This might be a dumb observation, or one so obvious that I shouldn't bother sharing it, but I think because of the style of defense we run, we need to recruit better in terms of stars and ratings on that side of the ball than we do on offense.
It seems like Wisconsin, MSU, Northwestern and Iowa can field really solid defenses made up of tough, heady players with a few NFL guys sprinkled in. Their scheme and coaching allows this. I could be really wrong about this, so feel free to tell me if I'm way off base here, but our scheme seems to require a lot of elite athletes to complete at the highest level. If I understand our basic strategy correctly, we take a lot of big risks with the idea that if they pay off a few times a game, we'll have enough possessions for our offense to win the game. It seems to me that if you're going up against the Buckeyes, or the Sooners, or Clemson or Alabama, you have to have some amazing players for these risks to pay off. While on offense, if we have playmakers at a couple of positions and a solid O-line we can scheme our way into a lot of points, though obviously the more talent the better there as well.
