You can have the “highly rated recruits”. We obviously do more with what we have.
As as far as being a stepping stone, Frost is literally the first football coach we’ve ever had that left for another job...and it took hit shitty Alma Mater and $6M/year to make that happen. He’s made it very clear that he had no intention of looking at FL or any other job. He was only leaving for Nebraska.
All I know is, currently the P5 label and TV contract money is all Tennessee and most P5 teams can hold over us. If we ever get to an even playing field, I expect we’ll leave shorty programs like yours in the dust permanently.