You're right: We're still just "closing"--and still no "5-Stars". No use denying it.
BUT: One of the points I return to, and Mullen himself keeps stressing--and though it serves his purpose, I really don't think it is a matter of "putting a good face on a problem" or simply the old "making a virtue of necessity": Our Coach has his OWN ongoing "mental list of guys he wants here together", those who will eventually best form a Championshio-caliber TEAM--and again, though SOME of it is influenced by the idea of whom he feels we've a true chance of landing and/or NOT taking up too much time or alienating a touchy young rival at a nearby highschool in the process of pursuing some high-profile 5-star who appears to be starry-eyed for the Tide or some damn thing (Coach's "feel" in this regard is part of what already HAS us making up ground so fast), but we also must stay "in the game" and keep after "The Best", especially in the rich grounds of our home state! We'll break through: and it won't be long, either. Part of that "feeling" I keep talking about lately.
Perhaps I'm wearing that out, noticeably harping on it--but I think it is real and will have its more practical effect (beyond "merely" making US feel better) soon enough...and when it comes, it'll be clear and acceleratingly obvious. Maybe not as dramatic as when we flipped Tebow from Bama, but something like it that later will mark a similar turning point--after which the "5-Star wins" and "Top 5 classes" will more and more flow annually...As you may have noticed, the difference between "good" and "great" recruiting cycles, at least by these so-called experts' public standards, is pretty esoteric, even miniscule (from a practical P.O.V., when you go back and look at the actual subsequent onfield performances and results in retrospect among the competing programs). We can WIN with the guys we're already getting; but we can "open up some distance" with a few of those "5-star wins".
Ultimately, it's the difference between competing for a shot at PLAYING in the FFF, and/or competing annually for "our PLACE" there--and a SLEW of 'em, year in/year out!
We were once on the verge of being a complete JUGGERNAUT across-the-board nationally a decade back, remember???
We held the Football AND B-ball Nationals, and our other athletic teams and programs seemed in process of CATCHING the same fire! And that was with a creepy, self-centered GHOUL leading the very Football program that was (as is always the case at UF, lets face it) leading the way.
OK, I am being cold-heartedly judgmental regarding the man who took us there, whom we gladly, almost blindly followed to those heights previously undreamed of. This time it is a bit slower, clearer: eyes-wide-open as this seemingly wiser, more generous-of-spirit Head Coach plays out the hand--face up this time: His flexibility is one more important and fortunate aspect of what the situation and process require.
My greatest hope here is not just that THIS Coach knows the way, but that we've ALL (him, us, the admin and everyone else here now) have learned the lessons, learned them well, and consciously face them, figure them in now. If that means I sound harshly unsympathetic sometimes--hard, somewhat less-than-charitable to Meyer and those who may choose to follow him in the future, well, so be it. Frankly: I am none too patient or forgiving with myself, with ALL of Gator Nation for so quickly and easily abandoning reason, ethics and/or clarity of thought and vision that LAST time--the very "wild fun ride" I just mentioned, up the ladder to the Big Banquet of Success.
In the days of Roman Empire, after a victorious military campaign in Gaul or against the great Teutonic tribes, when the victorious General (often also the Emporer, "Ceasar", if you will) led his army through the gates and into the heart of Rome itself, standing behind him on the charriot was a herald, whose job was to constantly whisper in his ear, repeating: "All fame is fleeting...This TOO shall pass...", over and over again).
Let us hope that THIS Head Coach is as already personally aware of himself and the nature of this business and his situation enough to be thinking several steps down that "road thru-the gates" already, and is making HIS ongoing plans, mostly about his own humility, accordingly.