I don’t think the chart is a good view for the same reason that some of the other people mentioned.
- Gailey is really hurt by Flunkgate. A year at 70 and in the 60’s is there because of that.
- Collins swapped to relying on the portal in class #3.
In my personal opinion, relying heavily on the portal was a bad choice, but Collins saw a change in college football and changed course.
In the OFEI + DFEI thread, we talk about this subject too. Recruiting is popular, and we have numbers and class ranks, but recruiting (as in what the recruiting sites publish) isn’t what a coaching staff should be focused on—a coaching staff should be focused on
roster building.
Recruiting sites have more 5* DBs and QBs than linemen, and you can have a really slick looking class by having two 5* QBs. You only need a few QBs and you need a lot of linemen, though.
When New England was good, Belichick went into the draft with a multi-year plan to draft the replacement for current starters—he wasn’t trying to run his starter of the team, but he knew that you have only so many years of peak performance, so you need to start training a replacement well before you need them. On the other hand, you have the Falcons and a lot of other teams drafting a player who has to start RIGHT NOW because you have a gaping hole in the team. It’s like the little Dutch boy putting plugging leaks in the wall and having too many leaks to plug. In gambling terms, you have to successfully hit every time that way.
Collins did try to take younger transfers that would fill in after a year or two, but they kept getting injured or otherwise didn’t pan out. His roster construction plans didn’t work out. One problem is that he was either going for quick fixes or semi-quick fixes (or seemed to be).
Whether it was S&C, or talent evaluation, or managing how many roster slots went to which positions, or plain bad luck, Collins’ plans for the roster didn’t work out. I don’t think it was all luck.
There’s also the coaching aspect. It may not look like it TOMORROW when we play one of the best defensive lines in NCAA football, but I think the offensive line has improved this year. We’re holding the pocket longer in pass protection now that we’re down to our 3rd and 4th QBs
. I think we blocked better against FSU than at the beginning of the year, but Pyron was too hurt for us to have a good game.
Key is getting more out of the players than Collins did. He’s growing a team.
Another reason I think we should be “coaching first” is that you don’t know what you need if you haven’t developed what you have. If you’re doing a good job developing the 4* OT but they have slow feet and always will, then it’s time to get a new player in the pipeline (if you don’t already have one).
