Coach Jones has the benefit of being able to recruit for a 2 time defending Big East Championship team while still being able to point to the success he had after taking over for BK at CMU. You have to hand it to Mike Thomas. I really like what Coach Jones has done to this point and I look forward to watching this team play.
It is always easier to recruit to a winner. That being said this staff just plain gets after it in recruiting. They do it to a degree that Kelly and Dantonio never really attempted. The two clearest examples that are in the 2010 class with Munchie Legaux and Kenbrell Thompkins. Butch basically pulled both of those guys out of thin air. Munchie was in attendance at the Sugar Bowl wearing a Gator shirt and one month later he was signing on the dotted line with UC. With Thompkins UC wasn't even in the picture until the last two or three weeks but in that very short, very small time frame they pulled him into the fray. They defiantly get it done in recruiting. The thing that I like the most though is that they are willing to wait and work to get their guy. Kelly never really did that. He would be willing to settle on a lesser prospect in the interest of expediency rather than waiting on the bigger fish.