So I looked at Duke because I am kinda amazed at how well they are doing and feel that Mac subscribes to the same philosophy of coaching as Cutcliffe. So here are Duke's results and the class that immediately followed that season (according to Rivals).
2007: 1-11 #65
***David Cutcliffe coaching start***
2008: 4-8 #51
2009: 4-8 #72
2010: 3-9 #77
2011: 3-9 #52
2012: 6-7 #68
2013: 10-4 #58
2014: 9-3 (versus ASU on 12/27) #37
What jumps out to me is that they haven't not improved recruiting as winning improved. I think sustained winning has led to a small increase in recruiting, but it really doesn't impress me. I'm wondering if Cutcliffe (and Mac) will continue to recruit the guys that they want in the program and ignore rankings and stars.
Looking at Duke's current class, they have 2 four star players (they do have 3 more 5.7 rated players), but they are beating a lot of P5 schools for a lot of the talent they have on the team. going back a few class they seem to be moving from 2 star players to 3 stars and are now starting to mix in four star players. They went from beating school like Purdue and UCF for players to Wisconsin and Stanford.
I don't really know what this means for CU, but at some point we are either going to need to start winning to bring in talent, or bring in talent to start winning. If a school like Duke can do it, then I have some faith for it getting done at CU, I just hope Mac is the right guy for the job.