re: How does an "elite" program get itself into a 4 year JJ/JL mess?

They let the program get into that debacle b/c they made excuses. Bottom line. Whether it was Perriloux, Zach Lee, the OC, the QB coach developing them poorly, Shep not panning out, etc. its all excuses. When someone in the real world starts giving me excuse after excuse after excuse of why something's not done right or on time it becomes evident that excuses have become too easy for them. It's too easy for them to throw their hands up and focus on why they have a problem instead of finding a solution.