Dino was the one that said to expect bigger things from the 2020 class, so he's raising the bar and should expect criticism or skepticism if the trends don't match up. I agree the star rating system is more of an indicator in basketball but there's still a fair amount of truth to it in football as well. Dino's system is allowing us to play above what our talent suggests, but that will only get us so far. We need to start landing several 4-star players if we want to dream about challenging the ACC elite on a regular basis. 1 or 2 studs per class is just going to tread water. Our system is a huge asset, but we need to get our class ranking from the 50s and 60s into the mid-30s to reach our ceiling as a program. We've done it before in Coach Mac/P era it can be done again.
Posts like this suggest that there is only one way to be successful -- and that we need to recruit like Alabama, Ohio State, and Clemson or we won't be any good and can't build a consistent winner that gets back to top 25 [or better] status, and fail to recognize that there's more than one way to skin a cat.
In actuality, I don't think that we ever have or will ever be able to recruit like those schools. For a variety of reasons, our path to being a contender is going to be a lot more like Boise State's than regional competitor Penn State's. What a program like ours has always needed was an innovative system complimented by good coaching that can enable a middle of the pack program like ours to rise to the top of the pack. We had that type of system back in the 80s / early 90s which helped us compete against more elite programs, and we again have an innovative system suited for the modern college football game again under Dino Babers.
So, system -- check.
Next, we need to get high quality athletes who fit our system. Since Babers took over -- and keep in mind that he's only been here a few years, and that we're really only beginning to see the benefit / value proposition of the kid's he and the staff have brought in -- we've seen our team get bigger, stronger, and faster. Whereas before we could not compete against better teams, with our players seeming overmatched [and guys getting hurt seemingly every couple of plays], now we go toe-to-toe with elite programs. We haven't arrived by any means, but our ability to compete has ratcheted up a notch -- and will continue to do so as we have sustained success that in turns facilitates landing better players.
So, coaches identifying quality athletes who are good system fits and landing them -- check.
Next, a program like ours needs to have sustained success to change how we're viewed and what the narrative on our program is. Prior to last year, all Dino and staff could do was sell promise. Now, they have success that they can trumpet on the recruiting trail. It isn't "come here and you can help put this program back on the map and get back to winning, " it is instead "we're doing it -- this is special, come be a part of it." Need to tack on another good season, and things will start to hum.
Finally, winning helps establish a cultural foundation of being winners. We didn't have that before, and now we have the foundation established -- and it will pay dividends down the road as new players come in and get indoctrinated with this culture, and learn what it takes to win before they ever have to see the field. Practice habits, film study, S&C, off-season commitment, etc. Success begets success -- not just with recruiting as described above, but also off the field as well.
Maybe we'll even get some of those 4 stars you're talking about. in fact, I'm willing to bet that we already have landed at least one in this class -- and that when the players are reevaluated, he'll get bumped up. Maybe more than one.
Final thought -- I can't stand these threads [no shade intended toward the OP], because BOTH sides are right. It isn't an all-or-nothing discussion. Stars DO matter to an extent, but they also aren't the end all / be all, and it is accurate to suggest that the recruiting services fall short in many ways when it comes to evaluating beyond the most obvious group of top 250 players or so.
