This, pretty much. Having followed AU football since the late 60s, this is the only real explanation.

As an illustration, I remind you all that 4 of AU's last 5 coaching hires going back to 1951 have had years in which their squads received #1 votes in the final AP poll. Only Doug Barfield, who had the misfortune to compete every year against two of the greatest HCs in college SEC history (Bryant and Dooley) while on probation, failed to seriously challenge for an MNC. Obviously Malzahn has continued that trend.

At the same time, all of these HCs save the current one (obviously) capped their AU careers with losing seasons. Even more tellingly, most went into their final disastrous seasons with high expectations:

Jordan '75: AP preseason #8, finished 3-6-2
Barfield '80: AP preseason #19, finished 5-6
Dye '92: Unranked, finished 5-6
Bowden '98: AP preseason #25, finished 3-8
Tuberville '08: AP preseason #10, finished 4-7
Chizik '12: Unranked, finished 3-9

There's no denying it - the OP is right. While we have rarely experienced extended periods of sub-mediocrity since the Barfield Era (back to back losing seasons only once in the last 32 years), nor have we had very many horrible years (2012 was only the fourth season since 1953 that we've lost 7 or more games) neither have we built the kind of sustained excellence like Florida from '90-'01 or Bama currently.

As someone once said, it is what it is.

This post was edited on 4/23/14 at 10:09 am