You're not seeing recruiting correctly. You're letting all the background noise (bags) cloud the picture.
Nothing has really changed in the recruiting landscape. We never got all the "elites" (that today would be five stars) even in the 80's and 90s. And some of the elites we did get were notable flops. Where JJ and Butch excelled was being spot on evaluating the large pool of 3* and low 4* in SFL. And equally important, they both had the development staff to coach them up. Just look at JJ's and Butch's coaching tree.
Further, JJ himself stated he recruited for speed and intelligence; they were the two things that can't be coached. And he wasn't talking about just the skill positions, he emphasized speed across the board. OL getting to their blocks quicker, DL with a quicker first step, LB that can go sideline to sideline or cover a RB in the flats. As far as intelligence he was talking football IQ not book smarts. QBs, LBs, whoever, processing info, making faster reads, reacting faster. That was our MO … and we've forgot about. Now... all anyone talks about is getting a few prancing ponies catching the air mail down field out of the spread.
JJ and Butch were successful despite the same disadvantages against the state schools. Do you really think that Bama is really concerned about UM? They're using the bags to out bid GA, or Clemson, or Auburn. They know we're not in the bag game.
We have to change our strategy and stop chasing dreams. JJ and Butch laid out the pattern, Lock into the large pool of 3* and 4* guys we can sign. (Over the last 15 year there's an annual thread of the 3* or 4* we've overlooked). Coach them up and stop beating ourselves and we'll get our mojo back … then the 5*s will come.
