You’re forgetting the part where he came back and went 2-20 against FBS teams, including presiding over the worst defense in the history of major college football.
I don’t think anyone would argue he inherited a bowl-caliber team, but we just put up our worst record since 1932 and got out-recruited by the likes of: Utah State, Appalachian State, Kent State, Georgia State, Northern Illinois, Portland State, UMass, Georgia Southern, and Coastal Carolina.
I don’t know how much better someone else could have done. But it’s not really possible to have done any worse. A winless season against FBS teams followed by a recruiting class ranked the same as Harvard’s probably forced a few hands here on the football side of things. And Randy shares in the responsibility for that.