Well coached and well prepared: end of 2021, starting with the game at ASU, Dickert's 2nd game. We went to ASU and pretty much blew the doors off. Played well at Oregon, routed Arizona and UW. In those 4 games, that team was ready to play, top to bottom. Not sure how much of it was coaching and how much was just the team circling the wagons...but it worked. Came apart for the bowl game when people started opting out.
Ever since then, I think we leave a lot of meat on the bone, and tend to have breakdowns or long slumps. And, I can't say that I really think we've ever had a team that was well coached/well prepared for a full season at a time. Even the best of the Leaf and Gesser teams had letdowns, and sometimes those cost us games.
I'm not sure we've ever had a coach that developed recruits better than Price. His staff was good at finding the kids that others missed, and turning them into players.
Recruiting...well, our recruiting has never been especially great...which is why our staff's ability to develop has always been so important. Leach was probably our best pure coach, but I'm not sure how much he really developed kids - he just found the ones that fit and plugged them in. Although he did end up with some pretty good OL.
It'll be harder now with the portal and NIL. Kids that we found early (McClanahan, Eaton, Thompson, Leaf, Derting, Gesser, Gibson, Falk, Marks, Cracraft, Borghi....for starters) would get offers from other teams now before their junior years, and I think most of them would probably take the cash and transfer.