All I was trying to say is that Texas has always gotten talent based on the quality of the university as well as the perception of the football program and now, under Mack Brown, Texas will always get first look. However, during the "lean years" Texas was still recruiting talent but the Texas coaches couldn't do much with it. Sure, they may not have had the numbers that current Texas teams have, but back then nobody did because the best players were going out of state to play at Miami, Florida State, etc. Is there really any debate that McWilliams and Mackovic regularly underachieved? Obviously not, since they were both reassigned.
As to your point about our history with the NCAA, as a Former Student I am certainly not proud of our rap sheet under Sherrill, however once he was fired, and the NCAA was really keeping their eye on us, we continued to play good football into the 90's before falling off from '99 - present day. In fact, a friend who worked in the compliance department for the Big 12 told me that A&M has the gold standard as it relates to athlete compliance. Obviously we have to based on our previous transgressions, but the point is that we managed to succeed in football and even win the Conference Championship in early years of the Big 12, which by all accounts were after the "FedEx" Years.
I am not sure how this turned into a bashing of A&M and it's fan base when the conversation was really about the University of Texas getting two great kids and continuing to prove their recruiting power in the region (a power which they have ALWAYS HAD), but if that is where you want to take it then so be it.