Now there's an accurate basis for an opninion on Alford, but one that I will also disagree with in a way. Alford was not exactly overmatched when he was hired -- in fact his first recruiting class was top 5 at the time. The problem came where some rumblings came out that certain people were unhappy/treated differently/lied to, and long story short, it's really gone downhill from there. I can think of 2 players off the top of my head, and because of the dissent of a couple, now he is overmatched. Haluska grew up a Hawkeye fan, and we couldn't land him. Horner and Brunner didn't need to be recruited, they had committed when they were 6 or something. Nobody saw Hansen ever getting significant playing time. Henderson didn't have too many people knocking on his door, as I recall. Yada, yada. Tom Davis wasn't exactly the best at recruiting in-state either. Heinrich, Collison, and LaFrentz being 3 of the more recent big examples. Back to your point. They were right in not extending Tom Davis. He wasn't going to lead them anywhere, and it was time for him to move on. At the time of Davis's departure, there was a strong link between the program and Rick Majerus (he looked for real estate in the area) as well as some other candidates, but Alford was the big name at the time because of his Big Ten ties. Funny thing is, everyone bemoaned the hiring of Ferentz (vs alum Bobby Stoops) and celebrated the hiring of Alford. Funny how much difference a few short years will make.