paul, the simple answer is simple - change. when it gets boring, you can change it up or pack it in and find a different hobby. sounds like you don't want the latter, which just leaves finding some new challenge/situation. you have pretty many options within that, but what is best, its really about what sparks your interest. i suppose you can just grind it out there, doing the same thing but expecting different results, but i think we all know that doesn't end well. you could:
- stay at your current school, but run a completely different system, something outside your comfort zone
- drop your current school and run with less teams for a while, so you start to miss it, that definitely helps
- stay in d3, but move to a power conference, so that game in and game out, you are put to the test (im assuming you didn't make it 60 seasons in an empty conference, that that is a relatively recent development - that can have a pretty big impact)
- move to d1
there are many others, or any combination of those things... just got to find something that sounds like a fun new challenge, and give it a shot. its been 5 years since i got really fed up with this game and had to do something different - but i tried to resolve that for, well, about 3 years, by doing the exact same stuff and hoping the magic came back. it didn't. the only thing that made it better was finding new territory to uncover. i had mastered some aspects of the game, enough to be pretty dominant, but i didn't know how to run a zone team, i hadn't recruited in a wide variety of d1 situations, i didn't know how to run a good FB team, i never ran a team with multiple defenses, i never coached a team with someone else... over the last couple years, i've experienced all those things, and its kept it fresh and interesting, relatively speaking.
on the championship thing, you have 2 options, it seems to me. the conventional descriptions of success here tend to box things in. for me, like many others, the only pursuit was championships, and it really stops being fun after a while, by definition you stop taking big gambles and trying things you don't know much about or think are the "best way". so, it gets stale, and i assume this is the case regardless of how many you actually win in that pursuit. i think you need to either focus on just having a good time, or, double down, and focus on getting better, being the best coach you can be, in terms of success, which may or may not correlate to enjoyment. i think you can find a spark either way. if you go that route, get yourself in the toughest conferences you can find, play with the best coaches you can find, study the top teams. run 2-3 teams yourself on a similar system, all in brutal conferences, and you will definitely improve.