The best defenses that Bud Foster had did have legit talent in them, several 4 stars throughout, but through scheme was able to get them to perform as though there were a couple more 5 stars in it. But that only goes so far, you can't scheme and strategy your 2 stars into playing like 4-5 stars.

Tech will most likely not recruit so well that they can win conference titles and more from pure talent firepower and average to below average coaching (think Mack Brown at Texas as an example). But they need to recruit better so they can be within the "striking distance" where above-average coaching, tactics, etc. can give them a real chance against the more talented teams.