I would have went after Dabo if he can recruit the st of fl at Clemson imagine what he could do at the premier school in the st. If he turned me down I'd go for Gundy, I think both would have taken the job if the money was there.
Why would Dabo leave Clemson? For money? Clemson would match him. There was no chance we get Dabo.
As for winning 10 games last year... yeah... we beat two good teams early in the year then our QB went and did something stupid. We didn't have a backup QB worth a **** so our offense went to hell. We still beat UGA with Treon and won the East.
FSU and Bama destroyed us because we had no QB and our OL was weak. I don't think the team cared about the exhibition game against Michigan.
I don't think it is fair to say McElwain is a horrible recruiter either. Last year's class was not as good as it needed to be... I'll agree. He isn't elite, but he also hasn't been recruiting Florida for years like Kirby. That is the difference. Kirby was recruiting all the same kids at Bama, so he has an advantage because he already has relationships with a lot of these kids.
The class this year doesn't look too bad right now if you look at average star rating. If our offense improves (which it should) and we show that we can compete I expect we will have a top 10 class.