Nick Saban's first 4 years at Michigan State: 6 wins, 6 wins, 7 wins, 6 wins. First year at Bama 7 wins.
Dabo Swinney's first 3 years at Clemson: 4 wins (in 7 games as the interim coach), 9 wins, 6 wins.
Brian Kelly's first 2 years at Central Michigan: 4 wins, 6 wins. First 2 years at ND: 8 wins, 8 wins.
Pete Carroll's first year at USC: 6 wins.
You guys would all be on here trying to run these guys off if they had the same start here at UT than at their previous stops. I would argue we are in a worse spot than all of those other school's when they took over their programs. A decade plus of instability, looming NCAA investigation and sanctions, the toughest conference in college football and the vocal idiots expect this dumpster fire of a program to be turned around in 2 games. Hell, look at our basketball program as an example. Rick Barnes had a losing record his first two seasons combined before he got it turned around. We aren't in a position to turn this around in year 1 and most likely year 2 either.
The reality is that no matter who we hired; this was going to be a rough year. We haven't recruited at a high enough level, haven't developed enough guys, and the bulk of our best players all left the program before the season. I have no idea if Heupel is the guy or not. Heupel was pretty far down the list in terms of our coaching wish list so honestly he probably isn't the guy long term. However, the hope is that he can bring in some talent, get us to 7 or 8 wins a year, and we are a much more attractive job for the guy to take us beyond that. Either way, blaming this dumpster fire of a program on Heupel is asinine and ridiculous.