That's a comfortable narrative, but silence isn't always a sign of focused work, sometimes it's just irrelevance. You're celebrating a lack of NFL draft buzz as a virtue, but that's a direct reflection of the talent drain your program has experienced. Florida State had 10 players drafted just last year, including a first-round quarterback, and now you're not even producing a mentionable sleeper? That's a massive step back in proven high-end talent, not a strategic choice. Building through development is a great philosophy, but it requires having the blue-chip talent to develop in the first place. Your 2024 recruiting class finished outside the top 10, and while the portal adds are selective, the overall talent acquisition isn't keeping pace with the elite teams you need to beat. Chemistry is important, but so is having dudes. Michigan just won a natty with a core of developed players, but those were also guys like JJ McCarthy, Blake Corum, and multiple first-round offensive linemen who were highly-touted recruits imo. They had stars who were also sleepers to nobody. Your argument about Colorado and Oklahoma State is a straw man, comparing yourself to unstable programs instead of the actual contenders. The teams you need to worry about, like Georgia, Ohio State, and Oregon, are both recruiting at an elite level AND using the portal strategically to fill immediate holes. They have both the headlines and the substance. Being counted out only matters if you have the roster to prove people wrong, and right now, the composite talent rankings and the lack of draft hype suggest that climb is a lot steeper than this post admits. Hope springs eternal in the spring, but the fall schedule is unforgiving.