All that means is that the Bears’ pressure to succeed intensifies. Over the next few years, fans (and we snarly media types) will demand more than “just” Big 12 championships. Given the talent the Bears are stockpiling, we’ll want to see them break into that College Football Playoff and maybe even take hold of that crystal football that they award to the winner of the last game.

Bring it on, Briles said. Naturally, he wants that, too.

Asked if he feels more pressure to succeed after bringing in a class like this, Briles stuck his chin out and said, “I hope so. Actually I mentioned that in the staff meeting a while ago. There’s always pressure. … We put enough pressure on ourselves.

“We’ve done OK, we’ve won 50 games in five years, but to us that’s just OK. That’s just OK. We want to win 110 in 10. We’ve still got a lot of things out there that we want to do, and these guys are certainly going to help us do it.”