and three years isn't it, especially considering that first year was pretty much wasted coming in mid January.
As far as recruiting, yeah, it's still better than the best of the previous regime's classes, so I'm willing to cut some slack for one "down" year. Another note to make, is about where he is recruiting. RB is a weak spot for us, and he's got RBs coming in with multiple BCS offers. OL is a little weak. He's got some OLs coming in with a few BCS offers. He's also got a couple WRs with a bunch of BCS offers. These are spots where we could use some more high quality, as anyone watching our offense can attest to. Yeah, on the defensive side, I'm a little more concerned, but we got a lot of defensive, highly regarded talent already here. I don't think the priority was as strong on that side of the ball except for at CB, which is the only spot where I'm kinda disappointed about what's being brought in a little bit, but even a couple of those guys got BCS offers.