Recent examples of successful rebuilds in this thread. Would like to keep it factual and see what the facts say.
I will start with Larry Fedora at North Carolina (Simply because I looked it up this morning after reading the ESPN article).
Before he got there, UNC (conference records):
Butch Davis (2007-2010): 3-5, 4-4, 4-4, 4-4
Everett Withers (2011): 3-5
Larry Fedora (2012-2015): 5-3, 4-4, 4-4, 8-0.
Recruiting Rank per Rivals public database:
Butch Davis (2007-2010): 17, 32, 9, 29
Everett Withers (2011): 16
Larry Fedora (2012-2015): 44, 42, 23, 28
Staff: Changed DC's after year 3, hiring Gene Chizik and firing Koenning. Fedora is an offensive-side guy.
In putting together his staff he brought a couple key guys with him from S.Miss, added a couple from previous stops, and outright hired some guys he hadn't worked with.
Opinion: Program was not a dumpster-fire, but has shown a 4th year big jump. Years 1-3 were meh. In fact, was on the hotseat in the offseason. He did recruit well after his 2nd full season, boosting them to #23 in rankings. He also likely has some 5th year seniors from that 2011 class who are contributing. Would guess that the #44 and #42 classes were actually better than that, with some under rated guys he knew about while recruiting for Southern Miss.
I will start with Larry Fedora at North Carolina (Simply because I looked it up this morning after reading the ESPN article).
Before he got there, UNC (conference records):
Butch Davis (2007-2010): 3-5, 4-4, 4-4, 4-4
Everett Withers (2011): 3-5
Larry Fedora (2012-2015): 5-3, 4-4, 4-4, 8-0.
Recruiting Rank per Rivals public database:
Butch Davis (2007-2010): 17, 32, 9, 29
Everett Withers (2011): 16
Larry Fedora (2012-2015): 44, 42, 23, 28
Staff: Changed DC's after year 3, hiring Gene Chizik and firing Koenning. Fedora is an offensive-side guy.
In putting together his staff he brought a couple key guys with him from S.Miss, added a couple from previous stops, and outright hired some guys he hadn't worked with.
Opinion: Program was not a dumpster-fire, but has shown a 4th year big jump. Years 1-3 were meh. In fact, was on the hotseat in the offseason. He did recruit well after his 2nd full season, boosting them to #23 in rankings. He also likely has some 5th year seniors from that 2011 class who are contributing. Would guess that the #44 and #42 classes were actually better than that, with some under rated guys he knew about while recruiting for Southern Miss.