I understand that there can be excitement around a new hire, but it doesn't typically translate all that strong to the current recruiting class, because like I said recruiting is about relationships in large part.
Take a look at Nick Saban. I don't think you could argue that any hire made more of a splash in the last 10 years in the SEC than Alabama's hire of Saban.
His 2007 class was by far his lowest rated class. Every other class he's signed has been Top 5. The 2007 class was his transition class. Shula had started the class strong, but Saban still had to build a lot of it late on his own, and it wasn't his strongest class.
To this point, the transition class has been Mullen's strongest, whatever the reason for that is. Regardless of the reason, it's not typical that way. Likewise, Florida's class this year is a little lower than normal with the coaching transition.
I think the transition, like you were saying, was eased a lot by the fact that a lot of your big commits were in-state guys, many from typical MSU strongholds, and therefore they chose to stick it out despite the coaching change. I'm sure Mullen helped sell keeping many of them on, but typically you'd have seen more of your class have to be rebuilt.