Fine Tom, let's put the entire context into this discussion. I have added bold and my take as to what I interpret Tom means:
"I don't know what reasonable is. It's a trade-off. Obviously there is a lot of passion surrounding football. Here we've had over 50 years of consecutive sellouts, and with that kind of interest and that kind of passion, inevitably there are going to be some pretty high expectations. So you take the good with the bad, and there is no question that expectations are high. ... A .500 season is not good in the eyes of most fans, and unfortunately a 9-3 or a 10-4 season at times are not perceived as very good. "
My take: Notice he said "unfortunately" 9-3 and 10-4 seasons aren't good enough for NU, meaning that he thinks those seasons should be good enough.
"However, having looked at a lot of football this last year, examined a lot of schedules and looked at a lot of teams, you have to realize that in the last seven years we've won either nine or 10 games per year, and I think there are only three or four schools in the country that have been that successful over that period of time."
My take: Again, 9-3 and 10-4 should be good enough in his eyes. In fact, for him, it puts us in the elite category of the top 3/4 schools in the country in the past 7 years.
"So you have to say that the bar is raised pretty high and expectations are pretty high. Under Bo Pelini, we didn't win a national championship or a conference championship, and so often the focus is on what you haven't done. I heard that for 21 years - "Well, you haven't won a national championship" - then we did win some."
My take: I heard the same crap that Bo heard for 21 years, then we finally won some championships. NU wasn't patient enough. One problem here is that Tom did win conference championships prior to his national championships, Bo didn't.
"But the focus is so often on what you have not done. I'm not sure we didn't maybe win one against Texas a few years ago when they put a second back on the clock. That's about as close as you can come without winning one."
My take: Even though we didn't win a conference championship under Bo, I'll count that one as a championship for him.
"Then we almost beat Oklahoma a few years ago, too. So I guess you take the good with the bad, but there's pretty high expectations."
My take: Again, being close counts, in my book, when it comes to me judging Bo. So you see, we really have 2 (conference) "championships".
