I think Bud got discouraged by the offense over the years. It's got to be hard to recruit any blue chip to a team that only has a defense.
That
might hold water if Bud had ever been an elite recruiter. But we all know the truth on that (as does Whit apparently and every other AD with whom Bud interviewed for a HC spot). If
anyone has had a reason to be discouraged, it was the coaches bringing in the lion's share of the talent. Good coaching can elevate talent and bad coaching can ruin it, but no amount of great coaching (and we have it on D) can make chicken salad out of chicken @#$%. We saw that this year.
Bud didn't keep an incompetent oc in place for a decade and then go out and hire a guy who had little credentials and was coming off an internship with the national academy of failure to replace him.
The opinion that CBS was incompetent is overstated (at best) & willfully blind (at worst). I share the frustration at our O, but it only takes one bad OLman to completely destroy an offense. Nearly every year of his tenure, we had multiple baaad OLmen. Indifferent guys who stood around watching as QBs went and then wouldn't even offer Sean Glennon a hand, the RG who got destroyed play after play ag LSU and single-handedly forced us to burn TT's shirt, the 350 lb. baloney eater... The list is long and I won't call names. I figure you know the names anyway and likely more than I. We truly fielded some of the worst OL talent anywhere.
When CBS explained poor play with the word, "execution," maybe he should have said, "Half our staff either does not or cannot recruit, and I cannot make up for their unwillingness or inability to help fill our roster with talent."
I think Bud has a new fire about him and will recruit his ass off now, having something to pitch besides "come play for me and a great defense" to defensive players and absolutely nothing to pitch to offensive recruits. Wonder what they've been telling the offensive recruits for the past several yrs? Hey we've got the best flavor variety of gatorade.
If, as you suggest, Bud hasn't had fire about him, then, holy crap. Honestly, I doubt that is correct, but if it is, just holy crap. Maybe that would explain the Motu fiasco. Regardless, if he doesn't "recruit his ass off" he needs to go. Regardless of the excuses, he should recruit or scoot. I hope CJF doesn't give him long to prove himself. IMO Bud needs to be in a place where the location and/or tradition recruit for you. He's amazing at VT, but he'd be pure hell on ice with
top shelf talent. I worry we'll never get elite classes with him here.
Only recruiting will pay. Only recruiters should stay.