Believe it or not, there are coaches out there who recruit more than 300 miles from campus, especially if they are at a school with a national reputation like GT.
When the recruiting focus is on rural Georgia and rural Alabama, do you expect to find potential Rhodes scholars? You don't find billfish in a pond. Compare the 1990 2 deep with last year's, and you will see a great difference in where the players came from.
The academic excuse is absurd, and that's all it is--an excuse for a coach who either doesn't understand what he has to sell--a great school in a great city-- or he is too lazy to go sell it. Compared to Ross and O'Leary, he IS lazy.
The next coach needs to be a proven recruiter, and not a guy with zero track record as a BCS recruiter or coach.