A little historical perspective as we approach the big game. I was thinking the other day about how Frank stacks up against our other coaches in their first four years. Frank has one conference championship and two major and two minor bowls, with two wins and one pending. His third team was preseason No. 1 and in his fourth will play for the national championship. Tom had no conference championships and two major and two minor bowls of which he won three. His fourth team was preseason No. 1 and didn't play for the national championship. The Bobfather had three conference championships and played in three major bowls and one minor bowl. He won two of those, and his fourth team was preseason No. 1. They played for the national championship and lost.

I would be the first to admit that Bob started from scratch and made us a champion. His legacy endures in our program today. But I think the similarities are striking. Frank is in a much tougher league and the rules are much tighter. I think we are harder to please than when Bob or Tom started and therefore tend to be quicker to get down on Frank. But I think his record compares very favorably with Bob's and Tom's, and Tom started with the same sort of stacked deck. If Frank can win, you could argue that he had the best first four years of any of our coaches.

Game preview will follow next week, but I will tell you right now that we didn't come this far to lose. I will tell you why and how next week.
 
-- The Colonel