so many when it comes to individual success of a player.

I think many fans would be surprised at how many players on a team on par with BYU are unwilling or unable to be successful and contribute to the product on the field. Whether it be laziness, academic troubles, inability or unwillingness to be coached, lack of desire, sense of entitlement, homesickness, lack of success against better competition, complacency, taking offense, fear of big time hits, not being the star player/feeling undervalued, etc.

(*warning, some generalizations ahead)

The elite teams don't have the issues that many teams do, as their depth to the 3rd team is so strong there isn't much dropoff. A team like BYU goes out and does the very best they can to recruit for need based on highlight films and camp visits. There just isn't enough information available to make solid determinations about how valuable that player will turn out to be. I think the challenges for JC transfers might be even tougher than true freshman. To be plucked out of a JC to a D1 team fuels the fires of self-worth to many of these guys, just looking at a few JC recruits' twitter accounts will confirm that. It seems that often they believe that they are the savior for the position need, otherwise why would BYU come get them? They roll in to Provo as 20/21 yr. old juniors, ready to continue their output they had at Tijuana Technical College against lesser opponents. Quickly they realize that D1 football isn't the same animal, but they don't really listen to the coaching because they've already proved their amazing skill and worth. They've been told for 15 years they are the best, most dopest player to ever strap up. The schemes are much more difficult than they're used to, they have serious academics to attend to, all sorts of team meetings to be on time for, they're not the star of the team anymore, they're not having easy success like they did at TTC, nobody really cares what they did last year in the JC bowl, they're repeatedly corrected and yelled at and ultimately pushed down the 2 deep. Some will leave BYU and blame BYU, others will figure it out in time to salvage a senior campaign.

Freshman for the most part don't arrive with the expectation of seeing the field their first or even second year. They're usually more academically sound coming out of HS as a D1 qualifier, and at 17/18 likely more coachable. College football is all new to them, my guess is they expected the big jump in competition and speed. Some will adjust, some won't. Some may play up injuries, some may just get lazy and be satisfied to suit up on gameday and wave at their family and girlfriend in the stands. For some, it's enough to be listed on the roster and to be able to say they played football at BYU.

At the end of all that, the COACHES are blamed for poor recruiting. All based on highlight films, possibly a camp, an in-home visit or two and some snowmobiling.

My point is that as fans we don't even see a sliver of what it takes to be successful as a player. Star ratings, amazing hits, cool videos, high praise in print doesn't mean a whole lot. Yet, if that player "fails" to meet the lofty expectations set during his recruitment, it seems to (at least on CB) be the fault of the coaches for not coaching him up properly. These are men now, not kids. It's on them for the most part to make themselves successful. I believe the tools are there at BYU, and I'm hoping that the recruits we're getting are the type to take advantage of them and go big. But if they don't, I'll give the lion's share of the blame to the player, not the coach. The coach will put the best product on the field as he sees it, he has a vested interest in success = paycheck.