2015 started with the decision to extend O'Leary after the 2013 season. He wanted to retire but they threw 4 million dollars at him to stay two more years. Bad mistake. He could have left on a high note and we could have gotten a hot-commodity coach (and staff) to come right in and take over a squad that went 9-4 in 2014, with one loss being a last second FG to Penn State (literally 00:00 on the clock), where we started a new QB in that game and he was horrible, so we basically benched him at half (and he never played again), came out with the guy that was QB the rest of the year, didn't convert a 4th and 1, roughed their punter which led to them scoring a TD, and plenty of other miscues. We also lost to UConn that year in an away game that was like 40 degrees, raining, 20-25 mph winds, etc... yes, no excuses as it is a conference game but we were very close to being 10-2 or 11-1 going into Bowl season.
After the 2013 season programs like yours came and poached our positional staff, by just throwing money at them. Our DC left to be the head coach at Rhode Island, and although nobody was wowed by the guy, when he leaves along with a bunch of positional coaches you lose continuity.
After the 2014 season our OC retired, Charlie Taafe. Guy was special. He basically took whatever QB was put in front of him and made them successful. A shame in his tenure he only got one chance to have a QB start two seasons in a row. There were no 3/4/5-star kids put in front of him. Under this guy, we went 9-5 in 2009 using a Grad transfer from Wake Forest as our QB (he was a backup there) that showed up not long before the season started. in 2010 he took a true freshman QB, Geoff Godfrey, and we went 10-4. in 2011, Godfrey had a lot of family/personal issues and started splitting time with Blake Bortles (we went 5-7, losing 6 of 7 games by less than a TD). Godfrey actually left the program at the end of 2011 but came back the next season as a WR, after having to address the team and ask them if it was OK to rejoin (in essence re-commit himself to the team). A real testament to his character, especially knowing how humbling it must have been to have had so much success right away, then lose it. He was a solid option at WR for his last two years. 2012 and 2013 he finally had the same starting QB two years in a row (Blake Bortles) and we went 10-4 and 12-1. In 2014 he had yet another new QB to coach and we went 9-4.
Also after 2014, UF indirectly poached our DC. Well, he went to Colorado State but because UF paid Colorado State 8 million dollars to get Jim McElwain, Colorado State just threw a bunch of money at him (and other coaches) and he left. So after 2014 we lost our OC and DC.
This leads us to 2015. We had a coach everybody knew was retiring and no OC or DC. He couldn't hire anybody worth a damn because what guy wants to come in knowing a staff is going to be put in place a year later and you're likely to get sh_t-canned. As a result we got a DC that took the job because they had just been sh_t-canned from their previous job, and for OC promoted from within, which doesn't mean that is the best candidate available. It was a bad situation all-around and that is the long-form story of me explaining why we sucked in 2015.
The good news is our Atheltics Dept leadership and School President have built a solid foundation for athletics and thus the reason we were able to bounce back so quickly.
