Guarantee you there are recruits who make a decision to avoid some programs due to losing games. Few, if any would base a decision on 2 losses, but back-to-back blowout losses can certainly have a negative impact on some, just as much as our big win over LSU, when everyone thought they were good, caused a few recruits to announce they were more interested in us than they were before.
Most recruits have a multitude of reasons for choosing a school. Certainly a big part for most is opportunity to play. But if you don't think most of these kids don't consider that chance to play for a powerhouse and/or contend for a NC as an element...you are wrong.
Clearly, not every recruit weighs each element the same, but I think you would be hard-pressed to find many that don't prefer winning big games to losing big games. It's one of the reasons Bama has more talent riding the bench than almost every other team has starting.
It is also one of the reasons why we expect UNM to take a nose dive for a decade or more. They will have trouble attracting decent recruits to a program that is going to get their asses handed to them repeatedly by SEC foes.
Anyone who looks at what one recruit does and proclaims that as proof of what the rest will do is a fool (not referring to you).
Also, name me one of his other offers that is in better shape than us? We are the best offer he has. I'm not selling him short saying this. I'm damn glad to have his commitment. But it's not as if his other offers look better than ours right now.
Would you expect a recruit to make a 3 to 5 year decision based on 2 games?