I've cast doubt on hiring an elite recruiter without elite recruiter money. Hence my comparisons to buying magic beans because the rumor is it will grow into a magical beanstalk. Some fans think being an elite recruiter means he Cristobal can go head to head to Nick Saban, whisper sweet nothings into a recruits ear and get him to believe in UM. The only position where he might be able to do they is OL, because players can feel confident they will get developed and drafted. At basically any other position, just being elite isn't going to cut it. Cristobal needs elite NIL too. And right now things are even more expensive so because we have to pay the suck tax.
If we don't have the NIL money of the other schools, then it doesn't make sense to try and play the game on their terms. I think we'd be better off with a scheme focused HC who can squirrel away enough money to land the occasional game changing 5 star, meanwhile he can get the most out of the 3 and low 4 stars on the roster and string together a bunch of good seasons. Once he does that, the price tag for the top recruits start to go down.