re: Notion that its "all about recruiting"

Recruiting is not just bringing in the highest rated guys, but having a great eye for talent and offering guys that become really successful even though everybody didn't want them. Honey Badger was a great example of that because he was a 3-star recruit and got no offers from big schools except LSU. Recruiting is crucial. You can fix things easier if you're recruits are awesome.

However, if you hire a coach like Lou Tepper that runs a terrible scheme, it can kill you even with great talent. DiNardo was a very good recruiter, but the Tepper hire made us look like we didn't have any talent. We got it turned around fast as soon as we switched coaches because we had so much talent. So both aspects are important. But when recruiting drops off, that's when it is the hardest to recover.