Did recruiting matter to PJ? Yes. You can find evidence, even on this board, about it. Dig back into the archives here. As CGC is the one who was solely responsible for recruiting Brown, so is PJ the one who recruited Tobias, whom CGC himself called SEC level athlete.
Did recruiting rankings matter to PJ?
Not one (xxxx) bit.
He did, however, manage to get a 4 star QB in Graham (away from VT, no less, and with an Alabama offer as well), another QB later judged to be a 4 star (Yates), and some very undervalued 3 star kids (Mason, a beast, and Juanyeh, surprisingly rated as a middling 3 star), just to top it off.
we lost out on some big time recruits - tomlinson, malkom parrish (probably a good thing ... he didn't play very well us against anyway) and corn elder, whom PJ had sit next to him at a Tech hoops game courtside on his OV, before he choose da eww.
1. recruiting is still a crap shoot. I looked it a year or two ago and went back over the national 5 stars for about a decade. More often than not, half of those guys never amounted to much of anything. There was one year were about 28 of the 32 5 stars turned out to be bad dudes on the field, i.e., they lived up to the billing. Still, a lot in other years didn't.
2. Coaching still matters. Look at FSU's recruiting ratings. Look great in February. On the field in November, look like what Chief Osceola's horse left behind. And Oklahoma has made the CFP without having many (if any) top 10 classes, until the last year or so, IIRC.
3. all that really matters is winning.
and i do not want to sit through another year where I watch us lose to a mediocre FCS team and get beat by 45 - twice - at home. In the same season. And I am uninterested in hearing "we're going to win big" yadda yadda yadda or any sunshine up the skirt about the future.
Like the man said, don't tell me. Show me.
It is my hope that the well regarded recruits CGC and his staff have brought will live up to their pre-college acclaim. But there are no guarantees to that effect.
Just win, baby.
