He is not average dude, c'mon. Remove your emotion and look at it objectively.
At FIU, he signed the best classes in the history of the program. The 2012 class had at least 19 3-star recruits depending on the site, which is pretty insane for FIU.
He obviously won plenty of awards at Bama and did pretty well at Oregon, but you want to use money as a crutch. Ok....so how did he come in on two weeks' notice and grab multiple blue-chippers, followed that up with a top seven class at the University of Miami, and a top seven portal class? He just luck into those?
He may not be the best recruiter in the country, but he's **** good. He's a top 10 guy no doubt. Probably closer to Top 8. I mean think about the schools that win in recruiting and their bag structure. You don't think Mario would have the #1 class in the country if he was at Bama, UGA, Texas, Texas A&M, or Ohio State?
What changed from 2022 to 2023? Well, 5-7 did....but also no more Ruiz...who loved spending on high school kids and bragging about it. The rest of the boosters seem reluctant to fill the void...for the time being.