...Overall post-NSD:
“Not as good as we began to hope, not as BAD as I once feared.”
Probably can be assessed as “having held our ground”:
I’m not so sure Mullen would have done a whole lot better had he stayed and the new regime it been saddled with a severely curtailed run-up or the inevitable shortcomings of a “transition year”.
That may say more about MULLEN’S recruiting shortcomings than what the future holds for the current staff.