Seriously?  Results on the field would indicate differently.  Nine years in and what we are now, what we did this year pleases you?

You're apologist, pollyanna, 100% refusal to acknowledge reality in any way continues to be annoying.  To me it paints you in a certain way, lending very little crediblity to what you say.  Since the facts are so far apart from your assertions.

From now on, I'll follow farmer-teaching-cow-to-sing (frustrates one, no success with other) and ignore you.

Again, why should the expectation be "way ahead of the MAC?"

If we are winning recuriting battles, but losing on the field, what does that equate too?

I don't agree with this at all. We are not winning most recruiting battles....we are winning some. Looking through the recruiting resources, I see numerous battles lost to BG, Toledo, Kent, etc... Not unexpected. Actually, looking again, we lose to BG A LOT.

The problem, Bcat2 (Frank), is that you want to push this narrative of unprecedented success and greatness by Solich and his staff...and yet clearly the rest of the football community has a responded with: meh.

Solich has had 9 years to change how we are perceived by others, and he has failed. We still bring in players that no one else wants. We have to go all the way to Vancouver to get a running back (with no offers) for crying out loud!

This is truly the untold story of why this program has leveled out. They were never able to get kids excited about coming to Athens....and when you hear Solich and Haines speak, you see why.

That is just flat-out wrong. How we are perceived today, as a program, is COMPLETELY different from pre-Solich. Are you posting this kind of nonsense simply to get a reaction?

We lose out to in-state programs sometimes. And those times that we lose out are less frequent than they used to be. Our recruiting today is undeniably better than it was even three years ago. So recruiting is moving in the right direction. I don't get how we should be beating all other MAC programs in recruiting. I wish that were true, but why should it be true? No matter who our coach is, we are going to lose out on some recruits. If your expectation is to consistently out-recruit all other MAC programs, every single year, then you will be consistently unsatisfied.

Some kids like popped collers
Some kids like orange and brown as a color combination
Some kids like malls.

After the 2010 class, they changed coordinators, and since then each class has been progressively better. Of the various Ohio coaches over the years, who would you say comes closest to being the kind of recruiter you are hoping for?

That claim is based on five things:

#5 is my greatest concern...it means that 9 years into it this staff we did not have enough good upperclassmen to play and had to go to youngsters.  I don't think any of these frosh/rsfrosh were 4 or 5 star recruits so most are playing out of necessity not ability.  I know we've had some injutries but I have to believe everyone has that problem.  That's why I keep harping on getting 8-10 3-star recruits every year.  After 4/5 years you suddenly have the 40 or so guys you need on the two deep that should be players.

Casper71. Count on you for the negative spin every time. I invite you to check the schools represented by the Freshman All-Americans. Seems FSU, Auburn, Michigan State, UCLA and Oklahoma all had youngsters play big roles. You can spin it negatively and I will take it as a positive. We can disagree.

2013 FWAA FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICA TEAM

OFFENSE (12)

Pos. Player, School Ht. Wt. Hometown
QB Jameis Winston, Florida State 6-4 228 Bessemer, Ala.

RB • Alex Collins, Arkansas 5-11 206 Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
RB • Elijah McGuire, Louisiana 5-11 185 Houma, La.

WR • Tyler Boyd, Pittsburgh 6-2 185 Clairton, Pa.

WR • Corey Davis, Western Michigan 6-2 205 Wheaton, Ill.
WR • Nate Phillips, Arizona 5-7 177 Chandler, Ariz.

TE • Hunter Henry, Arkansas 6-6 250 Little Rock, Ark.

OL Jack Conklin, Michigan State 6-6 236 Plainwell, Mich.
OL Andrew Jelks, Vanderbilt 6-6 290 Paris, Tenn.

OL Alex Kozan, Auburn 6-4 297 Castle Rock, Colo.

OL Ben Lauer, Minnesota 6-6 302 Plymouth, Minn.
OL • Alex Redmond, UCLA 6-5 305 Cerritos, Calif.

DEFENSE (12)

Pos. Player, School Ht. Wt. Hometown
DL • Tarell Basham, Ohio 6-4 250 Rocky Mount, Va.

