What about an 8-4 regular season where Miami loses to UNC, but still wins the acc coastal, beats the acc Atlantic rep in the acc championship, but then loses in the Orange Bowl to finish 9-5? You would call that a failure of a season?
Seems rather ridiculous to base an opinion of the season entirely on the result of the UNC game. If Miami wins the ACC championship, I wouldn't give two ****s about the overall record or the UNC game. As far as I'm aware, teams don't hoist banners that show the years they beat UNC.
Although I was responding to
@NC_Canes_11 regarding the regular season only, I'll respond anyway.
Serious question:
How realistic is that scenario?
You have to be thinking we beat MSU.
That means we finish with 3 ACC losses, including 1 to UNC.
Which means for us to go to the ACCCG, UNC goes 4-4 in the ACC.
Which means we aren't going, and the banner hoisting will be put off another year.
That's an improbable scenario that I disagree with, much like us going 11-1 with our only loss to UNC.
To answer your question on how you laid out the entire season, I would consider the season to be a mixed bag.
The bad:
1. We back-doored our way into the ACCCG (half-step forward)
2. We had some ****** losses (step back)
3. We lose to UNC, again, and CIS perpetuates the Mack/Manny bull**** (no progress)
4. We didn't win the bowl, and didn't finish off the season to keep the momentum going into the off-season (no progress)
The good:
1. We beat Clemson and finally won the ACC (the solo full step forward)
I'm not declaring the season a "success" under those circumstances.
I can't with a 5-loss team, even with the ACC belt.