It wasn't a complete inability to recruit, but people need to take a look at Erickson's M.O.
With the ONLY real exception being UM, Erickson was MUCH BETTER at exacting a "turnaround" with another coach's players than he was in building his own program up. Look at his resume before he came to UM. Dennis went from place-to-place, he was at Idaho for 4 years, Wyoming for 1 year, and Washington State for 2 years. At Idaho, they were 3-8 before Erickson, then went 9-4. At Wyoming, they were also 3-8 before Erickson, and he took them to 6-6 before leaving for Washington State. At WSU, they were 3-7-1 pre-Erickson and in Erickson Year 1, but in his second year they went 9-3.
After he was at UM, let's look at this: at Oregon State, he got them to 11-1 (his best record at OSU) in his second year (NOT his recruits), and at Arizona State his best season was his first season, when he went 10-3 (again, NOT his recruits).
So, yeah, Dennis would take another guy's players, and get rapid results, but he never stuck around to build things up with his own guys. So it is somewhat hard to evaluate his long-term impact on recruiting at the time.
I will say this, it seemed like Dennis got some very good recruits at Miami, but he really failed to maintain discipline. I don't think it is an unfair thing to point out that MANY of Dennis' players were the ones who got kicked out of school or got us into trouble (even when Butch was coaching).
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