Like I have been saying, it was that 2011 class that really killed us this year. 2010 was pretty bad too.
And all those great classes from the Coker years didnt do jack sh*t for us. In fact, the last two top 5 classes we had, were instrumental in getting both Coker and Shannon fired.
Coker had great classes on paper but in his last few years he became a catalog shopper just going after 4 and 5 star players and a lot of them out of state. Shannon only really tried to recruit all out in 08' but he was gifted a top class because of the Miami NW class. After that it was meltdown city with busts a plenty and no development or local relationships with coaches.
Coker was coming off an MNC and another one that we were robbed of. He **** well should have been getting high ranked classes. Problem was he was just picking off kids with lots of stars by their names, with little to no thought given to the needs, character, work ethic, how they fit in the system, or balance on the roster. We went something like 2 years at one point with only 1 WR. Then were left scrambling to get a kid like George Robinson just to have a body. Coker wasnt evaluating kids, just offering "names" with "stars" from recruiting services. Look at Kirby Freeman as a perfect example. A Dual Threat running type QB out of Texas, brought in to play in a Pro Style offense. But he was a 4 star Elite 11!!! Never mind that his skill set was not right at all for our offense.
I think Shannon's problem was he got tired of the "game" in So Fla. He was very arrogant and didnt want to deal with a lot of the hustlers and coaches and mentors and other characters around So Fla. He went to the few schools he had hooks in, and the rest he just took a bunch of fliers on "projects" and OOS kids hoping they would work out. He was also not tearing it up very well work ethic wise either. His class in 2011 when he got canned was an embarassment. 4 F8cking commits.
That has also been devastating. Whether they were JAGs or not, the mass transfers left huge holes on the roster that led to terrible depth at many key positions.