re: 2023 Recruiting

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Plenty of Saban assistants / "developers" have gone on to be not great at all (even more so than a lack of talent would suggest). The one that has succeeded, yes, "elite talent" is the difference

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Not everyone is cut out to be a head coach though. We see that all the time with guys that are great position coaches or coordinators - Muschamp, Mullen, Dan Quinn in the NFL to name a few.

To be a successful head coach takes a much wider skill set than a coordinator or position coach and very few have that. You can still be a great coach, in terms of developing players at a micro level, but to be a great head coach is something else entirely. Plenty of guys that have failed as a head coach have gone back and had successful coordinator roles because they can focus on what they do best.

Look at Urban Meyer at Utah. He was beating elite teams without elite talent. He got to Florida and was able to put recruiting and his coaching ability together and look what happened.

Dabo is probably another example. He didn't start with elite players, but guys quickly saw he was an elite head coach and that really jumpstarted their recruiting to get to the elite level. He's been very hesitant to keep up with how recruiting has changed in the portal/NIL era, so that may eventually bite him.

You have to have both to be successful and it's really a snowball effect for someone like Smart or Saban. Once the two converge, it's hard to stop that ball rolling down the hill.

I can only hope Freeze finds some of that success.