Several big-time coaches got off to slow starts in year one (zero). Nick Saban lost four in a row at one point in year one in Tuscaloosa, including embarrassing defeats to Mississippi State and Louisiana-Monroe. Pete Carroll did the same thing at Southern Cal in his first season at the helm, going 6-6 in Los Angeles before taking over the Pac-10. And even Dabo Swinney, the door-to-door Cutco salesman of college football, lost six games at Clemson during his first season, suffering setbacks to un-ranked Georgia Tech and Maryland.
So, good college football coaches can be made out to be human.