It's ALWAYS good to get a 4/5 star player to sign, regardless of their class. It is a bonus if they can contribute immediately. But, regardless of class it's better to have a roster of 4/5 star players waiting to go in than it is 2 stars. Also, if you look to the north of us you'll see how it can be used to promote the program as moving in the right direction. And perceptions will matter when the teams with the same records are sifted thru to fill the lower tier playoff spots.
Sure. But I'm not going to get excited or even care. While I think that college football in general COULD POSSIBLY be in a pretty good place starting next year with the 12-team playoff, I think the recruiting industry is in a bad place. I think many fans are going to jump ship on the yearly following of recruiting. I used to believe too, as you do. Back in the late 2000s, to me it was always, "well if we sign this guy, get through next year, make a bowl game, then sign these 3 guys, we can BUILD!!!". I was delusional. Not only did we max out that system with Mullen, the system has now changed on us - and not for the better.
As far as all this perception, well, that's never really been MSU's game, so I just wonder the amount of resources we expend to get this perception bump that you speak of. Seems to me like we're just trying to keep up and we basically keep our current standing, never improving. Ole Miss is more adept at playing this game, as they've demonstrated. I mean look at what happened last time we were both competing at the highest of levels together - they had Freeze who was spending big money, and we had Mullen running a niche offense with average players. Thing is, we'd be in that same position now with Kiffin and Leach, had he lived. That's what sucks.
To me, it all depends on what Lebby does. If he tries to be Kiffin, he will fail. If he's more Mullen/Leach, he has a chance. The bigger problem is, our brass hired him to be like Kiffin - which does not work at MSU. So what does this tell you about our vision?
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