Certainly. But everyone from the 2009 class was pretty much able to be redshirted except for the DLs and Jefferson. How could anyone possibly judge whether our redshirt freshmen (Vigo, Olatoye, Orms, Nobriga, Webb, Harris, Handler, Bakhtiari, Simon coming in from JUCO next year, Thornton, Evans, Darden and Ussery) are any good? It's too early to tell. And it's certainly too early on the 2010 class. Plus we don't know what JUCOs we'll supplement with as part of the next couple recruiting classes.
What I'm saying is that I look at our roster and I think the following:
2010: If it's a good season (8+ wins), I'm confident that Hawkins will recruit well for us. He's done it in the past when he had some momentum in the win column (2008's top 15 class). If it's not a good season, Hawkins is fired and our class could go either way depending on the new hire but would probably still be decent (top 35 range on the excitement of a new coach).
2011: Safe assumption that it's a good season. Easier schedule than 2010 and we only graduate a handful of starters from this year's team. If Hawk gets it together this year, he should meet or exceed that success in 2011. A new coach would have a full cupboard and he should win right away.
2012: We'll have a veteran, talented and fast defense. Offensively, we should be talented and veteran on the OL and it looks like our TEs will be good. Skill positions/playmakers need to be found and/or developed. Scares me a lot that we've got to replace starters at QB, RB and 2 WRs that year, but we haven't seen what we have or are going to recruit.
Am I wrong about this? I don't think I am. I think it's more that those who don't share my confidence in the near-term future of Buffs football are simply convinced that our HC, AD and administration are so incompetent that they'll find a way to completely screw this up. I get that. I just will never agree that we don't have the talent to begin something special over the next few seasons.