Good point - I had forgotten Drayton hung for a year. Point still stands, though. Choice hasn't led us around the conference championship/10 win corner.
Yes, much of Surly and the internet were calling for Sark to replace PK. That he didn't doesn't give me any information about who he would have hired to adjust my expectations.
GP coming in was a home run, and I'm attributing much of the DB improvement you attribute to Gideon and Joseph to Fatterson's influence on scheme. If you want to believe Gideon "landed" Derek Williams, that's fine. He wasn't the primary recruiter, but Gideon will be his coach, so okay. I don't have the nuts on this, but I'm 90% sure that hiring GP wasn't Sark's idea, and maybe not even his choice. If he deserves credit there for reeling him in, I'd be happy to be corrected.
Marion was a good hire. I think almost everyone thought it was a great hire initially (including me), but results pushed that down to good.
Choice was/is a home run, no argument there.
My comment was "since his initial asst. staff". Flood and Banks have of course been great coaches and recruiters.
While our success is ultimately tied to the HC, the combination of parts hasn't brought us more than an 8 win season. The only reason I can think of to blindly tRuSt ThE cOrChEs on ANYTHING in the face of "a huge rebuild", without any evidence of success executing a rebuild, is preservation of fandom in the offseason. It's not a good reason, but it's a reason.