I would say any of those guys have ever had a team full of talent. Especially not Cutcliffe and Peterson, which nullifies your point that players make coaches. Patterson might have had the best talent of all of them but it wasn't anywhere near the powerhouse programs' talent levels. So those coaches made those players better and built those programs.
No, they brought in better players than the coaches before them. And when the talent isn't there, all of a sudden their magical coaching skills seem to disappear. How could Patterson ever go 4-8 if he is the one who makes the players and not the other way around.