Ready for 2014? After all, 2013 didn’t give Virginia football fans much to smile about. But will 2014 be any better? To start that discussion this offseason, we first have to take a look back at the 2013 season through a wider lens.

A 2013 Season Thing

In some ways, the most painful aspect of watching the 2013 season was the strange way in which, in some games, it felt like you could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel and yet, in other games, it felt like little progress was being made at all. This in a season where a radical makeover of the coaching staff was … made … required … forced … pick your word … with the goal of improving on some past issues. But while the defense might look more capable one game, the handling of timeouts could be confusing the next. While the passing game could suddenly come to life one game, the defense could regress drastically in the same game. While the running game stepped up at times, the inability to gain a yard … a single yard … was too much for the offense to accomplish frequently. And that was just what was obvious for all to see on the field.

Quite a year. So how do we judge it?

Back in 2010, this same question was posed to me. Back then, when I wrote about when I would be willing to judge Mike London’s performance based solely on wins and losses, here was my answer:

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