Let's throw recruiting in the mix. In particular, OL and RB recruiting. I'll keep this short and just talk about the OL.
It was pretty clear we needed to start filling the pipeline to replace the upper classmen on OL the second JT got the job. He landed two reruits his first year - Ryan Cook and Adam Olds. Bottom line, when we most needed help to position us for this season, we got zero.
2002 was much better. Five OL lead by one super stud - Derek Morris. Well, we know the punch line to that joke, but that left Mangold, Sims, Datish, and Downing. What expectations should we have from those guys? If you listen to the gurus it goes like this. Last year and so far this year we have landed five OL rated in the top 25 in the country. The 2002 class without Morris included nobody ranked in the top 35.
Granted Sims and Mangold have turned out pretty good. But these two third year players (as opposed to the fourth and fifth year players that commonly lead your OL) are flanked by a formerr walk-on, a redshirt Soph and a convereted DL. This is not a firm foundation for high expectations.
(I must confess that this does not explain why we have not had a better OL the past two years when we had the experience and guys who are good enough for the NFL.)
Of course, we could change QBs and solve the problem that way.