It gives us a shot to recruit kids that we never had a chance with coming out of HS.
We agree, I'm not arguing. My biggest point is that the JUCO system isn't the savior, it's just a necessity due to our current high school system. When I said it's a wash earlier, I basically meant that the guys we would have gotten if they could get qualified but don't, or went out of state, generally equal out against the guys we get from out of state. Who come in.
For example, Montez Sweat in 2017 originally from out of state, and we never get him if he isn't at a MS JUCO. He equals out a guy we lost in 2014/2015 high school class from in-state, who may develop at the same rate. Obviously this isn't exact science. Then you have a guy like John Abram, who basically cancels himself out by coming back.
Now, looking back at 2014 and 2015, we had very few who left us to go out of state, and then we added guys like Sweat on top of that. So while it renders my point above null (it was meant to be very broad and general anyway), it also represents the dream situation where we have a team that can contend for the SEC (but didn't thanks to Mullen bailing).