So I haven't bothered to reply to this thread up to this point because there seemed no purpose. Seeing that everyone else is chiming in, I figured I may as well toss in my two cents...
Let me preface by saying that I love watching option football and was in absolute nirvana watching my favorite team play my favorite style of football. I am still in a bit of mourning.
That being said, we are about to witness one of the great football experiments of our lifetimes. We have seen over the past few years that "Physical superiority cancels all theories" and that "Jimmys and Joes can trump Xs and Os". Now we are going from a coach who specialized in the Xs and Os to one who (seems at present)specializes in the Jimmys and Joes. Now we get to see the relative value of Jimmys and Joes vs. Xs and Os in a highly controlled environment. The school hasn't changed. The entrance requirements haven't changed. The limited majors haven't changed. The only real changes are the people doing the recruiting and coaching.
If we come out in a couple of years and set the world on fire then we will know Jimmys and Joes are much more important. If (heaven forbid) we fall off a cliff, then we will know that the scheme really makes a large difference. If (as I expect to happen), we do about the same, then we know that it doesn't matter which one you are good at, but you have to be good at one or the other.
In an interesting corollary, one of the debates I have seen over the years is whether or not schools "recruit themselves" i.e. how big of a difference do the recruiters make vs. how much of recruiting is simply the school itself. The next couple of years will provide an interesting insight into that question.
