Respectfully disagree.
Yes, Tom had Ricky and Dean, and signed Joey Range. After those, his top 100 recruits in his last six years were Kingsbury, Settles, J.R. Koch, Russ Millard, and I shit you not he was on one top 100 list, Greg Fucking Helmers. We'll give him Andre Woolridge and Sam Okey as a transfers.
It's a but cloudy as now its Top 150 lists, but since 2019 Fran has pulled in:
Patrick
Ahron Ulis (top 150 when signed, then plunged)
Payton Sandfort
Pryce Sandfort
Owen Freeman
Brock Harding
Cooper Kock
Chris Tadjo
And then he hit his home run with the Murrays.
So, equal number of ranked kids out of HS. Of course, there is a huge difference in quality, Dr. Tom would land studs and then bring in low ranked role players, some of whom blossomed and were steals, like Ryan Bowen. He also recruited some kids who couldn't keep their grades up or robbed ATM machines, or were just stiffs.
Fran's 3 stars have, arguably. been a little better quality as signees initially than Tom's. But, Tom got more out of his. His system could get torched, but he coached his kids up and he always had a couple of studs.
Fran's pulled in better classes overall, but hasn't developed them (except for the Murrays, who may in fact have developed themselves), and manages to get less out of what he brings in than Tom.
I'm going to die on this hill.