considered a very strong hire at the time - we were even very upset at the possibility of him getting pouched for the FSU job early in his tenure. People seem to forget this in bashing Whit for contract extensions early in Fuente's tenure.

Did it work out, no - but if every AD in college was graded based on 1 football hire, about 90% of them would get fired. I'd be willing to bet, if anyone would admit their #1 candidate (that we realistically had a shot at landing) back when Fuente was hired, they would look to find out that coach has since been fired or retired.

Keeping him around this season may have been a mistake - and I personally feel like keeping him while not mandating BC be canned definitely was a mistake - but Fuente was not a bad hire and that narrative needs to die pretty quickly, IMO.