a little misleading. Being a participant and winning the final honor is pretty different. Kinda like saying Deshaun Watson is a Heisman quarterback (yet...)
BTW I'm not arguing that he was a bad recruit or anything. I remember people being glad we got him (and of course some people always get a little over-excited) but it's not like he had the hype that Tyrod did. Or even Ike Whitaker or Dwayne Lawson for that matter.
I'm also not saying that even if he were in the Elite 11, we should have considered the guy a can't miss prospect. Just look at that list I linked above or go ask the hoos how Lalich or Martinez worked out for them.
I think the fact that he ended up at UMass instead of another D1 school says something though. It wasn't "just" about fit in our offense, though that was certainly a factor as well.