Quote from an FSU Fan after EJ Manuel's interview and outlook on the program on Packer and Durham. I think he's spot on when it comes to recruiting rankings.
Jimbo consistently brought in classes in the Top 10 every year except for 2013 when the class was ranked #11 (same rank as in 2018 that Taggart secured). From 2010 to 2017, the ranks were 8th, 2nd, 4th, 11th, 4th, 3rd, 3rd and 6th, respectively. The average class ranking was about 6.7 from 2017 to 2019. Now, according to your logic, if class rank is the only team metric that translates into success on the football field, then there should have been only a marginal drop-off in success during this period. Yet, our combined record was 18 wins and 20 losses for a 47% winning percentage. So, how can that be?
There are four reasons: (1) the class ranking doesn't reflect how well you filled positions of need with competent players at the P5 level; (2) the class ranking is skewed upwards by a few five-star players recruited for the same positions usually on offense, (3) the class ranking doesn't indicate how many of its players will either be busts or leave the program without contributing to it and (4) the class ranking is more affected by class size than by blue-chip ratio since the latter is independent of class size. There's another reason why a team's performance didn't correspond to the rankings that its players received:
POOR COACHING