Well, I think USC is probably the only team nationally that can literally just pick who they want.
Oh, USC's about in the same spot as the other perennial top 10 recruiters...Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, LSU...whatever Florida school is hot, whatever Texas/Oklahoma school is hot, whatever other SEC school is hot, etc.
In any event, there's no chance to compete at the highest levels with teams who routinely stuff their rosters with the highest rated recruits.
This doesn't mean that 3-4-5 star recruits will all pan out, or that they guarantee top-10 success. It remains a crapshoot when trying to predict how a young man will mature between age 17 and 20-21. I think that, for instance, the average initial "star rating" of college players invited to the NFL combine is something like 2.3.
But. You can't "develop" speed. Or quickness. Or height. Or body type. Or hands. (And since football, outside of the few skill positions, requires the least native-to-the-sport skils, you'll always take those guys.)
So, if you start every year plugging in 15 freshman who rate in the top of the nation in all of those categories, you're almost guaranteed you're going to be competing at the highest levels.
Wyoming -- and probably 50 other schools in our same boat -- aren't going to have 45 guys on the roster every year who started out as 3-4 star talent. That's just the way it is, and the chance of breaking out of one's "niche" has been made harder over the last 20 years, as the rich schools consolidate their power and swim in money.
That doesn't mean you don't set your goals -- like winning the MWC, or getting to a good bowl -- which then has a snowball effect, giving you access incrementally to better and better recruits. That's where we are, and I think that's Bohl's project...which I think he'll be good at, as he's done it before.
