My optimism has been sky-high with each new hire. My enthusiasm-level, however, has varied quite a bit with each one. I was too young to really form an opinion when TO was hired (but that was really just a promotion/succession). FS was another promotion/succession, and just the way things were supposed to be (although I was disappointed TO was retiring and had hoped he would have continued at least as long as Bowden). The BC hire was different. I was somewhat enthusiastic, but had hoped we would have been able to pull in someone better (and no, that wouldn't have included Houston Nutt). I was very enthusiastic for BP. I was a bit worried that he had never been a head coach, but thought he was the right guy for the job, and as someone else pointed out, he was hired by TO, so that carried a lot of weight, optimism, and enthusiasm. I was a bit underwhelmed by the MR hire, again thinking we should have been able to get a much bigger fish, but optimistic and willing to give him a chance. The SF hire has me extremely enthusiastic. Two years ago, I would have been in the same place I was when BP was hired, but now he has the HC experience, and he's coming in as the hottest young HC in the country.
So my rankings for optimism would have all of them at the same level, but for enthusiasm, it would be SF, BP (a close second), BC, and then MR. I wouldn't even be able to rate TO or FS, because they were simply "next in line" and I didn't have any reason to believe things would be any different under them (I was quite young when TO was hired, and naive when FS was hired).
