I think you're mixing up a few classes. The Florida guys were in his transition class and not really highly rated, Cherry was the flake but we got a few solid years out of Davante Davis, his run support from the corner spot was something Herman should thank Charlie for. Regardless, the 2016 errrbody signing day flurry madness class was the highlight of Strong recruiting. Brandon Jones, Dev Duv, LJH, Collin Johnson, Chris Brown, Malcolm Roach... Shack (I guess he counts too) all those guys willed out wins at various points despite Herman. What Herman himself brought in and signed absolutely pales in comparison (both under his tutelage and now) The alarm bells for me started ringing in 2018, away at OSU. They punch us in the mouth and slowly the team inches back with Ehlinger throwing dimes to Ingram on a wheel route and a neat pop pass to Beck. Then OSU drives down into the red zone. A good season and a good record on the road, controlling one's own destiny, top 10 ranking, conference championship nearly in sight. Then Gundy gets Taylor "Corndog" Cornelius on a design run and we've got our "5 star DB" 1 on 1 with him, and the result is... absolutely pathetic. Piss poor effort is what hits you first, but then I had the realization that actual functional athleticism wasn't there either. Corndog was the better athlete on that play. Corndog.
I can't even think about that play for too long before my blood boils. I said, oh fuck, this is what Herman thought was good... And here we are.
On the coaching front, both of these schemes on O and D are low floor/high ceiling schemes obviously. Many many coaches could get better results this year but I want a chicken salad that tastes like chicken with tarragon rather than a chicken shit salad sprinkled with parsley. The development discussion will frankly take a few years to judge properly, regardless of who is doing the coaching
Correction Dev Duv fell in Charlie's lap and probably shouldn't be credited as his achievement but I think the greater point still stands