Sure he does. Everyone does. He decided he wanted five stars or the high four stars too.
He evaluated that he wanted those kids then figured out they were going to Bammer, Clemson, Ugly and the others. Then he went through plans B, C, D, E, and F at most positions, like RB and WR. After plan X said he was staying with Ga Tech and plan y said he is staying at Cowbell, we are going with Plan Z from Tulane.
I just spent 30 minutes catching up on all of this (had a deposition in Florida on Wednesday and have been completely out of the loop).
After watching Mullen's first 3 classes, I think you've hit on something: yes, he wants the top kids just like Clemson, Alabama, UGA, Ohio State and all of the other big boys....he makes a pitch, and so far has missed on most of the superstars. He's landed a few solid/high 4-stars (such as Dexter, Wingo, Copeland, Gouraige, EJ, and a few others). Where he needs to improve is hitting on the Plan B's & C's. Last year we only signed 1 DT - he should have had a couple of Plan B's waiting in the wings. This year: WR & RB. I'd much rather land a DT (in 2019) that needed a year or two to develop than completely whiffing. I'd rather see us take a 3-star UCF WR than whiff. I think that's fine with 2 or 3 of your takes in a 22+ member class - now if he was doing that with 8-10 kids it would be a problem. I'll give him a pass on year 1, but year 2 & 3 we've seen big gaps at certain positions.
The good thing is next year there are only a couple of big "needs" (WR & RB). It will be the first time in a long while that we can take a balanced class vs. loading up at certain positions.