Not all 2* are the same...him sticking around and playing at his HS as a backup instead of going to another school obviously skewed this. He is not a 2* talent just he let himself get stuck in a bad situation if getting D1 scholarship offers was the goal.
Agree. I think what we're also seeing with Trask is the benefit of just sticking things out, putting your head down and improving. If this were any period prior to around the mid-90's, Trask's success wouldn't be shocking at all. It was commonplace for midlevel recruits to redshirt, spend 2-3 years learning the system in practice(without the shellshock of real games) and then emerge as an upperclassmen. The landscape has just changed so much and we routinely see freshman starting right out of the gate. It's a credit to Kyle for putting in work and being patient. Mullen said as much after the Uk game. He's a throwback in more ways than one.
And as for JM's overall recruiting, the criticism was for more than just not landing elite talent. There was no depth recruited behind the handful of solid players he did land. Case in point, the uga game last year. Henderson goes down and we're left watching McWilliams all afternoon. Stewart suspended, and it's back the JT show. The drop down is tremendous. Any time we have multiple defensive players, whose offers were all G5 programs, starting, it's an obvious problem.