In general we always get to -rc6 to -rc8 before we do a release, with perhaps -rc7 being the most common. Since the merge window (before -rc1) is two weeks, this translates to a two month release cycle. So using a time-based release cycle paradigm, -rc3 isn't _that_ late, although as I acknowledged in another comment in this thread, it was a bit marginal.

(And by the way it's "Ts'o", but the wrong spelling is all over the Internet at this point.)