re: Is there any realistic scenario where we have sustained success?

Well the first thing to do is not panic. We had a bad game. It happens. Some changes are going to need to be made to our coaching staff. Should be an interesting off season.

As for our recruiting disadvantage, huge chunks of the state are effectively dead zones and LR just doesn't produce the talent they used to. The Arkansas Delta isn't going to come roaring back any time soon. Fortunately NW Arkansas is exploding in population so twenty or thirty years from now demographics might actually be on our side for a change. Which is cold comfort now.

Sustained success is possible. We will need coaches with ties to the South that can recruit here. We need to find a way to get the LR programs back from the dead. We need to stay the course of improvement, and if that means firing a coach that has hit his ceiling then so be it but I'm not ready to shite can Bert just yet.

We are not a quick fix program unless one of those golden generations of Arkansas talent poofs into existence in the next year or two. Recruiting the scum of the Earth is no guarantee for quick success either, Ole Miss has four losses this year and the NCAA getting ready to drop the hammer on them.

If we are going to make it back to the upper echelons of college football its going to take time to make that happen. It probably wouldn't hurt if one of the Walmart heirs decided to start pouring hundreds of millions into the program either.