And identifying and recruiting them now is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than it was pre-internet. Hence, getting the great players is much more difficult than it used to be, and we're witnessing that change extremely clearly in CFB, where four teams have won the last ten championships (or whatever that actually works out to be).
How did those teams fare in recruiting?
College football is akin to 90's-era Olympic basketball right now. Have the best players and you're gonna win the vast majority of your games, on average, over time.
An eye for talent is still an eye for talent man. Regardless of what time period. Internet didn't change football. (Well it did, but the rules are still the same, still gotta evaluate and develop kids the same.)
Also you're putting up a strawman. Where the did I say I didn't want a strong recruiter? Wanting a CFB head coach with NFL experience, like Ryan Day, PJ Fleck, Kirby Smart, and many others have, does not mean I don't want a great recruiter, not at all. Nor does wanting a NFL coach who last coached in college 5-10 (hypothetically) years ago mean that he cannot become a great evaluator and recruiter. You act as if every NFL coach does not know dozens of college guys who they could fill their staff out with. When we were not getting recruits at certain positions our board yelled at Jethro Franklin and Mike Rumph, not Al Golden and Manny Diaz. And hiring from the college ranks does not led itself to a sustainable recruiting advantage since everyone else is hiring from the college ranks too.
Why would OU and OSU even think of hiring a NFL coach when promoting from within makes 1000x more sense? Our last two promotions from within - from failed regimes nonetheless - were Randy and Manny. Also, in many cases a NFL position coach/coordinator job is much more attractive than a HC job at Boise State or Marshall (ask Kellen Moore and Byron Leftwitch). I'd bet a lot of $ Colorado's first call was to Bieniemy not Tucker.
And ironically the point of hiring a NFL guy, in my mind, is to be better at recruiting! If these coaches keep failing on the field the Jacory Brooks of the world are never going to look our way anyway! A NFL selling point could be unique to a recruit compared to Mike Norvell and Ed O and Dan Mullen and other competitors. That's where they want to end up. Still, any coach we hire is only as good as the weakest links on his staff are.
Manny, Golden, Richt, and Shannon - during the "Internet era" - have all beaten out the big dogs for certain recruits. They've also all missed on a bunch of great 3/4* players right under their nose. The most attractive part of the Miami job is the accessibility to recruits. We need stronger roster management in regards to evaluations and development of said recruits.
