You may have convinced me

I was going to say no, but I think you are right that there is at least one scenario. Let's say Kelly takes the team to the NC game twice in a row, as you suggest, then his successor wins an NC in the next year or two.

That would mean Kelly didn't win an NC himself, but I think it would be reasonable to consider that he'd have set the program up to win an NC. I think that would be a successful tenure coming off the Davie, Willingham, Weis era.

I consider the above-scenario extremely, extremely unlikely.