This isn't rocket science, we either overpay or Mario is cooked on the trail. His so called "elite" recruiting ability has been rendered useless in today's world of recruiting.
Mind you, not ever sure where elite came from when in 7 full classes between Oregon and Miami he has managed 1 top 5 class and the average player rating put that class at 10th best to boot. So, it really wasn't as good as people believe it was.
Fact is, if Mario gets bodied in this class, he is done, done. Without elite coordinators, he LITERALLY needs every class to be top 5 to have even the slightest shot of even winning the ACC, not even going to discuss a NC. Finishing around 15th which were we may be headed he will never recover from.