Someone convinced Bill that after 98 we could stop mining JuCo and start landing 4&5 star studs. So they started to go that direction. The blue blood helmet teams had already started to recruit the JuCos so there was less there anyway and Bill embraced the new recruiting philosophy.
Unfortunately, by the time we were supposed to have a big class in 2000, we whiffed on several and had to scramble. We were still winning 11 games a year so they continued down the same path. Whiffed again and an ensuing scramble began. The final year, 2003, Bill was all in on some real studs...didn't land one. the cupboard was bare.
So Bill tried to fill with JuCos in 2004 but was behind the ball and got meh. 2005 we didn't have a full team. Bill saw that we weren't win to magically get guys so he hung it up with the hopes that new blood would help...and Prince's first class was Freeman and 2 million JuCo guys.
When Bill came back resolved not to chase 4&5 stars. Find the gems and coach 'em up. Well, he did great at coaching up Prince's recruits...but he's never brought in the talent that Prince did, and it shows on the field.