Which coach (and staff) would you rather have coaching one game with the same talent? One season? For me, it's Clawson, and it's not even close. Hell, I'll go as far as to say that Clawson would have had us in the Orange Bowl, as I'm confident he wouldn't have pissed away a double digit lead @Clemson when we had all the momentum. 8-4 or 9-3 (with 2 postseason games) instead of 6-6 and a bowl game loss we also should have won.
Clawson's recruiting rankings significantly exceed Grobe's, and I expect our results to continue to improve as we sign and develop more NFL caliber players.
If that's the case, so be it. We will see. In depth Recruiting rankings weren't really available like they are now for half of Grobe's career.
Additionally, the fresh deacs class, ranked 101 on 247 sports, and 14th in the ACC included:
Alphonso Smith (NFL)
Jeremy Thompson (NFL)
Stanley Arnoux (NFL)
Eric Berry
Kevin Patterson
Antonio Wilson
Chip Vaughn (NFL)
Sam Swank (Best kicker ever at wake)
Richard Belton
DJ Boldin (NFL PS)
CHantz McClinnic
Aaron Curry, who wasn't even listed on 247 sports as part of this class, was a first team AA and butkus award winner.
Two of the highest ranked players in that class, Brandon Drumgoole and ANthony Davis, were the worst players in that class.
Recruiting rankings can be very wrong. They penalize for class size. I've focused more on results.
Grobe did not have an indoor facility, a top D1 weight room, the stadium, practice locker rooms, players lounge that Clawson has for much of his career. THe practice locker room/fields/players lounge were not average, they were embarrassing. The weight room at my high school was better. Most mornings, we had to wait for the girls basketball team or Men's soccer team to finish before we could start lifting. That doesn't that happen at Bama, let alone UNC, NC State. Clawson's classes should be (ranked) much better. BUT, Grobe did more, recruited better considering the NFL talent he produced, with less resources.
I don't think the fact that grobe was leading or in more games, and lost more close games, while Clawson wins a higher percentage of close games (If true), and gets blown out a lot more than Grobe is an argument for either side.