It took Dabo Swinney years to build Clemson. In his first several years, they were near the bottom of ACC recruiting. Then he had a couple of good seasons and recruiting picked up. Then he had a couple of great seasons and recruiting followed so that now they compete with Alabama.

Mullen was following a similar trajectory and could have succeeded except for 1) his constant job seeking and 2) his loyalty to the "country club" coaches. If JoeMo picks up where he left off as a recruiter and if he is a great coach, we could follow Clemson's progression and be competitive for the SEC.

BTW: I don't have the figures for Clemson's athletic budget, but they were not listed in the top 25 in a 247 sports article. We were number 32, so there is not that big a difference in financial resources. Also, they are a similarly sized school in a better, but not that much better, location.