re: Numbers say, "Les, HIRE A RECRUITER at DC"

It's hard to recruit a defense in this day and age that will be tailored to stop it all. In recent years LSU has recruited guys to stop the spread...Saban, viewing Lsu as his main competiton year in and year out, has recruited guys to stop lsu.

The results of that are obvious. Lsu is typically better than Alabama at defending spread teams, alabama is typically better than Lsu at defending power teams. Ideally you recruit some of each or find guys that can defend both. When you recruit cookie cutter players you're setting yourself up to get gashed by a style you aren't built to stop.

Play calling is just as important as recruiting though. I don't think recruiting should be the top attribute of a coordinator. There are a dozen position coaches that you can hire to recruit. A great athlete is useless if the coach has him in the wrong spot. (See third and Chavis, or third and Smart nowadays). Hiring a recruiter and putting him in a play caller role is a pretty big gamble, particularly in this league. Every team you face has great athletes, and there are coordinators with a lot of experience calling plays. When guys like that are facing recruiters in a chess match on Saturday the odds aren't in your favor.

The example used in the OP doesn't lend much for compare and contrast. I see 3 well respected coordinators and ten years of talented defenses. Basically it's been the same for a decade. Hiring a guy that's a recruiter and doesn't have play calling experience would be something entirely different from the last 3 coordinators it seems.