I made this statement a few months ago and I think we are seeing the product of that.

Leach did one major thing that our previous coaches couldn't do. He beat ranked teams. What I said a few months ago was that not all 7-5 or 8-4 seasons are created equal. Mullen beat a lot of unranked teams in his time at MSU and it never moved the needle for us really. We would lose to ranked teams, never have momentum, and never play good teams well.

The reality is that people recognized the quality of our wins this year more than the pain of our losses because we beat good teams and never got blown out except for Bama. The playoff committee even proved that by how they ranked us late in the season.

Beat good teams and people notice you. Recruits notice. Pollsters notice and if you beat a ranked team you are practically guaranteed an ESPN highlight spot. Leach might lose the head scratcher every so often. But if you want to bring in talent, you can afford to lose those games every now and again if you constantly beat some good teams. Then eventually the talent gap gets big enough to where you don't lose those head scratchers.

I think we are seeing the effect of a solid staff from a recruiting standpoint doing some things on the field we haven't done before. Consistently be in games and beat some ranked teams. Leach did well in year 2 with a young roster. Now can we take this recruiting and parlay that into better consistency.