Fair enough. That's why I asked for your opinion. You are always straight forward and consistent with your message. I agree with your philosophy in a general sense but there are a few other things I would add. Mainly the fact that coaching will most certainly come into play sooner or later. Yes I love the idea of loading up on talent but we also need the coaching in order to develop and to put them in the right system etc.
College football especially in today's game is about having a solid, well built infrastructure in place where all of the above are properly addressed. The only question that is truly relevant regarding Mario is the following. Does the AD feel that his upside as a GameDay coach justifies making him one of the top paid coaches in the game? He already knows that Mario is an elite recruiter. Is Mario the type of coach that excels at program building? Is Mario the type of CEO that could be trusted to choose and to hire the very best coordinators and staff that he can surround himself with? Is Mario the type of CEO that will ensure that the program has the proper infrastructure in place to have us competing with the game's elite? If the answer is yes then by all means make a competitive offer and hire the man.
You say Lane Kiffin has failed a lot and that statement is not unfair. However does it paint an accurate and honest picture of what Lane Kiffin could potentially bring to the table here? I'm not so sure. Kiffin has had his rough spots. No one can deny that. In my opinion I feel that he has done a very good job of staying the course, learning from failure and continuing to grow as a coach. I believe that Kiffin has come a long way from the time he was fired from USC and left on the tarmac. That type of embarrassing defeat/failure would have crushed a lesser man but Kiffin kept it going and continued to keep learning and improving his craft as an offensive minded head coach. I think Lane Kiffin could do very well here.
One more thing.....You used Earl Little Jr. as an example of a player the next coach should try to flip. Are you that high on the kid or were you just using his name as an example?