Giff Smith was a good recruiter but it is undeniable that Collins was the GM responsible for the outstanding and best ever 2007 class. His novel use (at the time) of social media brought that class together. Also, Gailey was a closer. His NFL background resonated with kids. Instead of seeing the real problem at the time, which was Pat Nix quality OCs, we threw the baby out with the bath water. We are on the cusp of doing that again, except that Stansbury is a better AD than we had back then. We'll see whether or not he can overcome the know nothings on the athletic board long enough to right the ship. I'm not hopeful.
My point remains the same: I'd like to trade the talent Johnson had in his first three years that Gailey and Collins recruited for the talent we've had the last 3 years that Johnson recruited. Johnson had the best talent ever assembled at Tech his first 2 years--talent that he didn't recruit. He then had 9 years of overall mediocre results, leaving behind a level of talent that he didn't want to stake his reputation on, and not many coaching candidates would have staked their career on. If people can't see how poor we have been at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, they don't know what they are watching. As O'Leary said, the further you are from the ball, the sooner you can play. We've only have 2 years of recruiting to rebuild the line of scrimmage. However, there is no excuse for the defense being as bad as it was this year. Hopefully that will be fixed.