Yep very rare that any coach makes a hire where you can't easily connect dots.
Mario to Steele was easy
Mario to Gattis was through Saban. Don't think he got enough info from Saban to connect the dots to know the terms the guy was leaving these places. Lack of connection wasn't the only reason it failed but it's likely the reason for the lack of a true background and why the red flags didn't come up.
I met Josh Pate in Knoxville this year and we talked about Gattis for half an hour. He knew it wasn't going to work because he's got several connections who immediately reached out (most notably James Franklin and Ricky Rahne - 2 FBS head coaches tying back to Penn State) to him and said this isn't going to work like they think it is (Gattis to Miami). And it was more than just those 2 that told him that.