I can only speak for myself, but I think the 'recruit better' cadre might say 1) go after way more 4* and 5*
outside the southeast (yes, that will take more recruiting personnel on staff; CPJ is making progress there, more progress is required); 2) anyone who qualifies to get into GT should in theory be able to cut it in the classroom, with hard work and utilization of all the support available; and, 3) if your 20% number is right, how many is that? My phone isn't conducive to real research, but 1/5 of all 4* and 5* players in the US has got to be a pretty significant number.
WE NEED MORE OF THEM.
How? We need a hook. We need to become a destination school for reasons IN ADDITION to football and academics. Hire someone like a Dabo and give him the money to hire great assistants. Hire a joyful showman like Pepper was. Hire the real Jay-Z.
I dunno. But we need cachet, we need a distinctive, perhaps quirky, hook that stands out to generations impressed by the latest cool thing.
Would this be possible? Again, I dunno. We tend to be a fairly conservative bunch; whether Tech made us this way or we make Tech this way doesn't much matter. Engineers and scientists tend not to be much into cartwheels. We also have no shortage of applicants (which is a good thing), and schools developing modern, fun images are trying to grow the school in general; the two go hand-in-hand and we don't really need that part of it.
So I dunno -- but I can't help but feel that positioning ourselves somehow as cool in some unique way would appeal to those 4* and 5* players, make the academic demands worth it to them, without harming the serious academic reputation for excellence we have and of course would never wish to sacrifice.
