The record has not improved but I still believe the team has improved this year. The 2015 team was not as good as its record stated. We actually got outscored on the year, lost games by 37 and 58 points and were struggling at halftime with FAU. We finished #49 in Sagarin last year and are #20 this year. There's been more progress than the W-L indicates.
We'll probably finish 8-4 and I'm not going to predict the bowl. With that being said I believe next year will provide us with a better idea of how Richt's tenure is going. Even coaches regarded as great often don't produce a lot in their first year (i.e. Saban, Carroll) and Richt is actually doing better than they did in year 1. By year 2 they have something going although as often as not the full fruits of the coaching change don't arrive until year 3. Saban and Carroll lost 2 games their 2nd year and didn't win a title until year 3. Urban Meyer has produced quicker results but he never has inherited a bad situation. He got Zook's recruits at UF and Tressel's recruits at Ohio State. (With Fickell being interim coach for 6 months in between.)
Golden and Shannon also had bad 1st years, which is the counterpoint. Shannon was familiar with the players when he took over and on defense wasn't changing the schemes very much. He truthfully didn't have a lot of excuses to go 5-7 his 1st year, especially with 38 and 48 point losses. Golden had more of an excuse for a poor 1st year since he was bringing in more new schemes and didn't have much familiarity with the players. Granted things never got much better in later years under Golden.
We'll probably finish 8-4 and I'm not going to predict the bowl. With that being said I believe next year will provide us with a better idea of how Richt's tenure is going. Even coaches regarded as great often don't produce a lot in their first year (i.e. Saban, Carroll) and Richt is actually doing better than they did in year 1. By year 2 they have something going although as often as not the full fruits of the coaching change don't arrive until year 3. Saban and Carroll lost 2 games their 2nd year and didn't win a title until year 3. Urban Meyer has produced quicker results but he never has inherited a bad situation. He got Zook's recruits at UF and Tressel's recruits at Ohio State. (With Fickell being interim coach for 6 months in between.)
Golden and Shannon also had bad 1st years, which is the counterpoint. Shannon was familiar with the players when he took over and on defense wasn't changing the schemes very much. He truthfully didn't have a lot of excuses to go 5-7 his 1st year, especially with 38 and 48 point losses. Golden had more of an excuse for a poor 1st year since he was bringing in more new schemes and didn't have much familiarity with the players. Granted things never got much better in later years under Golden.