Not understanding why it wasn't a mistake.
Would you consider his tenure as a whole successful?
Are we more competitive in 2015 than we were in 2008?
Have we passed any teams in our conference during that time? I guess we're now better than KU.
I cannot dispute your statements above. But I think it comes down to how a "hiring mistake" is defined. If someone appears qualified and that person is hired, it generally isn't considered to be a "mistake" to hire them. From what I could tell, Rhoads had adequate qualifications.
The "mistake" comes in evaluation of performance and deciding whether to terminate/retain. Recent FBS history indicates that in the vast majority of cases, if a coach cannot turn things around in 3-5 years, the turnaround doesn't happen. IMO, given the crash and burn in season 5, the "mistake" was not to terminate then. I'm not really sure what Pollard saw to indicate that things would improve. The OC hire had washed out, the decision making was getting worse, and the recruiting classes, apart from a couple of good players, were still at the bottom of the Big 12.