I'm not sure about a promised land. Just better, as you say.
I don't know what the flaw was with the Copper / Hollivay led team. The last time I liked what I saw was before the flop - mostly against Northwestern, IIRC - at the end of the first season of B1G play. Don't know what happened, but I'm not paid to.
Part of it is certainly the evolving game. I heard former Texas HC Jody Conradt speaking on TV last week and she admitted that you simply cannot any longer win consistently relying on defense. But you sure can do better than we have been.
In any case, I would expect that next year's team will be over .500, at the least.