DGTII: Real or small progress?

The Daryl Gross Tangible Improvement Indicator is a measure of the success of the football program in the eyes of DOCTOR Daryl Gross. Daryl has been very quiet about what 'tangible improvement' actually means, but Nancy Cantor shed some more light on the situation when she was interviewed by Donnie Webb for the piece he did in today's Post-Standard.

"One thing about football, it's quantitatively clear. You can know what real progress means. I think Daryl chose the words, real progress. That means real progress, not small progress."

So we have to see real progress, and not just small progress. Fortunately for you, I happen to have access to a dictionary and this is what the dictionary has to say about real progress and small progress.

According to dictionary.com, progress can be, "a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage". It can also be "the development of an individual or society in a direction considered more beneficial than and superior to the previous level". But really, I prefer this definition, "to grow or develop, as in complexity, scope, or severity".

I think that we can all agree that the football program has grown in severity under Greg Robinson. Things are clearly at a breaking point and in that case, he has shown progress. But is it real progress? Or just small progress?

Again, according to dictionary.com, real means, "unfeigned or sincere". I have always thought that Greggers has been a very sincere guy. I mean he always shows a lot of want-to and he REALLY makes me hope that he can put it together. So I think that he has shown real progress.

Now, small means "of little strength or force". I believe it was Jim Brown who was railing on the team in that ESPN piece about the lack of intensity that he saw. Well I think that Jim Brown knows best and so we have definitely shown small progress.

So I guess maybe the problem for DOCTOR Daryl Gross is that Syracuse has shown real progress in football but we have also shown small progress. It is like a Catch-22 and Daryl Gross is caught in the middle of it all.