This could have been the moment that we finally got over the hump and win the conference. We had lost only against Texas and were on roll to winning the conference and then that JMar fiasco and lost two conference games. After 7 seasons, he still couldn't win the conference. We got a big W against Miami in the I-Bowl and it was a our 6th bowl win in a row. Still a good season but we seemed to be stuck in that mindset. A good (but not great) winning season and a bowl win, but nothing more. Always competitive, but no conference titles and no rankings.
Then 2020 happened and that season was a COVID mess. Then, 2021 looked promising at first. We collapsed against Miss St after leading most of the game. A hail mary loss to SMU. A competitive loss to NCST (tied or trailing by a touchdown the whole game). Every loss was by one score. Not winning but we were competitive again! Then the team just collapsed. losing to UTEP, UTSA, Old Dominion, UAB, USM(with no QB) and Rice. Holtz wasn't going to get it done. He had lost the team. After almost a decade, we had no conference title, no rankings and at best it wasn't getting better. Realistically we had regressed.
In hindsight, would it have been better to keep Holtz? Likely compared to Cumbie. But at that moment, it wasn't a bad call if we wanted to strive for more than being "competitive".