Some randome thoughts:
It appears that this staff is hampered more than most "new staffs" in that they were generally NOT out recruiting and researching for the last year, but out of football or in the NFL.
A lot has changed since EB and JE were working the High School circuit, including these kids were in middle school.
The Brock Berglund change of heart remains odd and more than a little bothersome to me. I don't for a minute buy that Brock went to KU because he wanted to be in a spread offense. Spread Offense is a career killer for a QB with NFL aspirations. I think it is related to Kiesau leaving and I have concern that Kiesau had something to say to the Valor Christian coach that changed everything for Brock. Hopefully it was something like "the Mullen kid will be at CU in 2012 and will be a four year starter"....
The good news is that this was slated to be a small class and I concur that it was never going to be a "great year". Next year, we will be able to offer 25 scholarships and probably a few more for early enrollies who would count against 2011 (JC guys and early HS grads who could enroll in Jan of 2012). I would expect a pretty nice haul next year.
The model I've observed is that (generally) the first class is a tough one.
The 2nd year is a lot better and can be very good. If the team performs poorly on the field in 2011, there is usually a "pass" given and the coaching staff can still sell recruits on the vision.
If 2011 shows promise on the field, that 2012 class could pop big time.
By year 3 (2013) the results on the field in year 2 have a lot to do with how recruiting goes. No more passes are given. Hawkins got the team to a bowl in year 2 so his 3rd class was his best on paper.
When teams lose momentum in the recruiting dept (due to poor play), I think the skill of Talent-Evaluation becomes more critical than Sales-Prowess. You no longer are going after kids who have 200 offers, but kids who may not have offers. Our last staff seemed good at this (at least). Winning trumps Sales Pitches every time.
JE/EB/Tui/Kennedy are known as great recruiters, but I'm not sure of their talent evaluation skills (could be good, just don't really know). I hope we don't find out. That means we need to win some games and hopefully we can see how these coaches recruit against the big boys in years 2, 3 and beyond.