DL • Joey Bosa, Ohio State 6-6 275 Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
DL • Eddie Vanderdoes, UCLA 6-4 305 Auburn, Calif.
LB • Dominque Alexander, Oklahoma 6-2 216 Tulsa, Okla.
LB • Dakota Cox, New Mexico 6-0 235 Draper, Utah

LB • Addison Gillam, Colorado 6-3 225 Palo Cedro, Calif.
LB • Myles Jack, UCLA 6-1 225 Bellevue, Wash.

DB • Kendall Fuller, Virginia Tech 5-11 193 Baltimore, Md.
DB Jacoby Glenn, UCF 6-0 176 Prichard, Ala.

DB • Vernon Hargreaves III, Florida 5-11 192 Tampa, Fla.

DB • Jalen Ramsey, Florida State 6-1 195 Smyrna, Tenn.
DB Zack Sanchez, Oklahoma 5-11 176 Keller, Texas

bcat2, that's funny.  I am NOT always negative, read my posts in full and don't put a spin on them (just gfo up about 5 posts).  i will repeat, I doubt that Basham was a 4-5 star recruit.  He got playing time because on an injury to an upperclassman and no other good option at the position.

I agree, he made the best out of the situation but instead of having him around another year to mature we were pretty much FORCED to burn his red shirt.

I am sure some if not many of the guys on your lists of frosh all americans were 4-5 star recruits.  They were playing because they were that highly rated.

Casper71, Basham took his time on the field away from Nick Barber and Kendric Smith, both representative athletes. The coaches were forced to play him because he is freshman All-American material. He was on the depth chart for game one, Louisville. None of the Freshmen All Americans played because they were highly rated. They played because they were that good. Once you get to butting heads no one gives a hoot about stars.

2013 FWAA FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICA TEAM

OFFENSE (12)

Pos. Player, School Ht. Wt. Hometown
QB Jameis Winston, Florida State 6-4 228 Bessemer, Ala.

RB • Alex Collins, Arkansas 5-11 206 Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
RB • Elijah McGuire, Louisiana 5-11 185 Houma, La.

WR • Tyler Boyd, Pittsburgh 6-2 185 Clairton, Pa.

WR • Corey Davis, Western Michigan 6-2 205 Wheaton, Ill.
WR • Nate Phillips, Arizona 5-7 177 Chandler, Ariz.

TE • Hunter Henry, Arkansas 6-6 250 Little Rock, Ark.

OL Jack Conklin, Michigan State 6-6 236 Plainwell, Mich.
OL Andrew Jelks, Vanderbilt 6-6 290 Paris, Tenn.

OL Alex Kozan, Auburn 6-4 297 Castle Rock, Colo.

OL Ben Lauer, Minnesota 6-6 302 Plymouth, Minn.
OL • Alex Redmond, UCLA 6-5 305 Cerritos, Calif.

DEFENSE (12)

Pos. Player, School Ht. Wt. Hometown
DL • Tarell Basham, Ohio 6-4 250 Rocky Mount, Va.

DL • Joey Bosa, Ohio State 6-6 275 Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
DL • Eddie Vanderdoes, UCLA 6-4 305 Auburn, Calif.
LB • Dominque Alexander, Oklahoma 6-2 216 Tulsa, Okla.
LB • Dakota Cox, New Mexico 6-0 235 Draper, Utah

LB • Addison Gillam, Colorado 6-3 225 Palo Cedro, Calif.
LB • Myles Jack, UCLA 6-1 225 Bellevue, Wash.

DB • Kendall Fuller, Virginia Tech 5-11 193 Baltimore, Md.
DB Jacoby Glenn, UCF 6-0 176 Prichard, Ala.

DB • Vernon Hargreaves III, Florida 5-11 192 Tampa, Fla.

DB • Jalen Ramsey, Florida State 6-1 195 Smyrna, Tenn.
DB Zack Sanchez, Oklahoma 5-11 176 Keller, Texas

And once you get to butting heads nine years in you shouldn't get whupped but good by almost all of the teams on your sched that aren't 'the worst', but most of which aren't really very good/not good enough to win a bowl game.
Espec with all that talent we have.

Talent.  Fine coaching.  1 + 1 = 2.  Or else the talent and/or the coaching is not so good.