Dan Mullen has signed a highschool qb each and EVERY year that he's been here. It hasn't been "one every other year."
Year one: We signed Russell and redshirted him. From HS, Russell was the highest rated qb State has(maybe ever) signed. Let's face it, he didn't get here in time in year 1 to go evaluate/find another qb that would've been any better or fit his system.
Year two: We chase Cam Newton HARD. Everyone thought we had him, but we end up narrowly missing in late January. From there, with 2-3 weeks to NSD, we went HARD after Barry Brunetti. We thought we had an excellent chance to turn him from WVU. He was torn on what to do, but ended up sticking with and recommitting to WVU, about 1.5 weeks before NSD. As a last resort/roster-filler, we end up taking Dylan Favre as a project qb. Not great, no...but all we had left. Keep in mind, this is off a 5-7 year, where miniLee didn't exactly inspire blue-chip recruits to come succeed under Mullen, again after our 7th losing seasons in the previous 8. So, we NARROWLY missed on the future heisman candidate and also the #1 dual-threat coming out of hs that year, both All-Americans, as a team that had won a total of 34 games in 8 seasons.
Year three: We sign Dak Prescott early in the process. This was "Mullen's qb", number 1 on our board. The only one he ever went after hard last season. THE guy for us. The only other guy we even looked at was Kiehl Frazier, once again the #1 dual guy in the country out of hs. We never had a chance with him, and he signed with the National Champs and his hometown guy, Malzahn..
Year four: Some message board guru's are saying we haven't been going after a qb, "had depth there", "might not take one", etc. Answer me this question then...why have we pursued MORE qb's this year than in any previous year under Mullen? First, we go after Jameis Winston, the #1 dual qb in the country, and miss to FSU. No surprise. Then we go after the #2 dual qb, Anthony Alford and the #12 athlete, Jeremy Liggins. Circumstance takes us out of the running for Alford, and he goes with USM. Ok, hate we missed, and I wanted him badly. We ARE still going hard after Liggins, possibly as hard as we've recruited any qb since Cam, and we are saving a spot for him on our roster NO matter what else happens before NSD. From there, we see an opportunity to grab a diamond in the rough in Bo Wallace, which gives Russell a similar "style" backup. This is big because we can use Dak to specialize(much like Favre this year) and run the option, and we can evolve the primary offense to a more pass-oriented spread like Mullen used with Leak at Fla. It's alot more risky to evolve your offense in a major way if you only have ONE qb on roster whose style allows him to run it effectively, and signing Wallace would've given us two. The Rebs grab Wallace from us, allegedly angering Liggins in the process. Ok. From there, we've had rumblings of alot of potentially good walk-ons. Air Canada, Raymond Cotton, and Forrest Williams are all mentioned as possibilities. Cotton could potentially light up the SEC in Mullen's offense IMO, but who knows?
I DO know, for an absolute fact, that we will have a qb in this recruiting class. How good of one? I don't know. There isn't a ton of available SEC talent at the qb position in the southeast this year. Even Liggins and Alford aren't considered "can't miss" prospects as qb's, and they are the best two we had a chance at...