I've read a lot from people, mostly those outside the program but some from within, talking about how recruiting was not a problem under Richt. That "something just happens when all those top ten classes get to Athens."

I went back and looked at Rivals rankings of classes going back to 2002, which is as far back as their rankings go (so we'll only miss Richt's first class). You'll see that we did indeed average a top ten class nationally under Richt. The problem is that a lot of the SEC averaged a top ten class as well.

From 2002-2015, Richt's classes were ranked, on average, 8th in nation. The issue is that those same classes were only good enough for an average ranking of 4th in the SEC, generally behind Alabama, LSU, and some variation of Tennessee, Florida, or Auburn.

Once you consider that our recruiting has only been 4th best in the SEC, the on-field results make far more sense.