I've always been in Snead's corner and argued for them keeping him but I wasn't sure that would happen until Demoff's "This is Not a Rebuild / Maximizing talent" speech on 1/4/17. Excerpt below...
Quote
"I think this team has talent, still has a very young core at its heart, and we need to find our way," Demoff said in a recent phone conversation. "But this is not a rebuild to me whatsoever.
This is maximizing the talent we have.
Demoff interview
In reading between the lines, that speech told me that Demoff thought that coaching - and the inability to maximize the talent we had - was the largest reason for the losing.
When Snead referred to unfortunate circumstances I think he was being polite. There were several unfortunate circumstances over the years but the biggest was the inept coaching.