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[QUOTE="tep624, post: 1917666, member: 430"]
Shafer's classes (I throw out the 2013 and 2016 versions due to the coaching changes) were always pretty solid in the middle.  His 2014 class was responsible for Slayton, Franklin, Cordy, Samuels, Dowels, Hudson, R. Williams, Ishmael, J. Thomas, Roberts, Bennett - 2/3 star guys that are all 2 deep contributors when healthy.  But based on rankings and hype, arguably the top 4 guys in that class were AJ Long, KJ Williams, Alin Edouard and Adly Enoicy - 2 of the 4 never step foot on campus and only one remains and hasn't had much of an impact.  2015 was very similar, our top 3 recruits were (by most accounts) Blair, Ealey, and Strickland, and only 1 of the 3 is here and contributing.

The meat of our classes are what will make the program sustain but the top end of the classes is what will give us an opportunity to compete with the FSU, Clemson, L'ville, etc type teams and we can't afford to go 0-3 or 0-4 at the top of our class every year.

I have not seen, in a very long time, our staff identify a kid, get in a prolonged recruiting battle with powerhouse schools, come out on top, and that kid come in and be healthy for four years and make a significant impact.  A kid like Konrad for instance.  Even with this staff, we're getting the jump early as we should and then fending off power programs when they look to fill out their classes, i.e. Nelson with Georgia, etc.
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